TUCO says yes to proposed database of 'cultural icons'

CUMUTO/Manzanilla MP Dr Rai Ragbir wants government to set up a comprehensive database of local "cultural icons."

Ragbir said such a database would serve to honour these national treasures not only while they are performing, but as they grow older and need to be taken care of.

“It would provide crucial information on their health and well-being," he said, "so as to determine what assistance can be meted out to them as they navigate issues of health, relative to the natural progression of ageing.”

Ragbir’s suggestion follows the death last week of calypsonian Sandra Des Vignes-Millington, Singing Sandra. She will be laid to rest on Thursday.

Ragbir said TT and the calypso world has lost one of its greatest players: “A female artiste who shattered the glass ceiling, blazing a trail for young and upcoming female calypsonians, triumphantly winning the Calypso Monarch competition on two occasions, in 1999 and 2003.”

He said her poignant music will be etched on the national psyche for centuries to come, as it did not just entertain, but contained powerful prose and poetry. Singling out her classics Voices from the Ghetto and Die With my Dignity, he said her music triggered deep introspection.

President of the Trinbago Unified Calypso Organisation (TUCO) Lutalo Masiba (Brother Resistance) said TUCO was open to working with any agencies or government to do what was in the best interest of their members.

He said TUCO had a welfare unit which kept in touch with members in need, assisting as much as it could.

“Sometimes it’s beyond us in terms of medical assistance,” he said, adding that for this reason the group was not opposed to any helping hand.

At the funeral of Dennis “Sprangalang” Hall last year, Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts Randall Mitchell expressed regret that too often cultural icons are recognised and celebrated only after their death.

He said it is only then, “we begin to search for videos, images and any material that can be used to post glowing tributes to their legacy.”

He said the national cultural policy was designed to correct that, to ensure the recognition of cultural stalwarts for their role in shaping the vast cultural landscape of TT.

Asked about this policy, Resistance said he had no clue what point it had reached.

“It’s about ten years now they talking about that. As usual, we have heard nothing about it.”

Calls and messages to Mitchell were not answered.