by the Mighty Scholar
When my daughter asked me to help her to write an Independence song as part of a school project, and I told her to try and write it herself, believe me I was only joking for I did not honestly think that she could do it. When she showed me the first verse I was shocked. The second and third verses left me speechless. I knew straight away that this was a big song that the whole country deserved to hear and not just her teacher and classmates. I immediately took her to Mt. Zion studio and Paul Thomas did one of his finest pieces of arrangements yet. The song was an instant success. Peck Edwards of the Ministry of Culture, upon hearing the song, was moved to ask me whether I would allow my daughter to perform at the Independence celebration. I agreed and began the process of preparing her for the performance. I had an elaborate Independence costume made, and drilled her so as to fine tune her presentation of the song. All was ready and a more excited and happy eight year old could not have been found anywhere else in the world.
Then two days before February 7th, Peck Edwards dropped the bomb. According to him, everything that had to take place at the rally had to be approved by Cabinet and they had not received the approval from Cabinet for Zaedel to sing. Can you imagine this? Now this could have meant one of two things.Either the Minister of Culture had not taken the recommendation to Cabinet so that they could approve it, or that cabinet had received the recommendation and did not approve. Either way, reflects badly on the bunch of hypocrites in Government who day after day pledge their undying and unfaltering love for the youths of the country.
Zaedel cried for most of the day. Looking into her sad little eyes on our nation’s birthday was the hardest that I have ever done in my life. Now all of this happened last year. The man who invented the saying that lightning does not strike twice in the same place does not know what the hell he is talking about, because the same thing happened again this year. Now if the song was big last year, it was big big big this year.People hailed it as the Independence anthem. Students marched on the streets with it and sang it in their assemblies. It dominated the Independence motorcade and every radio station in the country played it umpteen times every day. Naturally, all Grenadians, green, yellow and colors that are not important, started hollering for her to appear at the Independence rally this year.
Jericho in his morning programmes agitated. He pontificated, preached, admonished, appealed begged, pleaded, fumed and even cussed. The Hot Shot Kid and Mike Mitchell were equally vociferous. Grenadians called the radio stations; they discussed it in their work places, in their liming spots, they met me on the street and the call was loud, clear and distinct.
This child had to sing at the Independence rally or else—–. So why was she not allowed to sing again this year? Now, about three weeks before Independence, I received a call from Peck Edwards asking if my daughter and I could appear at the Independence concert on the night of the 6th February.I told him that my appearing would not be a problem, but that I had to discuss the child’s appearance with her mom. He then told me that he will get back to me later to confirm and to tell me when rehearsals were going to be etc. well, for whatever the reason, Peck never called me back so I concluded that he was not serious.
By that time, Zaedel’s mom and I had made the decision that we were not going to allow her to sing on the night of the 6 th for one simple reason. That midnight concert was not suited for a child that age. Remember the Rashad Isaac story and the criticisms that were leveled at his father for allowing his son to participate in soca monarch which was a late night event. Thus, we felt that it was irresponsible of Peck and Company to ask for this little girl to sing in that night concert on the Carenage.
Additionally, we felt that the best forum for her to present her song was undoubtedly on Independence Day. In the week leading up to Independence, I heard Sherma Wells in her Good Morning Grenada programme, saying that Zaedel was slotted to perform on the night of the 6th February on the Caarenage. She was responding to the hundreds of people who wanted to know if Zaedel would be allowed to perform this year. I immediately called Peck Edwards and told him that Sherma’s comments were out of place since he had not called me back to confirm that the child would in fact be singing on the Carenage. I then explained to him that if he had only bothered to call, he would have known that she would not be performing on the 6th for the reasons that I have mentioned before. In all fairness to Peck, he agreed that the Independence Day celebration was indeed the best forum for Zaedel to express herself, but he claimed that they wanted to keep the rally short and were thus working within time constraints.However, he said that he would try to get her on because he did not believe that five additional minutes would spoil the rally. Those were his words. He said that if I did not receive a call from him, it meant that he had not succeeded in getting her to be a part of the Independence Day program.
I did not receive the call and so once again, somebody or bodies have decided to keep this little girl away from their independence rally. It is my belief that Zaedel has been punished these last two years simply because she is my daughter. I have no doubt that the powers that be in this country hate me like poison and that they would do anything to see me crawl on my hands and knees in the dust. I have said it before and I will say it again; foreign judges were brought down here this year to take care of me. If you listened carefully to the Prime minister’s utterings when he made the announcement at Paradise, then you know that what I am saying is not far- fetched. Zaedel is not the problem. She just happens to be the daughter of the problem. What else could it be? We know that Peck’s explanation about time cannot stand up to even the most cursory of scrutiny. What time constraints could they have been working against when they brought down Randy Isaac, their blue eyed god, at short notice to fret people at the stadium and to embarrass himself by singing Oh Grenada over his voice on a CD? And what of the band from Carriacou; out of place, frivolous, vexatious and totally unnecessary.Imagine big Independence celebration and man singing I En Going Down Dey and She’s Royal. And then you leave out the timeliest song, the most popular song, the one song that everyone at the stadium would have given anything to hear because you did not want to waste time? garbage with a capital G. And where is Hon. Emalin Pierre, who cares so much about young people, while all this wickedness is going on? In the VIP stand of course waving a national flag when the child from St. David’s used the chorus of Zaedel’s song to dance.
She is lucky that God loves everybody, even the biggest hypocrites; otherwise she might have received some hot ‘box’ from above. In any event, they have tried to and have not being able to keep me down. They should know that it is impossible to keep down a child who composed and sang such a song. Instead of trying to frustrate and break her young spirit, they should have given her a Camerhogne Award or the big award that they gave to the GG. What you have done to this innocent little child will come back to haunt you soon. The tears that she has cried for these last two years will be on your consciences. As my old grand aunt will say; ‘Far mal E wares’. .