My promise to Sheridan and ‘Gray’

Tue, Jul 13, 2010

Editor: About 1:05 am on Saturday, July 3, after posting the Miss Carival results on my FaceBook Page, I ran into Miss East St. George 2010 and had a chat with my “homegirl”.

“How come you are on FB already and the Miss Carival Show just ended?”, I asked Sheridan Haynes. I really thought the Rural Queens were given complimentary passes for the show.{{more}}

“I am at home watching the show on TV”, was her reply.

My next question: “As Miss East St. George, you did not get complimentary passes to these shows?”

“I wish”, she typed back.

Then I remembered chatting with Sheridan online last week at about the same time, just after the Ragga Soca Competition had ended and Fire bun dem. There were no passes for the East St George Queen to that show either.

The chat box was heating up. Nuff Calliaqua posse online. Dem musse geh up early fo set dem crab trap.

Patrick “Gray” Baptiste, our cultural icon and community activist hailed me up.

Mi dey yah ah chat

“Whey ah gwarn Wade?”, “Gray’s” question popped up in the chat box.

“Gray” Mi dey yah ah chat wid Miss East St. George an de I nah like whey I an I ah hear”, I replied.

We spoke about the excellent performance of his Calliaqua Steelband at the Miss Carival Show. I told him how I felt about rural winners not getting complimentary tickets/passes to the major national events. No CDC bashing from “Gray”.

Would you believe we did not say a word about politics? Jack “Your Mother” Warner and the upcoming NDP Convention (July 18) did not even come up.

I was now chatting with 5 persons from the Calliaqua area. Linton and Clayton not included. But I managed to get back to Miss East St George. I promised Sheridan I would make some inquiries about the participation of rural winners – Pageants and Calypso Competitions – in the national shows. Too late for the 2010 Rural winners though.

I told Sheridan I have good connections back in SVG and I would make some contacts. I boasted that I am well connected to AD Dennie and Sehon Marshall of Star FM “Morning Scoop” fame; I have “frenemies’ in Hans King and Elson Crick on Shake UP… Yes, AD and CDC want a damn shake up. Then Burns Bonadie (Shake Up) and Fitz Huggins (LIME) are also known to me. So too are Bryan Alexander, Stephen Joseph, Mourine Ramjeet, Groove Governor and Grantley Williams on FaceBook.

So to my “connections”: There must be some way, CDC and the organisers of the rural carnival shows can ensure that winners get the opportunity to attend the major Carnival events – Children’s Carnival, Steelband Competition, Miss Carival and Dimanche Gras.

Passes for these events should be a given for winners of Rural Carnival Pageants and Calypso Competitions. What are we talking about here, six rural queens and six rural calypso monarchs? Surely, 12 complimentary tickets/passes at about $30 each (for the major events), cannot make or break the CDC. I am sure they can cut corners to accommodate participation of the rural winners.

Tickets for rural winners

The organisers should (before November each year) knock up the lawyers, politicians, other professionals and businesses to donate tickets to be provided to the rural winners for their attendance at the national shows. Coordinating volunteers to provide transportation should not pose a problem.

So Sheridan and “Gray”, I have kept my promise.

T. Wade Kojo Williams, Sr.
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

PS: After listening to the 2010 Calypso Monarch Finals, I am suggesting that the CDC reserves one place in the Finals for the Winner of the Junior Calypso-Soca Monarch Competition.