Tue, Mar 10, 2015

In a night of expressive grace and power, Maxine Browne, artistic director of the La Gracia Dance Company, once again demonstrated that she’s worth her weight in cultural gold.

La Gracia’s Dance Awards were a huge success, not only as an artistic event, but as a demonstration of the number of young lives touched by Browne’s outreach.Over 100 children and young adults are members of the company, which performed the works of Browne and six other talented young choreographers. The discipline and passion of the dancers was refreshing, and the choreography was diverse and uniformly excellent. La Gracia is 23 years old. Here’s hoping for 23 more.{{more}}

Runner-up:

Ralph Gonsalves

By all accounts, Ralph Gonsalves emphatically demonstrated his staying power by drawing a huge crowd of party faithful to the ULP’s National Council Meeting last Wednesday. Having outgrown the confines of the Peace Memorial Hall, the ULP Leader migrated to the spacious Russell’s Auditorium, which was reportedly filled to overflowing with red-clad supporters.

While the venues are getting bigger, the Comrade himself is visibly smaller, having shed serious pounds and inches as he gets into fighting shape. The newly svelte Gonsalves is also sounding increasingly eager to lace up his well-worn political gloves and take the fight to Arnhim Eustace, who’s dropped a few pounds himself, as well as the overbearing presence of his former mentor, Sir James.

But while the self-proclaimed holder of the “championship belt” clearly still packs a political wallop that “stings like a bee,” we’ll have to wait ‘til election day to see if he’s nimble enough to “float like a butterfly” above opposition charges of bad roads, economic missteps, and an oft-deferred airport completion date.

WORST WEEK EVER:

Runaway Internet Profanity and online hooliganism took centre stage with the arrest of a teacher who it is alleged went on an obscenity-laced tirade on Facebook. It would be difficult for a self-respecting media worker to condone criminalizing speech of any sort, but freedom of speech could hardly find a less deserving cover girl. The alleged statements were vulgar and unprofessional, and showed an appalling absence of judgement for any adult, much less a schoolteacher.

Hopefully, her arrest will give pause to the legions of potty-mouthed professionals who pollute social media with their crude comments. Why do people feel that the Internet gives them licence to publicly post things they’d never actually say in public or at their workplace?

On the other hand, there really was no need for the heavy-handed police response. With surveys showing that roughly 50 per cent of Facebook pages contain profanity, the Major Crimes Unit may have committed themselves to a very busy future.

Runner-up:

A recent trip to KFC produced the following exchange: “One Zinger (chicken sandwich), please.” – “Sorry, no Zinger.” “Fish sandwich?” – “No fish.” “Any breast pieces?” – “No.” “OK, give me a three- piece wings with coleslaw” – “No wings, no coleslaw. All we have are drumsticks and fries.”

Limp, cold fries were served loose in small brown paper bags, with chicken coming in plain white Styrofoam containers. None of the unattractive packaging bore a KFC logo. In taste, price, presentation and choice you can now get a better chicken deal from Yankee, Punkie, or almost any roadside entrepreneur in SVG. We used to brag that Vincy KFC was the best in the world. Today, it could be the worst.

If I had a question in SVG Parliament

… I’d ask when the Commissioner of Police plans to ease up on arresting teachers at their schools and start arresting reckless and dangerously lawless minibus drivers on the road. It seems the latter group is much more hazardous to student safety than the other.

Media Watch!

The Green Party contested four seats in the 2005 elections and got 37 votes, averaging fewer than 10 votes per constituency. Five years later they ran a 15-candidate slate and got 145 votes, which is basically the same average. If the nation doesn’t take the Green Party seriously, why do our newspapers, which thoughtlessly give it equal weekly space with SVG’s two real political parties? What will our papers look like next year, after Anesia Baptiste’s fledgling DRP also flames out at the polls?