Hello folks….. (deep voice)…. dis is TNN….. ah goin’ an’ party toniiiiggghtt…. (background music)

MAS IN DE SAVANNAH.....

Well ah never see on fella take so much blows yet…… dey should designate he de National Bobolee…. an’ de man still skinnin’ like ah dead dog…. yeah man, Carlos, de Don Juan heself….firs’ was de Miss(ed) Universe pageant an’ now de Queen’s Park Savannah…..

Carlo say de place too muddy an’ dem soldiers an’ t’ing cyah march dey,   so he pave de area wit’ gravel an’ asphalt an’ t’ing…   well look my crosses… so if de army an’ dem cyah march in ah little mud for Independence Day, yuh expeck dem fellas tuh defen’ yuh county..

Carlo, t’ink l’il bit nah… if de place muddy, just drop some small gravel wit’ ah little sand an’ compact de t’ing wit’ some steamroller (de one dat squash yuh brains out!)…an’ for lagniappe dig one or two drainage canal quick, afterwards yuh could jus’ take de material out and use it tuh lanscape ah part of de savannah or any number of places in an’ around Port of Spain… quick, easy…simpler dan boilin’ water…..

Imagine $2M of my money tuh pave ah section of de Savannah for ah one hour march past…..?   Buh wat de hell does take dem people..?!  Corbeau pee on him on wat?!   One disaster after anodder?  An’ ah waitin’ tuh see if dey put any drainage system for de water (leh we take bets… ah feelin’ tuh  win some money….) or if dey make sure dat de level go allow water tuh drain off an’ not make ah public lake….. look nah, ah weak… an’ more… how come Carlos who in National Carnival Commission (Now Carlos Committee) and TIDCO (Tourism and Industrial Destruction Company) could appropriate army vehicle an’ hire contractor in less dan 24 hrs?   He have more stripes dan ah zebra..!

Is years now dey eh pave de road wey ah livin’….   Carlo, come live by me boy… you is de kin’ ah neighbour ah like….  Carlos say how de people who protestin’ “self interested”…   Well brudder de first person I interested in is mehself, so wat is yuh point?  Since when throwin’ pitch in de middle of de biggest recreation ground in Trinidad is patriotism…?     An’ he say ah decision had tuh be made… yeah Hitler did say de same t’ing too.. an’ being an expert in road construction an’ environmental management wit’ ah degree in landscaping no doubt, dat was de bes’ decision…  

Ah know Queens Park does have horse race, but ah didn’t   know we had jackass goin’ dey too..  an’ tuh cap it off he say dat eh have nothin’ to do wit’ de fact dat dey havin’ ah World Beat festival dey in a couple months (good….because ah go had tuh Beat one ah dem jus’ now) ….it was ah short term decision…$2M dollars wort’ ah short term decision…an’ de law specifically say yuh not suppose tuh have no permanent construction in de area…..

Remember for Miss Universe dey did pave one setta road too…. look, de way ah feelin’ now de nex’ road dey pave should have Carlo under it..! Now de Pan heads say dey happy as well as de mas   bandleaders, since it go make de going easier when carnival come roun'…    nice, ..nice…so we could use it for ah whole three weeks every year…… boy, mas come early dis year….. dat is wat does happen wen yuh sittin’ on yuh brains.. but go de whole way Carlo…. pave de whole wretched savannah, de trees an’ de grass doh pay tax, wat de hell, is time we make some money offa dat piece ah real estate…turn Queen’s Park into ah Car Park….!

CULTURE VULTURES.....

Well we just get ah Carnival Institute set up to facilitate research an’ tuh help we remember de origins etc… ah kinda Carnival Museum…which is really good, eh, except dat dey eh tell we where it goin’ tuh be yet..! All we know is it set up…it must be ah Carnival of de Future…it have ah virtual home.

But dis t’ing long overdue..is more than 160 yrs now dis t’ing going on.. we export it all over de worl’ an’ in yuh own country it eh have no place where yuh could learn about de Festival, who was involved, see some ole time costumes etc…. is like Carnival doh even happen here.   Of course if we did set up ah National Cultural Centre or Museum to house all dem arts an’ t’ing we woulda have tuh be lookin’ for place now…..

An’ speakin’ of lookin’ for place…Pan Trinibago which cyah seem tuh make money offa de only real musical invention of de century, cyah seem tuh market pan, even though it have pan factory in Europe an’ America.  Dem always grumblin’ for money, now want ah piece ah land down Chaguaramas because dey say de government give/promise dem donkey years ago… so why dey  now lookin’ tuh use it?  Because dey little two storey headquarters bun’ dong….. ent?

