‘One Eye Monster’ rules

The event was the first annual Advocates of the Blind and Vision Impaired calypso competition held at the Grand Stand, Queen’s Park Savannah, Port-of-Spain. The show was held in association with the National Carnival Commission and featured 12 contestants.

Nyol Manswell took first place with his song One Eye Monster.

Appearing on stage with a fake machine gun Manswell sang about the monster of crime that destroyed both the guilty and the innocent, the rich and poor. He also sang that the monster was given “room to roam” by bad economics and social tricks, and criticised “selfish people in politics” and a lack of backbone from the church.

“This generation angry and the monster thirsty, only humans could fill its belly,” he sang.

Manswell questioned whether the situation would be turned around after we hit “rock bottom” and called on citizens to seek help from God. He also took home the prize for best social commentary.

Second place went to Janelle Findlay and her song Woman Shall Prevail. A song of lamentation, Findlay mentioned a number of murder cases including: Shannon Banfield, found dead at IAM Ltd on Charlotte Street in December last year; 16-year-old student Rachael Ramkissoon whose body was found in a track in San Raphael in January; and WPC Nyasha Joseph whose body was found in the Gulf of Paria in March this year.

“Women are under attack by men who should watch we back,” Findlay sang.

She said the murder victims had gone to a better place and urged women not to be blind to the “writing on the wall”, the signs of abuse.

Third place went to Curtis Phillip with his humorous song Maticor about him attending a Hindu wedding and getting so drunk that he took off all his clothes.

Other winners on the night were: Darryl Joseph for best humorous performance with his risque song Can’t Suck At All about a woman teaching a man to suck fruits; Akil Ryan for road march for his song Gyal Taker in which he boasted of his prowess with women and wined with dancers on stage; and Kishon Phillip for people’s choice with his song Morals in which he lamented the loss of morals in society and issues such as vagrancy and crime.

All of the songs in the competition were either written by the performers or by a blind or visually impaired person.