CLEARLY, QUITE CLEARLY, Christine Howard was being extremely civil about it. But she couldn’t hide her deep disappointment with the Barbados Postal Service.
In a letter to the Press, Ms Howard lamented that she had posted from British Columbia in Canada a card of congratulations addressed to The Merrymen, and in care of the Post Office, only to have it returned to her. No Post Office worker in the proximity of this card apparently knew of the The Merrymen, or where you might find any of them – seemingly, and pathetically and tragically so, they had never heard of the folk ballad and calypso icon Emile Straker.
How on earth in little Barbados a General Post Office could not link Emile with The Merrymen, find his address, which somebody in the GPO must know, and grant Ms Howard her wish? How have we as a people become so disparate, so unneighbourly, so insensitive, not wanting to go that extra mile?
How do we institutionalize such inertia?
And all Ms Howard wanted was to tell a former fellow staffer Emile Straker, with whom she worked at A.S. Bryden &?Co. from 1958 to 1961, and his happy band of Merrymen how thankful she was for the delight they provided her and how to this day she plays their music in Canada, to which she emigrated; and to congratulate them on sticking together for 50 years.
The argument will be presented that there was no precise and accurate address on the card from Ms Howard, and that the Post Office had no bounden duty to walk about looking for any Merrymen or their leader. And there will go being NISE!
I would like to hear Ms Kim Tudor’s say on this, for surely the GPO does not meet the case!
But of loftier concern than the apparent lack of special care of our mail officers is the underlying signal at the macro-level of a lack of knowledge of or interest in, and disdain for traditional Barbadianness.
Which might explain the decreased airing of the music of such dear hearts as The Merrymen these days – except during the month of November when some music powers that be, as a microcosm of the larger society, continue to pigeon-hole their more musical peers and acquaintances who possess and display more talent than they do.
These humbugs do not extrapolate within their own bosoms that they ought to play – across the board over time – the music that other people who appreciate traditional Barbadianness like. And no better way of showing our artistes’ versatility than to present the popular and “unpopular” works they have!
I am reminded of one promoter whose submission was that for the last 45 years every November radio stations have been playing the same old music.
His insinuation was that the songs of a Barbadian nature played in November have been so limited that they reek of monotony, and might be better spread out through the year, so the repetition within 30 days does not grate our senses. His premiss was Bajan singers just did not have the number of songs. Balderdash, of course!
Truth be told, if Bajan music – all of it: known and unknown, popular and “unpopular” – were sourced, it could satisfy being played fully every day all through the year. This would ease the complaining promoter’s boredom at Independence.
As I have consistently submitted, there is a repository of musical works of all genres – from the religious ballad through calypso to jazz to classical – by Barbadian artistes that lies untouched and undusted in the vaults of forgetfulness of all our radio stations. Golden oldies and Trinidadian calypso “classics” aside, I submit virtually everything else pre-Sak Pase is undeserving of the will of our music powers that be to pursue and research – and play.
Woe to these mortal managers and directors of our music impersonating the gods!
• Ridley Greene is a Caribbean multi-award winning journalist. Email [email protected]
