Three things stood out in my mind about Saturday’s Calypso Fiesta in Skinner Park.
One, nearly everybody jammed the government good. Two, in spite of being very sick, my Prime Minister made an appearance and received rapturous applause. Three, Sugar Aloes was given the full wrath reserved for traitors. One and two are normal, three is strange, very strange. I wish to talk a bit about number three only as a result.
Say what you like, Michael Sugar Aloes Osuna has done a lot for the PNM. So much in fact, there is no way he could ever be fully repaid. People who pelted him must have forgotten how he and Weston Cro Cro Rawlins doublehandedly rallied the troops after the 1986 whipping. The two stood tall at a time when many other diehard PNM supporters ran for cover.
During that period, Aloes' lyrics and antics were always sure to needle the NAR crowd. I remember at a certain Dimanche Gras show, the crowd booed ANR Robinson and cheered Manning whenever Aloes mentioned either name in the calypso he was singing. Yes, Sugar Aloes really carried the flag for us in those gloomy days. He didn't deserve to be stoned like Nosegay on the cross.
Now, people might have gotten upset with him because he sang for Kamla. I’ve said it before, they shouldn’t have, since he was performing as a paid artiste.
Say what you like, Michael Sugar Aloes Osuna has done a lot for the PNM. So much in fact, there is no way he could ever be fully repaid. People who pelted him must have forgotten how he and Weston Cro Cro Rawlins doublehandedly rallied the troops after the 1986 whipping. The two stood tall at a time when many other diehard PNM supporters ran for cover.
During that period, Aloes' lyrics and antics were always sure to needle the NAR crowd. I remember at a certain Dimanche Gras show, the crowd booed ANR Robinson and cheered Manning whenever Aloes mentioned either name in the calypso he was singing. Yes, Sugar Aloes really carried the flag for us in those gloomy days. He didn't deserve to be stoned like Nosegay on the cross.
Now, people might have gotten upset with him because he sang for Kamla. I’ve said it before, they shouldn’t have, since he was performing as a paid artiste.
If the UNC or COP so stupid to hire an “outsider” for a job and the “outsider” happens to be PNM, no big thing. It’s not as if the man was singing for free. Let him sing and take their money!
In fact, he should be encouraged to pave the way for more “outsiders” to “get ah bread” from this government, since it looks like this government will be here for a long while, despite what happened in Tobago the other day.I hope next rounds Sugar Aloes would be welcomed with open arms. He is one of us, not one of them and he understands how to ease your hand out when things are in the lion’s mouth.
Octavia Crichlow | Upper Ojoe Road, Sangre Grande.
(PNM! But no fanatic!)
(PNM! But no fanatic!)
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