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HOLLIS ‘CHALKDUST’ LIVERPOOL

This is for the attention of Social Development and Family Services Minister Donna Cox

CALYPSONIANS Funny, Valentino, Trini, Gypsy and I were having a pre-concert chat two weeks ago about things carnivalesque when your name surfaced in the conversation. As a result, on their behalf I thank you for handing out grants in the sum of $5,000 last year to artists who, because of the pandemic, could not work in their field of entertainment to provide themselves with funds for their economic survival.
Let me also thank you, too, for supporting TUCO’s Special Achievers’ Fund aimed at assisting veteran/aged calypsonians who are either ill or in need of financial care. All calypsonians are happy to note that, arising from press reports from your ministry, singers Baron, Black Stalin, Valentino, Bill Trotman, and Surpriser (now 90 years old), as well as musician Roy Cape, have been assisted financially by you and yours, even though your ministerial cheques have not arrived in their post boxes with the regularity and punctuality that such icons deserve.
Moreover, calypsonians felt a sense of joy and brotherhood when the names of veteran sportsmen Claude Noel and Leslie “Tiger” Stewart were added to the fund. Let me use the opportunity also to thank Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who, under her prime-ministerial watch, rendered medical assistance to Brother Superior who before his death told me with a tear in his voice: “She gave me an extension of life on planet Earth.”
Let me then ask you, Minister Cox, to use your good office and extend the Special Achievers’ Fund to calypso choristers Regenerations Duo and Patricia Holder, musician Errol Ince, and show promoters Aiyegoro Ome and Liselli Daaga of the National Action Cultural Committee (NACC), who have worked tirelessly and for no reward over the past 50 years for nearly every calypsonian who today is winning spurs in the calypso world.
But for all your help, I must bring to your attention the treatment extended to icons in Antigua and Barbuda. When Sir Rupert Philo (King Swallow) died in October last year, I shared with readers the fact that not only was Swallow the holder of a red, diplomatic passport and was given free medical care, but he was also granted a monthly salary for about three years before his death by Antiguan Prime Minister Gaston Browne.
All calypsonians and up-to-date readers on calypso in the Caribbean know, too, that besides enjoying free medical care at home or abroad, all icons in Antigua, such as Paul Richards (King Obstinate), Dame Georgia Robinson (teacher), Sir Viv Richards, and Sir Maclean Emmanuel (King Short Shirt), are holders of diplomatic passports as well as a monthly salary. Frankie McIntosh in St Vincent, as well as Gabby and Red Plastic Bag in Barbados enjoy the same benefits.
Now an item of news has recently come to hand that the Cabinet in Antigua/Barbuda last month agreed to a special provision that concedes to ex-cricketer-now-icon and national hero, Sir Vivian Richards, a package containing the following grants:
1. A monthly pension equal to the amount now paid to the Minister of State in the Antigua and Barbuda Government.
2. An exemption of duties and other charges on the importation of personal items.
3. An exemption from paying property taxes on the home he owns and where he resides.
4. An exemption from paying duty on a new car every seven years.
5. Additionally, he will be provided with a driver and a home-helper to be paid by the Treasury.
Now, one may ask whether the Government of Antigua can afford to give its icons such freedoms and funding. Let me hasten to state, then, that in terms of its gross national product (GNP), Trinidad is only surpassed by the US and Canada in the Western Hemisphere, and where, in terms of its income per capita, Antigua in 2017 was rated 69th among the nations of the world, TT was rated 55th. In financial terms, then, Antigua, as a state, is therefore far poorer than the Government and people of TT.
Finally, you ought to know that Antigua and Barbuda as a state pays great attention to the treatment given to its artists, especially its calypsonians. I have just come off the phone with calypsonian Richie Francis of Antigua and he explained to me loudly and with joy in his voice that Antigua has just received 40,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine, and that after the members of Parliament were vaccinated, the next in line to be so treated were the national heroes, including calypso icons, namely, King Obstinate and King Short Shirt. Madam Minister, the line for vaccinations in Antigua then extended thirdly to the doctors and nurses, after which all calypsonians fell into the fourth tranche.
Now many may want to know why calypsonians have been pushed so high up the “head and tail” circular line, shades of our primary school days. Well, I do not have to explain to you and readers the great contribution of artists over the years to the growth of our GNP, especially our foreign exchange. I do not have to state that during this covid19 pandemic, music, especially calypso, is a therapeutic tool that prevents people worldwide from falling into mental decay; a distraction from the mundane worry of the era; a cathartic force that leads to a purgative release from depression and drudgery, and a deliverer of hope to believers of our heavenly destiny.
May I add that with the extempo calypso especially, singers like Gypsy, Allrounder, Short Pants, Contender, Black Sage and Brian London need to go up the “head and tail” line further, since they, like nurses and doctors, have been in the frontlines educating and entertaining the public, thereby bringing sanity and stability to our pandemic state.
I look forward, therefore, with anticipation to see how artists, especially calypsonians, will be treated when the vaccine arrives here in TT.
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