Games With Reform
Posted: Wednesday, August 20, 2003
by George Alleyne, Newsday / TT
The Opposition United National Congress, while trumpeting its demand for constitution reform as a precondition for parliamentary support of critically needed legislation, indeed of any legislation at all, has never troubled to publicly articulate its position on the reform it sees, or pretends to see as needed.
What is interesting is that there has been no groundswell of opinion in Trinidad and Tobago, either genuine or artificially generated by the United National Congress, for specific changes to the Constitution. It is this lack of a body of opinion, as well as that of Opposition articulation, that makes it difficult to accept the UNC as being serious about reform. Yet, assuming that it is indeed serious, and not playing games with the issue of constitution reform, why did it fail to act decisively on reform, or seek to introduce the changes it now stridently parrots as necessary, during its administrations of 1995-2000 and 2000-2001. But even as I state this I recognise that there are many individuals who not only firmly believe that there is need for constitutional reform, but have ideas about what they see as needed. Others have merely jumped on the bandwagon of "constitution reform", because they see it as the in thing, not unlike a woman, who latches on to a fashion, whether it suits her or not, but because "everyone else is wearing it," or the chap who buys brand name sneakers because of the price tag.
A constitution, however, is not a garment, a style or a pair of "watchekongs" that you wear today and change tomorrow. There has to be a valid reason for change. Even the United States, which even when it built into its constitution, perhaps the term is introduced, the philosophy that a constitution was not an absolute and therefore should be subject to change being allowed, nonetheless made it difficult for this change to be achieved. Today, a little more that one percent of the suggested amendments, 2500-plus, to the Constitution has been passed into law. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who served as President of the United States of America from 1932 to 1945, and had been one of the most popular American Presidents, pressed for changes to the US Constitution, and in a 1939 address declared: "You will find no justification in the language of the Constitution for delay in the reforms which the mass of the American people now demand." The American people rejected his rhetoric, and it was ironic that the first Amendment made to the United States Constitution, following on FDR's 1939 outburst, was that of the 22nd Amendment, ratified in 1951, six years after Roosevelt's death, allowing a President to serve only two terms, with the intent of staving off any possibility of a presidential dictatorship. Roosevelt had been elected for four successive terms of office. But I have strayed. There is a change I should like to see made to the Constitution and it deals with Section 68 [1], which states: "The President, acting in accordance with the advice of the Prime Minister, may at any time prorogue or dissolve Parliament."
The clear intent of 68 [1] is that should a Prime Minister tacitly or otherwise lose the control of Parliament, and there is the possibility that he could be removed by the votes of sufficient Members of the House of Representatives, that he should be constitutionally able to advise the President to dissolve Parliament. Readers of this Column may recall that toward the end of 2001, three UNC Members of the House of Representatives, Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, Trevor Sudama and Ralph Maraj, had signalled they would not support a critical Bill, which meant that, in combination with the votes of People's National Movement MPs, they could have seen the collapse of the then Basdeo Panday Administration. The Constitution should have been so framed as to have allowed the President to call upon the person, who in his opinion commands the support of the majority of members in the House of Representatives to become Prime Minister. I have always suspected that particular sub Section was introduced at the instance of late Prime Minister Dr Eric Williams, who had been clearly taken aback by the distinct support exhibited by PNM Party groups for Karl Hudson-Phillips, in the aftermath of his declaration on September 28, 1973 at the Party's Annual Convention that the PNM would have to choose a new Political Leader. Two persons were nominated to succeed Dr. Williams, then Attorney General, Karl Hudson-Phillips, and Kamaluddin Mohammed, then Minister of Health and Local Government.
Hudson-Phillips received the endorsement of 224 PNM Party groups, while Mohammed received that of 26. Some 177 groups abstained. Williams, it was stated, moved to pre-empt the sort of situation faced by Panday in 2002, and which he feared being confronted with. [I ask the reader to forgive me for using a preposition to end a sentence with.] For the record, Williams later changed his mind about not standing for re-election as Political Leader of the People's National Movement! It is ironic that Williams' reported action with respect to Section 68 [1]would later save Panday from political embarrassment. But the United National Congress must not parrot the need for constitution reform, like a Good Friday rah-rah, while not, as I noted earlier, providing specifics of the amendments it would like to see debated, approved and ratified.
