Ah doh want to hear how yuh foot hurting and who get tief in De Show, and who cousin is ah Judge, and how yuh miss de Grandstand. because is de same ting every year wid allyuh. And every year we does all go back and do de same ting again. is like it have some kinda National Amnesia once de ting roll around again.

So leh get tings right from de start - Carnival is for free-up and fuh people to enjoy deyself. It not fuh all dem social all-inclusive dat you and me cyar afford. It not fuh dem wutless yute who feel is dey tun to mash up de place in trute. It not fuh man to spree and woman to have baby wid no fadder 9 months later. It not about stage, and fireworks, and broadcast rights...we really loss sight of what it really about.

And dat is where de sad ting does be, because now we ent looking no different to Rio, or New Orleans, or even Germany when it come to a bram two days before Ash Wednesday. Dey does all do it, dey does all have parade, dey does all have big truck. Is what mekking we different?

Is de ole time ting dat does mek we different. is Pierrot and bat, and Imp, and Baby Doll dat does mek we look different. Is ex-tempo, and pan round-de-neck (Pan Trinbago could call it whatever dey MBA tell dem) dat does mek we different. Is people pushing pan in de street instead of a DJ telling dem leff, right, leff right.

So when I pick up mih Gazette and see dat how BET reach back again and we papers want to say dat how is a big deal dat dey choose to come here, I does have to shake mih head and say Chuts man!

BET ent come here because dey like we. Dat is like saying Jack does fix up de football out ah de goodness of he heart. BET come here because is we tax dullahs pay dem to come and take out a flim to show on TV in America. Now I ent know eef dat advertising does pay off, but leh we see ting for what it is. We does pay BET to do some TV advertising in de US to entice de US tourists to come and visit we instead of anywhere else.

And as I on dat it does really mek me worried about we journalists when even Colm could mek style on dem about dey reporting. Ah mean to say de Express jump and say dat 55,000 people buss it from de country fuh de Carnival. Well as ah say even Colm could add up de seats and realise dat dem setta people wasn't travelleing on no Carnival weekend. Before de Express say dat dey sorry and send dey reporter fuh a refresher course in common sense, dey want to play man and say dat how dey did never say dat 55,000 people leave on de weekend dat is in de month. But dey did make de link plain between 55,000, crime, and Carnival. So eef de 55,000 people did travel in February as normal how dat is ah Exodus?

We really have to develop some people who could ask serious question and not jes a setta grand charge. But is like most ah we journalists only know how to print press release.

Anyway ah gorn to tun de pot, before de pelau bun. Allyuh take care and be safe on de streets..and eeef people see yuh wining up on de TV Tuesday den perhaps yuh should really tink about what Ash Wednesday does mean in trute.


 

BACKCHAT: Issue 07: Vol 8

Tantie, yuh late wit dis discovery.
Customs put them ting in place since the first week in January. It faster To go tru de "something to declare" line and find something to declare (that's what I did).
See, they get the xray machines but some bright star in there figure "we Could see what they really have in them bag dat they have nothing to Declare!", so instead of using the machines the way they do in 2020 Countries (they really many more years than that ahead of us, exactly Because of this dotishness), where customs send only suspicious luggage to Be xrayed, trini customs find all luggage suspicious.

De nex ting is de luggage cart story. Is really so that the porters don't Lose dey living. But they only taking the bags to the pavement right there.
They not allowed to help with the bags before that. So where granny with the
6 giant bags need some help to take them off the belt and get them from There to outside and willing to pay anything for the help, she can't get any.
//Trinidad & Tobago