View Point

(This column was written on the day he died, before I knew.) In January 2021, I wrote a column about headaches, and my perpetual one since I was about 14. It was not so much a complaint (I hope), but an attempt to explore that world of pain and its …

“[…] The official Ministry of Education press release announcing the hair code […] works to trivialise the issue and divorce it from its substantive context. “[….] An interview with former principal of Fatima Collage, Father Gregory Augustine two weeks after the press release illuminates the point. On 20 July he …

The centrality of the Panorama competition to the steelband movement cannot be doubted.  However, there are some downsides to it receiving paramount attention. In the Newsday, early last week, Mark Lyndersay penetratingly labelled Carnival as “an entrenched competition economy” and summarised the deficiencies of Carnival in its current form as …

It’s an idea just taking root, and having thrown it out last week, I figure I could try to see how it could take shape. By headlining that column “A Ministry of Festivals” people got locked inside an idea of an entity akin to the existing Ministry of Culture, although …

How do we get our brilliant steelbands and their significant numbers of youthful players and supporters back on the road on Carnival days? The steelbands are a unifying and healing force and are capable of mitigating the divisiveness and socio-economic exclusivity with which the Carnival band scene is riddled. Carnival …

I don’t actually mean that we should have a ministry of festivals, in the sense of a state-controlled body—that kind of lumbering oversight has done little to develop anything meaningfully. Not for an entity that has to be agile and innovative and intimate with our history and traditions. Last year, …

“What shit you talking, bro?” Bobby asked, his jaw literally dropping. “We talking bout the same song?” Even before Calypso Fiesta, I had shared Soul of Calypso with my pardna on WhatsApp. We both agreed then that it was not the “hit calypso” Machel would have us believe it is. …

During the massive rebranding exercise, Tony Deyal wryly commented: “Neal and Massy announced it was Massy and proved to be even worse, messy…” He also cautioned Mr Gervase Warner: “…I keep seeing the CEO in almost every local forum pontificating about the economy, the environment, and everything under the sun… …

Something of an epiphany came to me after the Panorama finals. Steelband arrangers genuinely seem to respect and admire each other. I couldn’t think of any instance where they have made derogatory remarks about their competitors. Apart from the swagger that is typical in a competitive environment, there is a …

There is speculation how tomorrow and Tuesday’s Carnival will turn out, as it is taking place amid concern about the price of Carnival participation and the possible deterrent effect of rampant violent crime. At last, there is also intensity of concern about the changing character of the mas’. Social media …

“The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.” Milan Kundera, a Czech and French novelist, in The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (1979). The book discusses how people tolerate the torture and suffering over which they have no control. These lessons apply to us as …

One thing this country is extra­ordinarily gifted at is its creative impulses, and Carnival is the premier showcase for it. The sound of steel pans was my first and abiding connection to Carnival. It is still the most powerful bond. Just as cricket fills me with a sense of West …