TNN 98

Hello folks…an’ welcome again to we broadcast… (deep voice)… This Is TNN…… Soca is the one… when yuh havin’’ fun… Soca is ah state.. yesss… it is really great… soca is ah pleasure… beyond any measure… when yuh out to lime…. dis is soca time…… …… (Ronnie Mc Intosh…. (background music) 

Jumpstation: Not scorin'; CARICOM... an' gone, Preddie good fella, Cobra limin'.

Yep, dat seems to be the problem wit’ de T&T national football team, an’ since “goals win matches” we ent too much in de winning vein (or capillary for dat matter… Ha! Ha! Ha! I good, yes….!). 

Look nah we went to the Gold Cup Tournament, which is basically the Americas an’ we eh even get past de firs’ round… we sink like lead! 

Man, if yuh see t’ing.. we wasn’t properly prepared, we need ah l’il more time.  Some people blame de coach, de players…without putin’ dey finger on de mark….! 

Alyuh ah hate to say it, but admit it…WE JUS’ NOT DEY when it comes to top class football. We might ketch ah flukes an’ get away with beatin’ ah good team now an’ den, but dat doh mean yuh good.. 

We play to ah draw wit’ Costa Rica in ah warm-up an’ we chest swell like new bread.. ah mean, Costa Rica in de World Cup, so if we beat dem, we rankin’, ent?! …. NO! Dat was ah flash, not ah full beam. Dey neglected to point out that last Gold Cup, Brazil sent dey UNDER 23 team an’ reach de finals! What does dat say about de level of football, when ah country eh even budder send ah reserves national team, but ah under 23 to play an’ do so well? 

So leh we eh do like congorri an’ curl up…We have to start working from now, an’ it will take time….. having talented people eh go make yuh ah team… an’ bringin in players 48 hours before ah match to suddenly adapt to dese "strangers" is not de way either. 

The LEVEL of local football mus’ be such dat ah overseas professional could come back an’ fit right in, because de basics already dey.. not when at national level yuh still have z foot an’ bunnin’ after 45 mins… eh-eh! 

Start making physical education important from primary school, have coaches and scouts in every district for every age group, coaches who are trained to coach more than one sport (we cyah afford specialists! When de fellows reach ah stage where dey require specialists we will deal wit’ dat)  So in effect we looking for people in as many sports as possible.  Leh we get serious an’ stop kicking around. 
 

Umm hmmmm.. de CARICOM mission dat was here say dey have brokered a deal between Papatrick an’ Bas, so dey satisfied…. Ah go comment on dat later, but lemme make a few odder comments first…. 

Now, is not often ah does say somebody right or wrong, but check out meh view of de proceedings.. watch meh now.. ah goin’ change de language l’il bit….. see if yuh recognize meh…..! Here we go!

First, let us go over the facts. We had an election in December 2001. Two parties emerged with 18-18. Who will rule? The Constitution in anticipating this , said that in the case where there is no clear majority (as was clearly the case) then the President shall appoint someone who in his deliberate judgement is likely to command the majority support of the house of Representatives. 

Now neither leader could demonstrated that they had more than 18 MPs supporting them, so they went to the President. The President had first asked the leaders to meet to decide if they would be willing to contemplate any manner of governance as a joint unit or whatever.   Manning said he was not willing to share power and Panday indicated that no politician gives up power.   Okay, so this merely reinforces the President’s need to act. 
They go to the President and proffer the following:  Whomsoever you appoint we would abide by the decision and we have a 10 point plan that whosoever gets into office would see that certain actions are carried out.  The President meditates and chooses somebody. 

To my mind, that is the end of the matter.  Nevertheless, we have supposedly intelligent persons jumping up and saying the President acted unconstitutionally and have yet to indicate how he contradicted the Constitution.  

Then another set says, he should have kept Panday on as PM since he did not lose. 

Well that is YOUR opinion, the Constitution says nothing of the sort. Then an opinion was sought from some fellow whom the President respects who said that there are narrow but rigid reasons for reappointing Panday, in the absence of other serious considerations. 

He NEVER said to appoint him, just that here are a few, rigid reasons for doing so, SHOULD he decide to appoint Panday. The President is not bound by any legal opinion in any case. 

The other argument is that Panday got more votes than Manning and should be reappointed.   Under a proportional representation system, maybe….. here, NO!   The system is very clear.. the PM is the one who commands the MAJORITY support of the MPs in the house of Representatives. 

Former PM Mitchell in St. Vincent was an Independent and became PM because there was a tie on either side of him. So he probably had the least votes in Parliament and was still PM.   In 1981, the ONR got more votes than the Opposition Party (led by one Basdeo Panday) and did not get a single seat; so what is all this talk about number of votes? That is not the criteria for choosing a Prime Minister under our system.  

Further whomsoever the president chose in his “deliberate judgement” would have had the majority since both Manning and Panday agreed to respect his decision;  if the rest of the PNM disagreed with Manning or the rest of the UNC with Panday, it would be irrelevant, since either one would support the chosen leader, thereby giving him the majority support of the MP (18 +1). 

Now the CARICOM team has come and told Panday what any intelligent person already knew….. the President acted in accordance with the Constitution, accept his decision and prepare for next elections, which should be within a year, because both parties believe that once the EBC cleans up the voters list, there should be an election (of course, none of them says what should happen should 18-18 result appear again!  We could plan boy!). 

There are also rumblings about power sharing because of the 18 –18 tie.  All nice and good if you have an INTERIM government a la Afghanistan , and as de cobra suggested, while we straightened out the Constitution, investigate certain individuals etc... 

