Commentary: The show must go on with or without calypso

Kurt Allen - 2010 Calypso Monarch

When Kurt Allen was crowned Calypso Monarch in 2010, he was quite happy to receive the grand prize of $500,000. The new People's Partnership made the prize $2 million for its first Carnival in 2011 and now it's back to the $500,000 first prize.

Well that's not going down well with some people, especially the finalists for the Calypso Monarch competition who are supposed to sing Sunday at the Dimanche Gras show, which ushers in two days of Carnival.

They are saying half a million is not good enough, that it's "disrespectful". So they want twice that amount as first prize or they won't sing and the show won't go on.

Well that's debatable. Calypso is just one act in the show, so with or without calypso the show will go on. Tens of thousands have waited a year for this, including visitors from across the globe.

But that's not the real issue. What is significant is that these exponents of Trini culture seem to have suddenly become mercenaries with art taking a back seat to their monetary greed.

Former Monarch Singing Sandra has called the $500,000 first prize "disrespectful" to the artistes. "I think it's a gross insult to kaiso," she told reporters Friday.

How did she arrive at that? Throwing money around as if it is going out of style is being "respectful" to art? 

More precisely, what we are seeing is at attempt at blackmail and extortion. Twelve people are trying to hold the National Carnival Commission (NCC) to ransom and embarrass the government in the eyes of the world. 

They are not defending the art form or Trinidad & Tobago culture; they are looking only after their financial interests and nationalism and patriotism don't fit in their culture of entitlement to which they have grown accustomed.

It is wrong and unethical to enter a contest, knowing what the rules are and then decide at the eleventh hour to try to blackmail the organisers by saying if you don't sweeten the pot there will be no show.

The NCC and the multicultural minister must stand firm and not allow themselves to be bullied into adjusting the prize money. 

It's time to draw a line. If they prefer not to sing, then so be it; the show must go on. The world is watching and Trinidad & Tobago is on show. 

And like the dog and the bone, the greedy calypsonians will be the biggest losers.

Jai Parasram | 18 February 2012