Dear Editor,
Calypso is the folklore music for the majority of people across the Caribbean region. It is characterized by culture, poetry, humor, and a lot of love for the artists and their contributions to the music world. Calypso has been a type of folk music for a long time. It is truly a symbol of wonderful Caribbean inspirational music entertainment. Once ago ABS, ZDK, and Radio Antilles were the favorite radio stations promoting and playing calypsos on a regular basis across the Caribbean. Now, due to changes in operation calypso music hardly broadcast around the region.
Today, calypso music is also under political scrutiny. If the artist chooses to sing against a political party, or certain politicians, a few radio stations will not play his tune, and others might ban his song. During the lock down crisis, I listened to a lot of old time inspiring calypsos. I even forget there were imposed restrictions on both sides of the borders. The lyrical contents of these amazing classical masterpieces made me very happy. I was so overwhelmed by the humor and musical rhythm of these tunes that I forget we are in a COVID-19 pandemic crisis.
Many calypsonians expressed their stories in songs and poetry, presenting their thoughts and opinions in tunes the audience wants to hear. Calypso music connects to other beats across the world. The “Talking Drums of Africa” is an art expressing a form of folk calypso rhythm in story-telling. Calypso involved itself in commercial advertising activities, stage competitions, carnival parades, and many other social activities or events. It hurts my heart to see a culture of inspiration dying a slow death. The music is great for the young and the elderly. The older generation enjoyed the tunes for mostly listening pleasure. The younger folks used it for dance hall entertainment.
Some calypsos expressed vulgarity, humor, fantasy, politics, identity and culture. Others about love, education, freedom, slavery, sadness, poetry and country. Here is a list of well-known memorable tunes from top calypsonians from around the Caribbean region for great listening pleasure: The Mighty Sparrow, one of the greatest calypso artists of all times. Song the “Death of Kennedy,” Verse: The world never missed a man so since the death of Christ; Lord, it was terrible, oh what a sacrifice; he gone and without a doubt not one word he said; when a Texan Gunman shot him in his head, and he dead; November 22nd was the day he died; when I got the news how I cried; he was a man of great personality, brings lot of hope and equality; he was a man among men, we all missed a friend. Chorus: The world never missed a man so since the death of Christ.
Other famous tunes by Sparrow are “Honesty” and “Education.” In “Honesty”, “If a poor man wants to find happiness, he has got to learn to be dishonest.” With his super tune in “Education”, verse: Children go to school and learn well; without an education in your head; your whole life will be in misery or you better off dead; there is no room in this whole wide world for a non-educated little boy or girl.
His songs like “Jean and Dinah,” “May May,” “Congo Man,” “Salt Fish,” and “Mr. Ben Wood” are typical vulgarity tunes.
Another serious calypso song came from King Elli Matt out of St. Kitts. His song, the “Poor can’t take no more.” Verse: If a poor man is right, he getting wrong; if he fights they shoot him down; father, tell me when the pressure will end. Chorus: The poor can’t take no more, that’s cried from shore to shore.
Another big tune out of the Federation is by King Star Shield. His song “Justice on the Ole Hog.” Verse: If a man is caught exploiting the revenue of any island; no police should just warn him and set him free because of a high position; he should be treated just like any other man; he should be sent to jail and clean off his head, if he’s condemned; what a big disgrace! Chorus: This is a story of a man called Gunuh.
Another superb calypsonian is Latumba, out of Antigua. His popular tune: “Liberate You Mind.” Verse: How can we be liberated, when we’re so confused; this country is so divided; there are so many different views; this system has got to go or we will suffer more; crying shame and shouting blame, we all are guilty just the same. Chorus: We in this little country must live in love and harmony, working for prosperity in this little country. Lust and greed is keeping us back, crippling the state, we have to rise to the occasion and demonstrate to the world that we all are one.
De King Arrow, out of St. Maarten came up with this chart-buster here in Paradise. He called this one “Arise”. Verse: Would you stand up and see your country dying and never lend a helping hand; how could you sit by idly and watch your country politically with maladministration going on and on. Chorus: Arise, this country is yours, all yours, it is yours.
