Daly Bread: The need for the pan drum; and what T&T is missing with cancelled parade

I expect that my disappointment at the cancellation of today’s Independence Day military parade, in which the Defence Force is joined by other agencies of our protective services, will be mitigated by my attendance at Saturday night’s Brooklyn Panorama.

Today, instead of exchanging Independence greetings on Tragarete Road, in the vicinity of Invaders panyard, I will expect to exchange such greetings with diaspora friends.

Nevertheless, as I have been asked to do, I would like to share with my readers my view about the cancellation of the parade.

I did ask myself whether the cancellation was simply a political jook at “the North”, given the snide references to north Trinidad that are made by or on behalf of the current Government, which sometimes does not live up to the promise that “everybody wins”. But I acknowledge later the explanation for the cancellation by Roger Alexander MP, minister of Homeland Security.

I do not have much concern about the loss of an occasion for the big shots to gallery themselves in the Grandstand, Queen’s Park Savannah. The reasons for my disappointment relate to what the parade means on the ground throughout the streets, where the parade passes after the formal proceedings in the Savannah.

The drumbeat of the parade has a strong people’s vibe because the music played in military time comprises popular local compositions arranged for the military music beat. In my more boisterous days, I took part in vociferous bets about which tune would be played on the route.

The parade brings out significant crowds of the salt of the earth of the capital city of Port of Spain and environs. In every street where citizens gather or pass by, there is tangible pride in our country and warm interaction.

There is much joy for the many children brought by their parents to see the parade.  There is a priceless look on the faces of these children who get to see a fire brigade water the road or get a ride on a non-military vehicle.

In addition, there are panyards that provide the complementary drum beat of melodious pan music before and after the parade passes along the public streets. This is a tradition started by Starlift when they were in their previous location near the Roxy roundabout and, over the years, it was picked up by a number of other bands on or near Tragarete Road, offering food and drink at reasonable prices.

I take Minister Alexander’s reported recent explanation of the cancellation of the parade at face value—that is “not wanting to have law enforcement and their vehicles and apparatus and all persons involved in the running of the country in the same location at the same time”.

It is important however to fully understand the vibes of peace and harmony, of which the decision makers may be unaware, but which will be squashed by the absence of the parade.

With a proper understanding of the varying aspects of the parade, a scaled-down version, leaving from Memorial Park with reduced Defence Force and Police detachments and their equipment, would have been entirely possible—not leaving out the Regiment Steelband of course.

After all, haven’t we been told that we can still feel comfortable to commemorate Independence? Was it wise not to evaluate what the parade means to ordinary people?

While on the subject of drum beats, it is useful to begin elaboration on what I wrote last week about the need for a steel drum factory as a vital step in support of the true place of steelpan in diversifying our declining economy.

In a series of recent columns, I described the debilitating use of the poison drum.

It is elementary to understand the link between the invention of pan and the oil industry of that time and to trace how our locally-made sources of drums, Van Leer Containers and then National Petroleum (NP), ceased to be available to pan artisans.

For us at our current stage, a drum factory is a different project from a pan factory.  A future column will deal in more detail with why there is need for an investment in a drum factory and for support for our three chroming facilities.

Happy Independence Day to all.

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Martin Daly

Martin G Daly SC is a prominent attorney-at-law. He is a former Independent Senator and past president of the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago.
He is chairman of the Pat Bishop Foundation and a steelpan music enthusiast.