Tears as birdsong waits for eviction

While the orchestra and its academy each year train 260 youngsters in steelband, wind instruments and drums, their future is now uncertain.

Band Vice-Chairman Dennis Phillip told Newsday the band had agreed to a proposed rent hike from $2,000 to $15,000 a month, but that the landlord had then instead sought possession of the property in the courts.

Phillip said this is an inconvenience to the band which was seeking a one-year extension, so as to take ownership of its own site lower down the road.

Up to 5 pm, no marshal had appeared.

Phillip said he was making no special preparation of the site for the marshal’s arrival.

He said birdsong funds itself by entrepreneurial activities such as janitorial contracts and agriculture.

It funds scholarships for tertiary students in the Netherlands, the Republic of Georgia, UCLA Berkeley and the University of Southern Mississippi in the US.

Phillip said in 2011 the then government had used birdsong as a model for pilot projects in other panyards nationwide to teach music to youngsters.

Hailing the role of a steelband to uplift the nation’s youth, he lamented that the fact of the eviction suggests a society with its priorities wrong.

Musical Director Richard Quarless said birdsong has existed for over 40 years and been on the site for over 14 years. “Please let the whole country know what’s happening here, and sensitise the people.” Tunapuna MP Esmond Forde told Newsday, “The birdsong matter is a legal matter. They are a tenant renting from a landlord. The court ruled in favour of the landlord. As a result of that as MP I need to be careful in terms of my involvement as it is a court matter.” In reply to a Birdsong request, he had looked around to see if there is any piece of government land in Tunapuna but could find none.

Forde added, “The other thing is that they are in the process of purchasing a piece of land from the friendly society. They have made the down payment but there is no registrar of friendly societies to sign off the document.” Newsday was unable to contact Attorney- General Faris Al-Rawi to ask when the Solicitor General’s Office will name a new Commissioner for Friendly Societies to hasten birdsong’s land acquisition