Another bombshell to hit the world is “Mother’s love” by the Mighty Sparrow. Verse: Certain men should hide their faces the way they treat their mothers is a disgrace. They neglect their mothers for donkey years, and when she died they crying crocodiles’ tears, and hoping that their names come out in the will. Chorus: When their mothers were alive and now that she’s dead they want to buy a casket big like Hilton Hotel, and retribution will kill any man who treats their mothers that way.
Calypsonians such as Lord Nelson with his big hit tune “Norman and Audrey,” Lord Blakey, “Hold de Pussy,” Lord Canary, “Dr. Beckles,” King Obstinate, “Children Melee and Fat-man dance,” are more on the humor side of calypso. Chalkdust out of Trinidad and Tobago with his super classic, “Identity and You can’t judge culture,” Gypsy, “Sinking ship,” and Mighty Swallow, “Children of the universe” are serious calypsos with excellent messages.
Bahaula De Meek from Nevis took calypso music to a different level by producing his own Cadre beat. He said Cadre music is good for your soul, people should dance to beat to keep the culture alive.
Calypso tells great stories and jokes of past calypsonians: In stories: Lord Nelson with “Dove and Pigeon,” and “Stella.” In jokes: Sparrow said if ugliness was sin Lord Melody couldn’t go to heaven, and Christo will be Superman. They usually sing about interesting topics and important situations like capitalism, slavery, friendship, coup de etat, carnival, and education.
Many excellent tunes have been lost because some of the artists could not afford to put their songs on wax, cassette tape or CDs. The main reason for this was the lack of capital. In real life, some people who are familiar with some of these lost tunes have many regrets they can’t listen to them or purchase them anymore.
The late Maestro once said, “The first thing that is a shame is African people with European names,” and urges Caribbean people to change their names to form a true historic state.
Many people of the Caribbean region love the inspirational lyrics of old time calypsos. These classical songs inspired people across the region and other parts of the world. I must pay tribute to the Gay-lords of Dominica for their three wonderful tunes that shook the Caribbean and made them famous. Their tunes: “Pray for the black man”, “Hit me with music,” and “Dreams of Africa.”
People of the Caribbean listen to calypso music for pleasure, advice, inspiration and love. Kaiso Genius out of St. Maarten with his tune, “Stay home” was a super hit. King Stunky, “Where’s your culture gone” is another serious hit. Other St. Maarten greats: King Bratt, “A model nation.” King Bobo, with “Broke again,” and King Timo, “White wash” are fantastic tunes for listening pleasure and for paying serious attention to the lyrics of these songs.
In summary, in the years ahead, calypso music will live on. Institutions of further and higher education should see the music as an important part of Caribbean history and culture. Profiles about the artists and their songs should be studied and presented to students to help keep the culture alive. Calypso outlived spooge, merengue, rocksteady, and cadence music. It also outlasts other original dance hall music such as la pachanga; the twist; the ska; samba; rumba; and the bossa nova to become the number one dance hall music in the region. Long live calypso music!
Joseph Harvey
Dear Editor,
My name is Ingrid and I am writing to the editor about what is going on that is wrong.
There are St. Maarten citizens and residents that are in the USA who have been locked out and need to come home. The government page is stating to contact an email which we did but to no use.
There are children up here, their school has been closed, even the place they were living some had to leave because lease expired or they can’t afford it. They are hardly making it, plus it has this epidemic and now protesting, and hurricane is upon us. They need to be in their homes safe, not stuck up here.
Only God knows how some of them are making it. They are suffering.
Come on now, the same way Delta came in and picked up the Americans that were there, the Prime Minister could have dealt with Delta to bring her residents home at the same time before they stay here and get sick.
All other countries and islands are bringing their citizens home, only SXM keep blocking their people from coming home and be safe.
When the PM is saying she loves SXM remember SXM is the people and the people are SXM – not the island, the people – and what you do today comes back to bite you tomorrow.
Stop leaving the people out in the rain and not allowing them to come to their shelter, which is their home, like the government did with [Hurricane – Ed.] Irma, saying you cannot come to the shelter until the hurricane passes. By that time bad things will already happen.
