How stupid will a steelpan Builder - Tuner - Grover be to go and work for HADCO.


We are trying as a people to be INDEPENDENT … we are trying to put slavery behind us.

I encourage all steelpan Builders, Tuners and Groovers to continue to work for yourself BE YOUR OWN BOSS, chart your own course and MOST IMPORTANTLY MAKE 100% OF THE MONEY YOU WORK FOR.

Try to be STRONG, steelpan makers. Don’t fall for an  “easy” pay cheque. The long term ramifications to our culture far outweigh this shortsighted offer.

Senior steelpan makers should unite and try to preserve ownership of this industry for our future generations. Accepting this as an alternative is surrendering our heritage to corporate monopoly.

The Steelpan is for the people. How could it possibly be ok with us for one private company to roll in (Jeff Bezos/Amazon style) and monopolize a whole industry for personal gain. Accepting this move quietly is saying yes to closing down an entire sector in the long term.

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  • I am a bit confused with two statements in this post.

    1. The statement:

    "I encourage all steelpan Builders, Tuners and Groovers to continue to work for yourself"..

    as well as

    2: The statement:

    "Senior steelpan makers should unite and try to preserve ownership of this industry"...

    As a panman, I have had contact with - and/or played pans tunes by - "pan tuners" like:

    Hudson Greg (Boys Town, Carenage),

    Michael "Penta" Cupidore (Hummingbirds Pan Groove, Fort George Road, St, James),

    Claude "Moby Dick" a.k.a. Catelli Joe (Riverside Road, Curepe),

    Patrick "Bele" Worrell (Arouca),

    Jimi Philip (inventor/tuner, Chaguanas),

    "Madman" Jordan (Tunapuna),

    Leroy Thomas (Curepe) and

    Rudy "Twoleft" Smith (Copenhagen).

    None of the above mentioned people have ever called themselves "builders, makers, groovers etc..."

    They have always referred to themselves and to each other as "Pan tuners".

    Is there someone in authority, someone with knowledge about making pans and about the people who make pans, who can explain to me the difference in terminology with regard to "builders, makers, groovers, tuners etc"..?

    Thanks. Wishing everyone a pleasant day.

  • I am curious to know what is the fundamental difference between HADCO's initiative and Trinidad Instruments Limited. How does the free market as an economic system based on supply and demand with little or no government control work? Are free markets not characterized by a spontaneous and decentralized order of arrangements through which individuals make economic decisions?
  • The hard reality of internet marketing is (you fill i the blanks).  Facebook and Youtube notwithstanding; Jeff Bezos?

  • But Claude. isn't Panland the same type of company?...Me eh hear nobody complaining about them?...

    • If you insist on drawing me out, I will take the bait: THE MOST RACIST COUNTRY THAT I HAVE EVER LIVED IN IS TRINIDAD and TOBAGO!!! And that is the CRUX of this debate.

      Now yuh get me in BIG TROUBLE ... ah thought yuh was MY FRIEND!!!

      • Yeah...we know that...But Panland doing the same thing...Their owner racist too?...

        That is why I used myself as an example...In promoting the e-book I reached out to both Pantrinbago and the Min of Education...only to get ah set ah "sweet talk" from both....So if some "foreigner" offer to set meh up nice and I agree...Am I supporting racism?...

  • All the arguments in these posts are relevant, but I have a question: do you have enough youths willing to learn and carry on the traditional knowledge, go through the apprenticeship period and then teach in turn? If you do, you are good to go. If not, you need to explore alternatives, maybe some kind of compromise between mass production and craftsmanship. 

  • I certainly cannot see how this would benefit any individual other than the exploiters.  I cannot see how it would benefit Trinidad and I definitely am at a loss as to how this would benefit pan. Hopefully the builders and tuners will resist.  It would be a sad day and the end of pan as we know it if all pan sounds the same. A big thumbs down to this !

  • This is a sure way to stifle the artistic part of Pan - not just from Playing pan but from the building and tuning aspects - who wants cookie cutter pans? - no one I know.  When you teach steel pan - part of your learning is the "ART" of building and tuning, this en devour takes the "ART" out of the picture.  You cannot monopolize art.  I look forward to hearing from the  Ellie, Guppy not a company.

  • THE HADCO GROUP is a Johnny-come-lately EXPLOITER of PAN PRODUCERS and a BEVERLEY HATCHED CHICKEN to retain control of PAN TRINBAGO ...

    Trust me!!! I know more about how that OUTSIDE PAN DEMAND MARKET WORKS than MOST PEOPLE  -- and all they are doing is trying to EXPLOIT PAN LABOUR in TRINIDAD.

    Why don't they do a LONG TERM INVESTMENT in TRAINING YOUNG PEOPLE to develop THEIR PROGRAM and paying them a decent SALARY along the way?

    BEVERLEY joined up with these EXPLOITERS just so that she could FOOL PAN PLAYERS and win the election. But I know THE OUTSIDE GAME with this PAN TING more than any living person outside of MAPPO and ROLAND HARRIGAN and GERARD CLARKE and PAN MAX and PAN YARD and all the other WHITE PAN PRODUCERS in AMERICA and CANADA.

    EXPLOITATION OF BLACK LABOUR -- quite a LONG STORY ever since SLAVERY brought AFRICANS to TRINIDAD and the NEW WORLD.

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