Calypsoes echo public sentiment

The Editor: Con-deming and excoriating Cro Cro for his calypso Facing Reality is tantamount to shooting the messenger. That a calypsonian thinks it necessary to write and sing such a calypso reflects a society which has so lost its moral bearings that extreme and extra-judcial solutions are being called for. 
 
Does anyone in this society seriously believe the justice system, including the police force, capable of stemming the tide of violence that this island nation is awash in?  Does anyone seriously believe that the small man and woman who are consuming drugs and packing pistols are the ones bringing them into the country?  And hasn’t the DPP in his recent statement  about the infiltration of the legitimate business community by illegal money confirmed the fundamental point of Facing Reality — that there are individuals in this nation who are above and outside the law as it exists at  present?

Under the previous government there was a great deal of angst expressed when an article in the British press described Trinidad as the Wild West.  There  is, however, more than a modicum of truth in that description and Facing Reality simply reflects the Wild West mentality of Trinidad — Carnival and sweet sweet TT aside.  It is the artist’s role to reflect ourselves back to us, however ugly it might seem. In that capacity Cro Cro is simply fulfilling his role to us, his community.

Eve Lucy Yeates
Port-of-Spain