Learn to love our people, our youth, not just by words for people to say, “Good speech,” but by actions and feelings.
Thank you.
Ingrid Grell
Dear Editor,
Imagine that you have studied hard and as result enjoy a good salary. With this income you bought a humble cunucu house and a fuel-efficient car and even have money to spare to do nice things or to save to hold you over when times are tough.
And imagine that your younger brother who just turned 18, got a job and with his first pay-check immediately buys a Hummer which uses 100 florin fuel in three days. You don’t think that this is wise, but your brother is an “adult” and does not tolerate your meddling in his affairs. A little later he buys a two-story home with a big garden and a pool. He employs a cleaning lady and a gardener. He sends his two kids to the International School. That brings him to the end of his tether financially, a large part of his pay-check is practically completely spent within 5 days covering all these costs. He has just enough left to buy food. Your advice to lower his spending by getting a cheaper car and house, have less staff and a less expensive school is met with outrage: that never!
In the meantime, the Hummer has a serious technical defect and requires a substantial revision. His house requires substantial maintenance, the sewage broke down and his staff want a raise. Together with the school fees for his kids this means that he is in financial dire straits.
Imagine that your brother in his predicament comes to ask you for help. What do you do? Would you help him with your hard-earned savings because he is your little brother? I don’t think so! Who helps someone financially who maintains a lifestyle which everybody knows cannot be carried? So, you refuse to help as long as your brother does not choose for a more humble lifestyle.
Your dear brother then goes to the bank and succeeds to get new personal loans. But with the additional interest payments he sinks deeper in debt. The debt burden eventually becomes so heavy that even more desperate this time he comes to ask your help. You want to, but again under your “old” conditions. And again, he refuses, as result of which the situation escalates further.
Until there is a crisis and he loses his job and his income. He cannot pay the interest and repayment of the debt to the banks and is not able to get a new loan. In total desperation he knocks on your door again for help. What do you do? Of course, you help him as brother, but you too are affected by the crisis and have to get by with less income. So, you help him under but the sole condition, that he finally and immediately executes all the advice that you (?) repeated year after year without delay. And indeed, your brother chooses to take it, not leave it.
And imagine now that you are the Netherlands and that your headstrong brother is Aruba. And imagine that you have warned your brother all those years and given advice which also other friends of his have done. For Aruba these friends were the Council of Advice, the Central Audit Service, the Algemene Rekenkamer, the Central Bank, de Comision Financiero, the National Commission on Public Finance, the International Monetary Fund, etc. All that good and expensive (!) advice which structurally has been relegated to the trash bin by our successive governments. The result of this is shown amongst others by the totally derailed government finances, failing social services, education and the fight against crime, infrastructure and severe damage to the environment.
Then it is not too hard to imagine that just as the little brother has to take big steps to “survive”, Aruba also has to take necessary steps and lower its costs drastically if it wants to be considered for financial assistance to survive. It is then inconceivable that groups within the community, however important, can get a rain check for these adjustments.
In the end, many in Aruba carry a co-responsibility for the current financial-economic situation, even if this was by opportunistic voting behaviour and the chase for preferential treatment. And the complaint of politicians that our “autonomy” is violated by the severe conditions, should not be aimed at the big brother, but to the small “adult” brother who never even wanted to listen to advice of his best friends.
Armand Hessels
Armand Hessels is connected to the foundation Deugdelijk Bestuur Aruba
(www.deugdelijkbestuuraruba.org)
Dear Editor,
Let me start my letter by stressing that there is absolutely nothing personal directed at no one. but I believe if we should be in this together, then together should be the key word.
There are certain letters written to you, of which just by reading one or two paragraphs I have an idea by whom they were written. I try to avoid reading the name of the person writing to you before reading the letters to avoid being prejudiced while reading.
On reading “We are all in this together” I recognized the genre. I can clearly remember my father asking me when I became a policeman, “Did you look up the meaning of the word policeman or police-officer in the dictionary? You are just 19 years old. Before you go out there beating on your chest telling people that you are a policeman you should know the meaning of the word and what it stands for.”
