Nah provoke de Lord eh

Trust Fidel Taylor to organize ah good concert. Way back in de 1970’s, after he sang his first Calypso foh Carnival: “St Vincent Could Move” he got saved and started singing Gospelypso, Kaiso foh Jesus, and never looked back. Years ago, every Ole Year Night, dem young people couldn’t wait foh mid-night service to finish.{{more}} All roads led to Geest Shed to “Genesis,” ah Gospel Fete from mid-night to dawn, organized by Fidel et al. Not me dough! My ole year night tradition started before church, ah uses to cook ah pot ah soup wid nuff green peas and corn-pork. And ah leaving dat pot to cool till ah come back from church.

Ah don’t think “Genesis” is still going on, Lie-Sa say it has been replaced with de national Gospel Fete sorry, Gospel Fest. It’s massive and Fidel is also one ah de big names in de Committee, ah think he started it all. So it would not ah bin difficult foh Fidel to pull to-gather his “Hope for de Nation” committee, dat organized last Sunday’s successful Concert at Victoria Park, to raise funds foh Flood Victims. De Show raised over ten thousand dollars cash, plus twelve barrels of items of food, clothes etc for flood victims. Ah One-dah-full effort. Now it is time to hear from Mash-shell Man-tan-oh, and Destra, and Beenie, and Bunji, Bunny and Jah Vinci and all de big guns who does come hey and put on $50.00 show, wid six thousand people, making over three hundred thousand dollars. We want ah charity concert in T’n’T or Jah-mek-her, wid all dem big names!

DE CONCERT

Ah listened de Hope Concert on Radio. Lots ah Church Organizations turned out including de Evangelical, Pentecostal, Seventh Day, Spiritual Baptist and others. Lots ah Gospel Groups singing, very much de same thing, good music dat became tire-ring after ah while. De Prime Minister and Hon Daniel Cummings represented Guv-ah-mint and Awe-position. Why when de church having dey thing, dey insisting in featuring de polly-trickans. It is however eye-run-ache dat de best address was delivered by de PM. If it were not so I would have said it! Lately, our PM has become ah student ah de Bible, ah brilliant student too. But dis Christian business is about Believers. Ah true Believer talks de talk and walks de talk! De PM drew strength from de highly regarded book of James chapter 2. This Book is the ultimate description of the relationship between faith and works. James emphasizes that good actions will naturally flow from those who are filled with the Spirit, but questions our faith if the fruits of the Spirit cannot be seen. James’ message speaks to all ah we, yuh, me, de clergy dat packed up de stage and Ralph himself.

About half ah dozen clergymen spoke. Yes dey prayed foh de victims and de nation, dey prayed foh Unity between Guv-ah-mint and Awe-position, and rightly so, Ralph and Arm-in got to put down arms, and de sooner dis happens de better. But how united is de very Church dat is challenging de politicians. De Christian Council may have its short comings, but at least de Cat-lick, Anglican, Met-dis and Army have been to-gather as ah unit since 1969, dahs’ 45 years. What about de others wid dey pull-it-tek-all agendas? Dey are not responding to an invitation from de Christian Council to join. Dey too have an Agenda.

MAN-FULL CHURCH LEADERS

Yes de Politicians doing nuff damage by keeping de nation divided; but on de other hand, de Church, de high-rocky are latching on to de politicians, giving dem ammunition. Who among de church leaders today, is man-full enough to tell de Prime Minister dat all Relief items should be pooled into ah National Organization foh Relief Distribution (NORD), and we not talking bout How-he-prints NEMO at all. Ah NORD dat is not dictated to by any politician, ah NORD dat is supervised by a committee dah’s made up of “independent” citizens, and not “in-dip-and-dance” party supporters.

Ah listening to de donations and contributions fron one-an-all, big and small, and in my estimation, dey will be more dan enough to share for all of de victims. As ah matter of fact, if distribution is done “fairly and squarely,” at de end of de day, everybody who suffered loss, will be better off dan before de floods, except of course, those who suffered loss of ah loved one. But ah promise yuh dat if de Relief Distribution is done wid de exclusion or i-so-lay-shun of de Awe-position, de party dat pooled 49 percent ah de votes last election, de party dah’s one seat short ah forming Guv-ah-mint, one thing will happen, den de man who crave all, will lose all! And ley me sound ah note of warning. We did not do it right wid Tomas, and de Lord spoke wid floods at Georgetown! We still refuse to do it right, and de Lord spoke again on Christmas Eve night. If we don’t do it right dis time, bet yuh last dollar, de Lord will speak again, nah provoke de Lord! And wid dat is gone ah gone again.

One Love Bassy

Bassy Alexander is a land surveyor, folklorist and social commentator.