CROP-OVER is officially over. The events on the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) calendar have been completed, and the radio stations have gone back to regular programming. NCF chairman Ken Knight has already reported a “pretty good” season, and at least one of the monarchs in Anderson Blood Armstrong is talking about a repeat after his first Tune-Of-The-Crop win last Monday with Foot On Fire. And though the dust has about settled – until May next year, there is the need to revisit some things that have been a cause for concern.Numerous stories have been told about the toilet paper throwing at Skinner Park and other venues in Trinidad and Tobago by people displeased with a particular song or singer.
This year, booing arose at the large calypso events in Barbados. It reared its ugly head during the Soca Royale at Bushy Park in St Philip a few Sundays ago, when Sweet Soca champion Terencia TC Coward was booed on three separate occasions. Patrons at the Banks/Lime Pic-O-De-Crop Finals found it necessary to boo Anthony Gabby Carter when he was announced as the 2010 winner. The booing was dealt with in this column last week, and there is no need to go into it further, except to say that it speaks to a level of intolerance that, if unchecked, could spell disaster. This latest development should signal to all and sundry that they can no longer sit and speak of Bajans as a passive people, or make some spurious judgement on what they are likely to do.
The issue making the rounds this week is the altercation between calypso monarch Gabby and Festival Stage host Anthony Admiral Nelson that occurred at Cohobblopot, the penultimate event on this year’s Crop-Over calendar. What we find curious, however, is the number of comments suggesting Admiral was deserving of a pounding. First, it is discomfiting to think media people are at risk expressing disagreement in opinion. Let it not ever come as the norm that speaking freely will beget bodily harm. Secondly, it is totally unacceptable for a media practitioner to publicly make a mockery of the fate of another. Admiral’s plight regrettably was fodder for Fireworks host Denis Johnson on Tuesday evening. There were instances when Johnson was laughing almost uncontrollably.
Would he have been grinning if one of his charges had fallen victim to rough handling? Like Admiral, Johnson continues to be very critical of journalists and artistes alike. And he needs to remember this. For someone who projects himself as a puritan, he should strive always to be above the line. Johnson must know that to whom much is given, much is required.• Off The Chest is written by a WE Magazine insider.?