Wey de publication on de history of  Pan, wey de CDs tuh sell tuh visitors, wey all de new types of pan we invent, wey de school programme on pan tuh generate awareness or de national steelband   orchestra?  Imagine gov’t have tuh come an’ set up one…. Shame, man, shame….!   Like Cro Cro did sing years ago, Wey Pan Reach? 

Like some ah dem head hard like ah steelpan..  if yuh give dem sugar, water, an’ lime dey still eh go figure out how tuh make juice….  Oh gorm mad, use yuh head tuh turn ah l’il dollar nah, stop gripin’ , every year dey want more money…. To do WHAT?   Is time we get some managers in dey an’ turn dis t’ing around, because wit’ de price ah oil dropping, de steel drum go be worth more dan de oil jus’ now,  an’ believe me de drum in de final analysis worth more dan dat oil, eh…. t’ink about dat… ah fed up wit dem people who just circlin’ we culture for wat dey could get (de vultures or in we context de Corbeaux) , while it dying slow….

INDEPENDENCE TIME....

Yep, folks, its dat time again…. independence in our twin island state (August 31^st for those who have conveniently forgotten…..!)   37 years an’ still goin’ no matter dat we have some historians among we…dey tryin’ tuh carry we back…. De ol Red, white an’  black  flyin’ proud…..

Ah was t’inking de odder day about wey we goin’ an’ some t’ings kinda make meh wonder…we have oil, we have natural gas, land for days for agriculture, we doh get no storm or earthquake, we have water, forests, indigenous culture, real variety ah people, no civil war, big industry an’ we still cyah seem tuh make t’ings work de way it suppose to?  

Ah mean it rain again dis week, an’ yeah.. it flood again jus’ like last week.. an we have ah whole Faculty of Engineers here in de University.. but we cyah devise ah simple drainage system?  Wha…dem degree is for show or wat? 

Chilren’ still cyah read after 14 years in school, an’ we have more school dan we ever had, doh talk ‘bout Health (an’ of course, yuh know we have de best equipped Medical School in de Caribbean)…wat ah mess… wat more dem fellas want tuh succeed? 

Dey forget de story of de tortoise an’ de rabbit…not because yuh have ah lead yuh go win yuh know, yes man….yuh have tuh keep runnin’ …I shoulda be drivin’ ah BMW now, breds, de amount ah resources we have here…. buh leh we eh blame nobody, or even if we blame people, leh we do somet’ing about it…., because wen all dem politicians retire, none ah dem go starve, is we an’ we chilren tuh ketch…dem eh runnin’ de country, brudder, dey suppose tuh be managin’ it for we,  doh get de positions criss cross atall.. an’ if we eh benefittin’, we changin’ dem like  we changin’ socks.. as often as necessary….

Ah lotta people fight, sacrifice an’ dead to make sure we get wey we reach now (read yuh history), so leh we eh forget de ancestors, an’ we have tuh leave someting for de nex generation dat comin’ on, doh drop de baton, or de race lorse…but we able,   we have tuh  believe dat…alyuh remember dem ole time calypso.. dem does still inspire meh…. Ah go give alyuh one or two verses….

Trinidad and Tobago…,
Will always live on;
Colonialism gone, our nation is born..(leh meh hear yuh)
We will follow our leaders
They always do their best
For if together we aspire, together we’ll achieve
And we bound to be ah success  …

Ah forget who write dat one….  An’ of course de perennial favourite……. Portrait of  Trinidad  by the Penman…. who fight dong people who was startin’ tuh bad talk de place, an’ drag we name in de mud ….. take ah verse….

So all ah dem who talkin’
Either drunk or dey starin’ mad…(pah-pah)
Or maybe dey forgettin’
Mr. an’ Ms. Universe belong to Trinidad…….
An’ we have many talents an’ skills,
Wit’ high hopes of improvin’ still
And if yuh t’ink all dis  is ah lie…
De COBRA go tell yuh why

Because de steel band…is de bes’ talent in dis worl’….
By calypso all stories are told,
With rhythm to touch de soullllll………
Yessssss, Trinidad, dis lovely land of my birth,
Small but overwhelming in worth…
And yuh know Carnival is de greatest frolick on Earth…..

Remember we must be Independent (or in ah small country like we own…interdependent)  but  not   “IN - Dependence”…..how ah talk?

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE TO ALL AH WE… Wherever yuh is wave ah flag Tuesday or wear ah li’l red white an’ black for we….ah gone! 

Special hail out…. Ay Marcia….. de Independence chile…Happy B’day…

TNN also salutes de Webmaster on he b'day...  is he who does get TNN to alyuh..  aaaiiieeee!