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Row over 'Inside' DVD
Posted: Monday, August 11, 2003
By Terry Joseph
Immediately after the locally produced digital video-disc documentary Inside Trinidad and Tobago Carnival 2K3 qualified for the final of the sixth annual DVD Awards, a squabble has erupted over who should get the credit for the documentary.
The DVD is up for an award in the Best Educational/ Documentary category and by the same opportunity, became eligible for the Viewers Choice award, both of which will be announced at a Hollywood event on August 20.
The debate sprang from a story appearing in yesterday's Express that singularly credited Island Events as producer of the work, which beat tens of thousands of other such products to get into the final.
Speaking for Advance Dynamics Ltd, Willow Works advertising agency's Nylah Ali claimed full credit for its principals, saying Island Events was only hired to market the DVD, adding: "They fell down on the job and the arrangement was squashed."
"Barry McComie of Advance Dynamics is executive producer of Inside Trinidad and Tobago Carnival 2K3," Ali said. "His company financed it exclusively, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on the project. Island events was part of a marketing team but they promised a lot and delivered nothing, so the arrangement crashed."
But Douglas Gordon of Island Events later said the production was released by Mango Juice Interactive Ltd, a company formed with equal subscriptions from Island Events and Advance Dynamics.
"Mango Juice is jointly owned by Barry Mc Comie and myself, Gordon said. "Advance Dynamics produced it but in terms of all the other elements, it is half and half and before now, there has never been any delineation. We're in this project together."
In the Viewers Choice category, the production still requires as many votes as possible, as it is a virtual people's choice system. Among the challenges it will face are documentaries produced by Disney and Motown.
Your vote for the local effort may be cast by logging on to website: http://www.recordingmedia.org/dvd-awards.html or where it says "Cast your Ballot below."
The two-disc DVD set captures the run up to the national festival, including the partying and the fun that climaxes as the parade of the bands on Carnival Monday and Tuesday.
Hosted by Machel Montano, Maxine Williams and Michelle Khan, shooting took place in panyards, calypso tents, at shows and fetes and on Carnival day.
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A Superior Performance
Posted: Wednesday, August 6, 2003
By Terry Joseph
IT WASN'T a grand music hall, or an arena with flashing lights, for machines and a 12 piece band, nor did the patronage ever exceed 50, but those who attended agreed - to a person - that they had witnessed a superior performances.
In fact, calypsonian Brother Superior two Saturdays ago showed why, after more than 45 years in the business, he remains one of the art-form's most respected performers.
Accompanying himself with exemplary guitar playing, Superior delivered a flawless 75 minute performance to an enthusiastic audience at the cosy 3rd Avenue Recreation Club in Barataria, with back up coming from fellow calypsonian Relator (who plucked bass notes on his guitar) and Damien Edwards on African drum.
Supie and Relator opened with a guitar duet, a stylized syncopation in G, over which Winston Maynard gave the short history of the event, a series mounted by club regulars, among them Gladstone King and the very Relator; who described the initative as "an attempt to decentralize calypso shows and bring some of the best works to the people of Barataria."
Relator led of solo with "Calypso is Me, Calypso is You", then did "Country People" and, according to a special request from a customer who, earlier that evening won the Play Whe mark for considerable sums (and was suitable generous), closed his mini-set with the tongue- twister tribute to Indian cricketer "Gavaskar".
With Sprangalang on the audio console and wife, Sexy Susie handling the video-corder, Superior, dressed in white long sleeved shirt and trademark stingy-brim hat, took his place at the mike. "What we ha a while ago was just bu'nin the garlic," Maynard quipped, "now it is time for the real stew."
And Superior was cooking that night. "We are now in the Dirty Jim Swizzle, he said alluding to the South Quay, Port of Spain club of the 1960s that served as office to calypso icon The Mighty Spoiler, a gathering place for many of the day's most talented acts.
Having set the scene, Superior trotted out a slew of his slew of his vintage and contemporary compositions, opening with "The Brass Crown" (1957), a song of protest over disparity in Calypso King and Carnival Queen prizes. At the time, her majesty got a trunk of gifts, car, sewing machine and a $10,000 cash prize, while the king got a mere $50 and the crown.
Hear the chorus:
"She gets refrigerators,
machines, radios
And even motor cars,
Sometimes a Simmons Bed
And all the king get is a brass crown on his head."
