Current reality is significantly at odds with the much touted joy and unity of Carnival. It is front and centre of its own stage, which grimly rivals the dazzling Carnival stages. Such reality can no longer be easily pushed aside and become invisible during the Carnival season. The murderous challenges …
Read More »Demming: Thanks, but no thanks Mr Prime Minister; George St no place for Despers
Desperadoes Steel Orchestra is in no position to refuse the generosity of the prime minister, but the population can. We can tell Dr Keith Rowley that the reasons Despers left the ‘Hill’ are still with us and may even be more deeply entrenched as we count the daily shootings, killings …
Read More »Daly bread: Trying a new direction; will Panorama lead by example?
I do not need someone from foreign to tell me that gangsters are fully in charge in many communities, and I dun know that the politicians look the other way and frequently consort with them. It is a reprehensible failure on the part of the elites and belated moaners that …
Read More »Demming: What steel bands can teach us about goals, leadership and teamwork
I have been mulling over the lessons of the panyard experience and continue to feel that the panyards are on to some yet unexplored management concept in the way they organise themselves for Carnival. Mind you, there are as many systems as there are bands, but what is common is …
Read More »Daly Bread: Facing the music; the problem of accountability in crime and in pan
Last week commenced with the prime minister making more shallow statements about the prevailing rampant murder in response to meek and mild interview questions. In local parlance, the TV interview was sorf. Today I am asserting that facing the music is a common problem for the prime minister regarding rampant …
Read More »Daly Bread: Beads, beaches and business risk; why Sandals didn’t fit Trinidad and Tobago
As is well known, Manhattan, New York City—home of Wall Street and some of the most expensive real estate in the world—is an island. The Dutch bought it in 1626 from the First Peoples who were the occupiers at the time. It is uncertain what or how the Dutch paid …
Read More »Tribute to Professor Ken Philmore: the steelpan pioneer T&T never fully embraced
“Professor Ken Philmore should have been one of our immortal monarchs and champions… Without assistance, without adulation, without even our cursory attention, Professor went about spreading the gospel of our sound and our instrument. “He would continue to push the international profile of pan further appearing with giants: Tito Puente, …
Read More »Daly Bread: What’s left of Carnival? Reviewing the problems at Revue
On Wednesday last, we received news that the Revue Calypso tent was the latest victim of money problems in the cultural milieu. This news was made worse when readers digested that the Revue was more than 50 years old and had been founded by the late Lord Kitchener. Kitchener’s body …
Read More »Dear Editor: Heroes of the chord; pride, pan, power and Panorama
“Steelband arrangers are constantly seeking to craft an individual style in their arrangements which, they hope, will be recognized and acclaimed by the artistic community in general and the pan fraternity in particular.” “Their musical productivity contributes to the development of new styles. But it is not a luxury; they …
Read More »Our other oil: How the T&T economy can benefit from arts and culture
The proceeds of our oil and gas production are no longer sustaining the high life. As they say in Grenada, “the money can’t reach.” For decades there has much talk about diversification of the economy, but no action. This is a pity because we have other oil. I refer to the …
Read More »Is murder a lifestyle choice? Daly ponders how to reclaim the streets of T&T
Port of Spain suffers from personality disorder, for a long time now, and so does many of its environs. This disorder, sometimes described as split or multiple personality disorder, is defined by Psychology Today as “a condition wherein a person’s identity is fragmented into two or more distinct personalities.” Each …
Read More »Blue tinsel: Daly remembers Jit Samaroo and Renegades’ magic
A few of the Caribbean’s finest entertainers like Alison Hinds, Superblue, Marcia Miranda and Mairoon Ali, along with Canboulay, East Indian and sailor dancers have performed at my home. They have done so on the little home made stage next to the mango tree that Farook and Steve would build when …
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