I AM NOT one who listens to or focuses on calypsos during Crop Over season, but on reading about the Sugar Daddy issue I heaved a great sigh – here we go again.
Curiosity got the better of me and so I had to search YouTube to listen just to hear what all the hullabaloo was about. Bigger sigh.
After listening, I just had to put in my two cents worth. I am neither for nor against the song, and I do not find it funny at all, but what
I will point out is that the calypsonian is singing about a Caribbean way of life which is known to all of us. Surprise! No matter what, every year someone will sing something about a woman and someone will get offended.
Everyone knows what a sugar daddy is and really, the man is singing about the reality for most of our women. It is sad; it ought not to be, but to coin a familiar phrase we hear so often – it is what it is.
Captain Sawyer is not singing about women; he is singing about “his woman” and suggesting that she only wants him for his money. Mind you, in the song, the “sugar plum”’ can be heard saying, “dah is de type o’ man I like . . . money sweet man”.
Wrong. On all levels. Admittedly, that lifestyle is not the ideal way for a woman to live, but he is singing about what is actually happening in our society and indeed throughout the Caribbean. The reality is, many women have lost their jobs and for some, they see no other way out.
There are far more pressing issues going on that Ms Rice-Bowen can focus on. Almost every day children are being molested, women are being abused, folk are losing their jobs and have no means by which to support their families, many are struggling with drug addiction, alcohol addiction, identity issues . . . and the list goes on.
It is time for us to stop majoring on the minors and deal with the root of our societal issues – not the symptoms – and work towards a solution. And really, there is only one answer – His name is Jesus.
– PAULA RICHARDS