On reading the following article, it should become obvious that there is a deliberate attempt to remove the GRIOT - the storyteller - from the village. As we see the elimination of "culture" from Carnival, in favor of "capitalism", both the steelband and calypso, are intentional targets, for they remind us of the Africaness of our annual celebration. There are those on this site, who will see this transition as "progress", and maybe those people need to revisit the words to King Austin's "Progress", for what many see as moving forward, is actually moving away from the cultural mores and rituals that define our national festival. It is my hope that the pan fraternity, and the masses in Trinidad & Tobago society (as a whole), wise up to the covert intent to take away Carnival from the lumpen-proletariat, and make it "all-inclusive" (which is code for class exclusion). Then once Carnival is "cleaned-up", "improved", and "modernized", they can really promote it, for the "undesirables" (i.e. Black, low-class, poor, etc.) will no longer be the face of Carnival, being replaced with a much more "aesthetically" pleasing image - "high-color", "educated", "elite". Chutney and soca promote the values that our society respects (alcoholism, adultery, abuse, immorality), and hence the reason for their skewered rewards. Calypso is the voice of the storyteller, the courageous voice of the people, for the people. Calypso educates the masses, and that is not good for a society that is based on the exploitation and manipulation of the illiterate and uninformed/under-informed. So, we will continue to see reports such as the following, but we should note that the calypsonians are speaking in terms of "passive resistance". It is disappointing that the pan fraternity continues to cry and complain, but NEVER seem to come up with actions that can mobilize the pan body towards own desire for a better and more secure future. I hope that one day, we do... GHOST http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Kaiso_or_no_kaiso___the_show_goes_on-139606043.html

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  • Viewers tuned in to the Panorama finals would have also noted that the:

    FLAG WOMAN has transformed into a FLAG LADY.

    • Never truer words have been spoken.....this downward spiraling of the pan was lamented in 2002  during the world pan festival   by the  then President of pan trinbago  when he said the way pan is treated Trinbago was not worthy of its invention.  Those pioneers who fought hard to gain recognition for the carnival arts and the rights to take part in the festival must be turning in their graves.

       

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  • I challenge 10 out of10 young Machel fans to sing2 whole verses of any his songs since he sang' too young to soca'and I will give them my annual salary.Then I will sing them entire calypsoes dating back thirtyplus years for free because education should be free
  • When babies making babies there can be no other outcome than what we see taking place.Charity begins at home and there is no one there to teach.We elders with the knowledge of those men who set those high standards must make our voices heard.We may be accused of being stuck in the past but it is an era worth emulatig in many ways.We must hear those oildrums echoing round the ciity again and the African Griot must tell his tale.Thank u Ghost for bringing this matter to the forum
  • A lot of us may not know of what you speak of, or may pretend not to know, but it seem as though all the wrongs that we tried to correct in our society during our uprising in 1970 is surely and slowly creeping back into the system it's not only about the CALYPSO AND PAN, there's a lot more in DANGER.

    • Thanks for being truthful in your comment, Tony. I think some people have convenient amnesia, and the others simply do not know the FACTS about the "steelband movement". Great observation! GHOST.

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      Sad but true...we no longer have the kind of leaders/leadership that created change in our society, George Goddard was considered a great steel band leader, a visionary in the same vain as Uriah Butler and George Weeks trade union leaders. The present crop of executives in TUCO and PanTrinbago are too comfortable with their perks...why rock the boat we all living in a land of compromise…

      • Great observation, ODW! I am both amazed and disappointed that so many in the pan fraternity, cannot connect the "steelband movement" with "trade unionism". They get offended when I refer to George "Sonny" Goddard as "THE GREATEST LEADER OF THE STEELBAND MOVEMENT", because the fail to understand what that "movement" was all about. Thanks for drawing this parallel. 

        • Well Phan,tum,,,once George Sonny Goddard was the greatest ....so be it,,,if ever there is anyone else that can compare themselves to the 40 years  dedicated to the steelpan ,,steelband movement in T&T,,well they are better than your father,,,,to date there is none,,facts is facts,,the truth shall and will hurt many,,,only a few has the guts and heart to accept what is reality,,,  who vex  vex,,yuh spoiling yuh own face,,,,to the point,,,God Bless.

      • In our country no one is accountable for anything except talk and sometimes not even that, everyone who has been at the top is about talk and filling their pockets,meanwhile the infrastructure that has been in place from day one is still there with little or no improvement.We have not embraced our history,so tell me how are we going to make strides going forward.Today we have the Greens Party where the music continues to play even though the STEELBAND is on stage preparing to play,it must continue because the dj paid a price to perform on the Greens, to hell with the STEELBAND, if my memory serves me right in the days of George Goddard, Arnim Smith or even Rudolph Charles everyone would have known their damn place. We as a people have accepted most of the wrong things for such along time without asking a question,it has now reached the stage where the more things change the more they remain the same.

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