Those things from my parents have always lingered with me, so using my dictionary and Googling is not strange to me. I am trying to avoid using the term “politician” because when I googled the definition of the word “politician” it is stated “a person who acts in a manipulative and devious way typically to gain advancement within an organization.” When I Google the word “devious” it states, “showing a skillful use of underhanded tactics to achieve goals” and the explanation given is “he’s as devious as a politician needs to be.” Reason why I usually write “people in government”.
Emergency loans from Holland have always been necessary and as we should know, with Holland nothing is for nothing. For that matter there have always been conditions when countries lend others money – for instance, “you have to support me in the UN”, etc.
I believe that as time went by, moneys allocated have ended up in the hands of the politicians, among others, so Holland knows who to touch for certain things to be exposed and here we have politicians trying to use the guilt-trip tactics on the civil servants.
I am not a politician in no sense of the word and when I do not agree with certain decisions taken by government I usually look for someone close to government and let them know, before I write to you about it. I would expect if we are all in this together then we should get together and enlighten each other of how it has happened in the past and let each other know who we are dealing with.
COVID-19 does not discriminate neither should we. What I know is that if I have 10 guilders and the other person has 1,000 guilders and both of us lose all our money, the person with the 1,000 guilders lost much more than me. That is my explanation for “the bigger you are the harder you fall.” There are some points in the last paragraph of that letter that I agree with, but as I mentioned before, yes, we are all in this together. “Together” being the key word.
Speaking about together, there are a whole lot of “small supermarkets” in every corner of the island, which really have not been affected by the pandemic as other businesses were. When I look at who is working in those “small supermarkets” I do not or hardly see someone looking like me working in those “small supermarkets”, but we know who the owners are, and that is a type of business that we all have to patronize, whether there is price-gouging or not. Is the new normal going to be stringent (price) control on all businesses and permit holders?
I have also noticed that there is an increase in the cement business and the drivers of dump trucks with particular nationals with two specific speaking accents. The new normal should become “St. Maarteners first” and nobody should dare accuse any St. Maartener, or for that matter anyone who is of that opinion, of discrimination.
Do not we expect more people to be locked up? Do not we really know that Holland knows where the moneys have been going? And who is partners with who? I will repeat: The bigger you are the harder you fall.
Share, do not hoard. I did not say “bad spend”, I said “share”. People’s patronization enables one. Share.
Russell A. Simmons
By Alex Rosaria
Curaçao has, so far, dodged the worst of the COVID-19. Team Gerstenbluth is doing an excellent job based on an effective science-based approach. We are, however, facing a choice between a risky reopening to tourists and further economic collapse. The trade-offs are perhaps starker considering our dependence on tourism and the fact that our tourists come mainly from places where COVID-19 is still spreading.
Yet, some decision-makers are irresponsibly pushing to quickly re-open our borders to save the economy. Firstly, the sorry state of our economy is only partially due to COVID-19. The bigger picture here is the lack of fundamentals (inflexible labour laws, a burgeoning civil servant structure, no export network, and salaries-on-steroids in state-controlled entities). Our dependence on tourism and lack of revenue diversity remain a real weakness.
After the cautious reopening of local businesses, our priority should be response requirements such as in-country testing and repatriation of stranded citizens. We need to be designing new economic policies that are in sync with the global reality. We need to redesign the NOW and other initiatives aimed to cushion the economic blow. It’s been proven that not much thought has gone into the institutional aspects of the aid package. There are already signs of corruption and misallocation of funds due to weak targeting.
Yes, we need to think about eventually opening for visitors since we will not be able to rapidly diversify our economy as long as we don’t take care of our weak economic structures. We must carefully weigh when to ease restrictions that would save jobs but risk the virus running amok. Imprudent opening is chilling to imagine and could cause a lot of unnecessary anxiety with our people. We are better off not ignoring the science.
~ Alex David Rosaria (53) is a freelance consultant active in Asia and the Pacific. He is a former Member of Parliament, Minister of Economic Affairs, State Secretary of Finance and UN Implementation Officer in Africa and Central America. He is from Curaçao and has an MBA from University of Iowa (USA). ~
