Will minister smile at ‘Dem Blimping Ting’?

I was later made to understand that children delving into political issues were to be discouraged as they will eventually have their day in the adult arena to express their political pro or anti-government views when they fully grasp the concept of any government initiative.

Throw your mind back to the Junior Monarch winning compositions: 1990, Kempton Bellamy, ‘Making Up Time,’ Kerwin Du Bois, ‘Things We Leave Behind’, Shenilee Hazell, ‘Blind Man’s Bluff’, Karene Asche, ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’, Shaleika Hazell, ‘Barking Beef’, to name a few.

While it was never a written policy, writers knew that the Junior Monarch was a representative of Trinidad and Tobago whenever he/she goes abroad-London, Barbados, Miami, and the anti-government initiative songs were discouraged as they were considered sad reflections of the state of the nation. In fact, there isn’t a political commentary category in Junior Calypso.

But we now live in an era when children are seen protesting with parents in front of their schools, at the roadsides, burning tyres. So the judges decided to take the protest overseas through the voice of a fifteen-year-old.

I remember the year Cro Cro won the Monarch and sang in London with our Junior Monarch and other calypsonians. The audience was more receptive to the Junior Monarch than to him - his offering fitted the local scene quite nicely but was totally inappropriate to the Londoners. They just could not relate to what he had to say.

As a writer, I have long stopped putting songs like that into children’s mouths. Family values, things that affect their every day lives, incest, rape, drug abuse, environmental impact, crime, yes but without attacking a government, crime as a social issue rather than political.

Congratulations are in order to the young Dariem Charles. He is very talented, can sing, play the pan and perform. He really did a splendid job on Monday. However, I know a song like that would not have seen the light of day up to the 1990s.

I wonder what the Minister is thinking now, knowing that her government is taking a beating even at the Junior level? Will she smile when he sings that song ‘Dem Blimping Ting’ in London? I wonder what TUCO Junior Committee has to say? Did they set guidelines for the Judges to follow?

LAURENCE PERCIVAL

Morvant