However, by going to the President, it was clear that such was not on the cards.  You could not agree to share and therefore asked for a mediator.   Why bring power sharing up now?   Why not go and sit down in Parliament and stop behaving like a long eared animal? 

Under the present system which was agreed to, since both sides could not come to an agreement there had to be a winner and a loser.  The concept of power sharing is beyond the scope of the constitution or law of the land, so you are essentially asking for a government that is going to function via a short list of agreements, and completely outside the context of any legal or constitution boundaries? I think not. 

What validation does the government have then?   Which is why the position adopted about power sharing or not going to Parliament or refusing to be called Opposition leader is both childish and nonsensical.  But then again, are we surprised? The more things change……….
 

PREDDIE GOOD FELLA.....

Well, we said goodbye to de Pretender dis week… ah master of the traditional calypso and extempo artform (de Brian Lara of calypso he called himself!). 

Preddie was suffering for some time from ulcers and other ailments and had lost a lot of weight.. not that he had much to lose, eh!  We will always remember him, nattily attired wit’ he hat, jacket, waistcoat, shirt and tie and sometimes wit’ ah walkin’ stick…de ole time saga boy… he used to say dat in his day when yuh had to sing in ah tent, de manager told you dat you goin’ in front of people so yuh have to look good, show respect for de audience, so everybody in de tent was well dressed. 

He couldn’t understand dese young fellas today on stage in ah vest or jersey.. dat eh right, man! An’ wit’ he small frame an’ de ever present gesticulations wit’ he right hand, we remember de man telling stories, relating events or philosophising in song.  He was always vex wit’ de competitions at carnival, sayin’ dat it suppose to have one competition for calypsonians and one for calypso singers… because ah man who sid dong and compose wit’ music an’ all dat, goin’ against anodder fella who buy ah song wholesale, singing it an’ beatin’ de composer.  

Ah remember him singing years ago in Skinner Park tryin’ to educate de public on de goings-on…

It ent fair…. It ent fair…
Dis has been goin’ on year after year…
It ent fair…
But what can I do 
Except try and explain de facts to you

He was ah consummate kaisonian, dedicate to de artform and hated to hear de damn nonsense dat pass for lyrics dese days… yuh song suppose to have ah story, it suppose to lead somewhere.. he was ah man who grow in de era when kaisonians was considered fit for jail or worse, when yuh couldn’t show yuh face among “respectable people” an’ say yuh does sing calypso….. an’ Lord help de young lady who t’ink she was goin’ to “go around” wit one… man dey lock she in house or commit violence to stop she! 

Yes, man, dem fellas shoulder de burden an’ carry it unbowed, handed it over unspoilt to generations an’ now it have some people who eh care… castin’ pearls before swine…. an’ some dirty pig at dat! 

No reverence for de older heads, no attempt to raise social consciousness, espouse ah cause, produce good humor or side splitting double entendre…

Preddie last more than 6 decades singing.. he never get rich, he get ah few awards, defeated alcohol an’ remained an outstanding example of passion an’ dedication…

Ah nex’ ripe one drop…… what will de tree bear for de future?  If he could leave us wit anyt’ing he would sing he trademark song.. done over recently wit’ Bro. Resistance wit’ ah rapso format.. it was really somet’ing to see dis ole fella wit’ dis young man singin’ in ah style dat is dominated by youngsters now….. ah de versatility of de fella…! Sing it for dem Preddie….

Never, ever, worry
No mind how t’ings lookin’ bad…
(Granny tell me) Never ever worry
Doh mind how yuh sufferin’ hard…
(She say) Never ever worry, wat ah sayin’ is true…
Always consider, it have somebody sufferin’ more dan you..!

Well he eh have no more worries again…….

COBRA LIMES.....

Man, look t’ing.. dis season real short! 

Look, yuh know is one week before Carnival an’ ah still only visit one tent and ah still have to beat ah fete?!  Like ah losin’ meh sting!  But yuh have to realise that between Christmas and Carnival was something like 6 weeks dis year, so it take meh some time to get which season was which..  Well, nex’ week is me an’ dem! 

Ah check out one tent las’ week, it went dong good man.. some good offerings, make yuh heart glad.. de week before ah was goin’ to an tent, but when we reach , sold out! 

But yuh know already dat I was in ah limin’ mood, so de posse head dong to ah restaurant where we check out some calypsonians, had a few drinks, some local cusine, wash it dong with some corn soup an’ reach home just after de midnight hour. 

Den las’ Friday ah check out ah nex’ liming spot…. drinks half price on Fridays (yuh know my pocket shallow!) an’ on top of dat, dey had people in Carnival costumes an’ ah real good rhythm section outside… man, iron, scratcher, drums, you name it…. dem people real get on.. ah fin’ mehself doin’ ah l’il chip, ah l’il back-back an’ meh blood startin’ to heat up… nice vibes, man, nice vibes..

Ah have to check ah show dis weekend an’ ah have to watch all dem Carnival Kings and Queens dis week, so alyuh keep alyuh eyes peeled.. commentary go be comin’….! 

Dat’s all for dis week folks… remember any queries, questions, comments, hail outs etc… jus’ write to we anchorman Cobra at ttcobra1@hotmail.com an’ we go get back to yuh…Take care, alyuh, ah gone…. Peace….. Dis girl from Bahia.. stayin’ in Moruga… dis lady real lucky…she bounce up wit’ sweet me…… (David Rudder , Bahia Girl…background music)