DOAN PANIC! The Master’s in control, doan panic!
These are the words from the chorus of the song dat junior calypsonian Small One was repeating all the time in this year’s Junior Calypso Monarch competition so I gine join wid her and tell all o’ wunna the same thing – doan panic!
When wunna see how the prices of almost evahthing rising evah single day in Barbados, and hear the lotta back-and-forth long talk dat aint seem tuh be making nuh kinda sense at all from the politicians – doan panic!
Evah day when wunna look in the papers and read bout the amount o’ tiefing at all levels dat gine on bout here or bout the lawless young men who walking bout just looking fuh a free ride by robbing people; popping off duh chains or snatching duh cellphones just tuh get a quick fix or buy gear – doan panic!
When somebody could be driving long the highway and dead off just so; or a man could sit down by a bus stop, say he aint feeling good and pass away; or a man could be pon top a roof working normal when all of a sudden he could just give up the ghost; or two people could be driving in a car, the car get in a accident, one body dead and the other uninjured; or a woman could be taking her usual morning walk to keep fit and stay healthy when she could get kill off so – doan panic!
Rapid changes
When ya see how rapid the weather patterns have changed over the last few years, causing the days tuh be super hot and making ya feel like ya would pass out or the lotta rain dat continue tuh fall day in and day out, making the bush impossible tuh keep down and the African snails impossible tuh keep away, nuh matter how much white lime, bleach, salt or snail and slug pellets ya put down – doan panic!
Talking bout the weather pattern, when ya could see tornadoes and more tornadoes almost evah place in The States nowadays dat barely shredding people houses like match sticks, or ya could read or hear bout the flooding up in the Mississippi area that got people standing and watching in despair as the flood waters almost cover duh houses.
Ya could even look at the heat wave in Texas and dem places or, more recently, the earthquake in Virginia dat sent people all up in New York, Washington and a lot o’ other states scampering – doan panic!
And look at the drought in Somalia dat got poor li’l children just suffering and dying evah day so when duh got people in the States and a whole lot o’ other places just wasting food and money evah day fuh nuh real reason. And yet evah time ya put on TBN and dem kinda channels ya could hear people from all kinds o’ charitable organizations begging fuh as little as $50 tuh help a child wid food and medicine fuh a month.
Losing lives
And what about the people in the Middle East who evah day fighting and losing duh lives fuh their freedom from living and barely surviving under hard task masters all the years; evahbody just looking on and wondering how and when it gine end; who gine repair all the lot o’ damage and who gine eventually run all o’ dem oil rich nations up in there – doan panic!
I could go on and on bout all the negative things dat going on all ovah the world and hope dat ya’all won’t panic but look around and notice dat a lot o’ positive things still happening. Look around and see dat people still getting married, people still having babies, people still living tuh a hundred, people still living and enjoying life.
Look around and see dat the universities fill wid positive young people who intend tuh do something wid their lives nuh matter what. Look around and see dat young people coming out o’ school wid real nuff certificates. Look and see dat children getting scholarships and exhibitions and passing wid distinctions and honours and making duh parents real happy and proud.
Look around and see dat despite all the lot o’ snapping and barking in the House of Assembly, when it is time fuh the same politicians tuh fete, duh doan be cutting up duh eyes, stupesing or laughing at one another, duh does be at one party, dancing, drinking and much-ing up in one another and none o’ wunna yardfowls, B, D or nuhbody else, doan be there nor invited.
So smile and do wha’ Small One tell wunna, “Doan Panic”, the Master still in control.
• Mavis Beckles was born and raised in The Orleans. She has an opinion on everything.
