This is the third in a series of articles prompted by events that occurred during the recently held 40th Anniversary of Anguilla’s Summer Festival. I feel obligated to come back to the media with what amounts to a rebuttal to a Press Release first heard on Klass FM Radio 92.9FM on Saturday 23 August 2014.
In an undated Press Release prepared in response to my statement which appeared on Facebook, in the Anguillian Newspaper of Friday 15 August 2014 as well as other media under the caption “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH – Time to Rescue Calypso in Anguilla”, Mr Morton begins his response with what amounts to a veiled threat against me and my Right to Freedom of Speech when he writes, “While I subscribe to the fact that Freedom of Speech must be unfettered, I recognize that the Law has necessarily placed constraints on the exercise of that Right. This is to ensure that in the exercise of that Right a person does not subject another to defamation, amongst other fetters”; he goes on to state, “It is in this context that I now address Mr Wattley’s public statement.
Let me say from the onset that in my public discourse I hold fast to truth; if something does not meet the truth test I will not engage in propagating it but I shall not hesitate to speak that which I know to be true. I am never afraid to speak out against perceived injustice, and I never shy away from responding to anyone who addresses me directly as you did in your Press Release in which “Mr Wattley” was mentioned no less than twenty-four times.
In response to my reference to a one-person committee, you obviously missed the sarcasm because there was never any intention to have the public believe that the committee actually comprised a single person; in its operation, however, one gets the impression that it is in fact a one-person committee.
In response to my suggestion that you ought to be operating on behalf of calypsonians, your response was shocking to say the least. I was appalled to hear you say and I quote, “The committee does not operate on behalf of calypsonians”. Are you for real? But you did not stay there; you continued, “The sub-committee represents the interests of the Carnival Committee, not that of the calypsonians”. It is at this point if I were a calypsonian that you would have had to take your exit; you just don’t get it. You mentioned that in 2008 there was a failed attempt at forming a Calypso Association; what does that have to do with any present attempt by calypsonians deciding to form themselves into an association? “Failure is the best reason to try again”.
I do not need to understand how the Calypso Sub-Committee ought to function; anything is better than what pertains presently. It is disgusting to say the least to hear you trying to justify your non-performance, the haggling that took place outside of the band house on the night before the Calypso Finals, your one-upmanship. Then you state that I wish for you to resign because I am displeased; did you not hear the expressions of displeasure from several other persons on the Saturday night that I appeared on the IN YOUR FACE Show?
On the matter of the selection of judges, here is some truth Mr Chairman; resorting to overseas judges in not the solution to the problems we face with the judging of calypso. Overseas judges also come with their biases; the answer lies in trained, competent and objective judges. Permit me to relate an experience I had a few years ago with a prominent local judge who happens to be a Music Teacher. She was a judge on the night when Lady Messenger sang WE GONNA MISS YOU CARNIVAL, a song I wrote, and proceeded to write across the score sheet that the melody of the song reminded her of a song she had heard out of Trinidad, and on that basis marked the song down.
Once I saw the note she had written, I wrote to her privately and demanded that she bring forward the specific song the melody of which my song reminded her failing which I would go to the press with my concern. She subsequently telephoned me and beseeched me not to “make any trouble” and the matter was not pursued out of compassion. That individual, however, as a result of that incident no longer relates to me as she did before that series of incidents but she continues to judge competitions featuring songs that I have written, and I have never protested. However, I have chosen to highlight this matter because recently in trying to get a better understanding of what transpired re the judging of the 2014 Junior Calypso Competition the matter was raised during one mother’s search for answers indicating to me that this particular judge still “has me up” as a result of my trying to find justice but she still judges my songs and is looked upon as one of our better judges. And while on the issue of the 2014 Junior Calypso Competition do you Mr Morton know the authorship of the winning song sung by Kaiso Nicki in the 2014 Junior Calypso Competition?
You and others like you who continue to hold calypso hostage must release your stranglehold on the art form. You do not have an exclusive right to its organization. You need to extricate yourselves from having anything to do with its organization of calypso then you could be free to write your songs openly like me because although neither of us sings we both write, and I am more than ready for any duel you wish to initiate in that realm.
You mentioned that perhaps I should have entitled my piece “SOUR GRAPES – All My Songs Lose” instead of “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH”. I love a challenge. It is true that I wrote 10 of the songs in the 2014 Calypso Final Show and that none of them placed in the top three positions, but are you of the view that they did not place because they were inferior or are you by your statement giving credence to the murmurings that perhaps there was a conspiracy to ensure that none of the songs written by Wattley placed in the top three? Managing to have as many as ten (10) songs in the same calypso finals is a feat to be commended; don’t you think? And by the same token what is the greatest number of songs you have had as a writer in a single calypso finals? Someone told me the other day (and this is mere conjecture but I honestly concur) if the Mighty Springer had sung the two songs sung by the Messenger in the 2014 Calypso Finals – FAILING GRADE and BY DE SWORD – that he, the Mighty Springer would have won the crown hands down (but remember this is mere conjecture), so I have every right to be peeved.
Mr Chairman my cry is not a new cry; in fact as far back as 2005 when the Mighty Sunbeam won the crown with his SINGING FOR FUN that was a actually a “dig” at the judges. Then in 2013 you must remember that you began relating to me differently after the Mighty Gilli sang his famous WHAT QUALIFIES YOU in which the first mention of a one-man committee was made, a song which got Gilli kept out of the finals in 2013.
You continue to hope against hope that the rest of Anguilla is not supportive of the thoughts that I have expressed in the various articles I have written; winning people’s support is not the idea behind my writing these articles; this is a quest for justice and fair play, the kind of justice and fair play denied the likes of the late Lord Anything. I happen to know based on the response I have received that there is widespread support for the views that I have expressed. You need to take your “head out of the sand” and accept that you have failed miserably; you need to step aside; you and all those who have hijacked the art form over the years; you need to allow the art form to breathe again.
And as for the system of judging I am recommending go read the Anguillian Newspaper or see me on Facebook.
(Published without editing by The Anguillian newspaper.)