It heralded a night of crafty lyrics and memorable melodies, that song itself marking the turning point in Superior's life. "I got arrested and d had no money, so I sold my precious hat to another prisoner awaiting trial in order to pay the fine, or I would have had to do time and my life would have been quite different today."
Then we got "Respect Calypsonians", the 1960s forerunner to Scrunter's blockbuster "She Want Me to Sing in She Party". According to Superior, Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott loved the song for its unbridled exaggeration of every poetic point.
Hear Supie again:
"If a mason in yuh party, you wouldn't be so sick.
As to ask him to lay a free tile or a brick
A mas player in yuh party, you wouldn't be so farse
As to ask him to give a free display of mas.
If a priest in the party having a little fun,
Yuh wouldn't ask him to stop and preach a free sermon,
But this thing happening so long, I think it wrong,
Always pulling calypso down, wanting a free song."
Then, there was "Mock Calypsonians," a warning about treating with the same measure, those singers who didn't compose the works they rendered; Nap Hepburn being the target of his admonition at that time and he now careful to note that things had irreversibly changed since he observed:
"They always know who could sing
And who cannot sing
And who'll be Calypso King
But take it from me
The Carnival Committee encouraging them in this thing
By putting them in competition singing people composition
Leaving out real calypsonian(s)
But the day Nelson Caton and Rocky Mc Collin dead
These impostors will beg their bread."
In 1963, even as Sparrow's "Outcast" was a massive Carnival hit, Superior took the opposite view, relating a conversation between a doctor and his son on the matter of career options, with the boy wanting to be a "Pan Man", saying:
"Pa, ah want to beat a pan When I come a man
Ah want to beat a pan
That's my ambition
Panman making real thousands
Getting pretty woman
So ah going to be a panman."
We also sang along to the chorus of "Crime Does Pay".
"If a bad-john walk in a night club
He gets free rum and whisky
Travelling in taxi free
Chauffeurs ‘fraid to take money
While he getting' lovely women
Because women ‘fraid them
So for criminal assault
They getting away
So in Trinidad, crime does pay."
In the heady days of the 1970 Black Power Revolution, again Supie took the philosophical position in "Yuh still African"
"If an Indian man.
Chinese born (in) American
Is a Chinee man
I think it is time my black brothers try and understand
No matter where yuh born yu still African
Yes, man, no matter where yuh born, yuh still African."
It was not his only or most significant foray into tribal issues. Four years later, he began plugging for an Emancipation Day holiday, saying:
"Chinee got double-ten day
Indians got Phawa and Hosay
But if you ask a Black Man what is his day,
He will get tootoolbay and don't know what to say.
I was shocked to learn
Even Black Friday wasn't we own
We want a day we can celebrate
It is far too late
We can no longer wait
I am calling on Black leaders to set up some date
So Africans in Trinidad could celebrate."
By this time, the club was overtaken by general jollification. Warlord Blakie was in his element, leading choruses, women of sensuous swagger were coursing the room and some tables had been turned into full rhythm sections, perhaps calling attention to empty liquor bottles reduced to that condition by the sprit of the evening itself.
Now Supie paid tribute to a few of his favourite calypsonians, among them Dictator ("Moonia" - 1951), Terror ("Had a Little Monkey") and Kitchener ("January Girls"), before returning to his own bag for the risqué "Who Put Pepper in the Vaseline" (1968) and "San Fernando Carnival", sung at Dimanche Gras 1974, after which he withdrew from competition.
"It was not for any grouse," he was quick to advise. "In fact, I was beaten into fourth place by some of calypso's all-time greats, so it was no dishonour. That year Sparrow came first, Shadow second and Kitchener third.
Among those topped by Superior that year were Bomber and Chalkdust.
The set went on to garner even greater enthusiasm, with songs like "The Same Side", "Long Live Kaiso" and seminal "Standardise Pan". In the sum, 14 songs without a break and even so, a clamour for more.
"This is what I really like, "Supie later confessed. "The big shows are nice, but my kind of kaiso should really be sung face to face with the audience, because there are little things like the glint in the eye when one delivers a line that could change the whole meaning of the verse and you can't see that from the back of a big hall.
And it may well happen. Talks have already begun to take the show around the country, playing small halls and community centres and bringing back the concept of a calypsonian, his guitar, a drum and bass, "back to the fundamentals," as Superior himself put it.
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