August 15, 2010
Ok, so I see now it have bacchanal brewing over the Miss TnT/Universe delegate and some picture she take in which she topless. And some people all up in arms over it.
I just HAD to jump in this one. THIS is an issue??! In 2010 this is an issue? Boy it really have some people who eh have not one ass to do and real time to do it. And furthermore, when will allyuh Trinidadians FINALLY stop, yes, STOP, using Euro-American ideas of morality as some sort of gauge for what is considered modest and what is considered obscene? Dem is de lahs seta people anybody should be following. They and their puritanical, Dutch Protestant cultural worldview have taken the sexually schizophrenic, misogynist attitudes of “old” Europe, carried it to even more ridiculous levels and den tun round and impose it everywhere dey set foot or a satellite dish. Big comesse over Janet Jackson breast to the point whe yuh was hearing talk about penalising TV station; people in the same Europe still laughing at them over the Lewinsky/Clinton ting, and allyuh still taking chain-up from THESE people?
Then again, if these days I only hearing radio announcers talking about we “summer” holidays and in the next couple months some people go want to be celebrating Halloween, I suppose yuh cyar really expect otherwise.
But is how de govament reach in dis dotishness? I hear big release come dong from the O(ri)ffice of the Prime Minister’s that they go be “monitoring” the situation. What situation? She get take hostage or wha?, de country get overthrow? Situation?! What shit is dis? This government starting to prove mih right when I say that in some respects them eh no different ideologically from the PNM. It have people house doing backstroke in flood waters, we get stick with a seta wasteful, masturbatory mega-projects Manning, Rowley and they band of Merrie (yes) men leff back for we to sort out, violent crime, ailing healthcare and that is what they monitoring?
If dis government want somting to monitor, why dey eh monitor dem bag of illiterates aka senior officers in the Coast Guard, Army and Police who know everything doh mind dey eh have no operational experience in the crime-fighting aspects they in charge of. Who eh incompetent, indifferent, who eh indifferent corrupt or just plain unresponsible (thanks again, Lloyd Best) and stifling excellent practical initiatives conceptualised by junior people who actually doing de wuk and know what to do. Let the government monitor them rich elites who only putting up a seta massive structures all over de place with no or minimal Town and Country Planning approval. Let them monitor if is true some of them old asbestos pipes WASA still just cutting and joining instead of replacing. Let them monitor the erosion of the coastline and how that is being accelerated by industrial activities, allyuh monitor dat; not some oman who obviously very comfortable with she own body. We eh even certain she nipples was showing – and if they were, so what? My beloved brother (cause he was a black man) St Augustine, you and yuh Greek mentors really did a great job f**king up people head about nakedness, eroticism and sensuality.
So many hundreds of years come and gone, all kinda innovation come on de scene, all kinda information it ha dey dat yuh could just access jes so and get knowledge. You mean to tell mih it STILL have people walking around with de mindset that a more openly sensual, erotic, sexual society is a society that mashin up? People done trace this bullshit thinking back thru dem Greeks to them early warrior tribes who did have to curb sex otherwise a nex tribe woulda kill dem in dey sleep. Plus dem man did have dey little insecurities so dey jes tun it round and throw it back on dem oman and dem. Dais all. But to know that people go hav to read and we know dat eh something Trinis does do unless it hav the words “Holy Bible” in front.
I mean, look eh, me eh really care much for dem beauty pageant ting eh. Ah mean I like to watch mih woman and dem like any other but I find dem pagant ting just catering to certain specific standards of beauty, so I not really into dat. Who like them ting go right ahead. But as women become more comfortable about their bodies, their sexuality and as old myths and mores are increasingly being re-examined, challenged and in some cases flung out, we need to understand that in the grand scheme of things it have real serious issues we need to confront and some bareback oman in a photo eh dat.
This article actually makes a lot of sense if one has the time and patience to pick thru the vitriol. A little more analytic evaluation and less polemics and you would have actually shown that you are a bit more enlightened than the people you are criticising. Though you are for the most part right in your argument, you have let down the side a bit.
Excellent argument, but badly argued.
Miss Universe Body Paint Photos Stir Controversy
This year, the Miss Universe pageant is using photos of contestants, including Miss USA 2010 Rima Fakih, in nothing but body paint to promote the August 23 event, and it has one former pageant organizer crying foul.
London Trini
I appreciate your criticism of this and all articles. With regard to the use of local vernacular — if by chance that was included in your observations — I thought I’d utilise that in order to emphasise what I thought and still think is a non-issue. “Conventional” English simply does not drive home some points in my view so I chose to use it in this article.
Concerning the vitriol in the article, I certainly won’t make any apologies for that. The issue is trite, arguments about immodesty and decline in morals are absolute immature rubbish and for no less than the government to issue a release on this farce was ludicrous. There are more serious things to deal with.
Trinis need to be told a little more that societally “we on shit;” we laugh and make jokes over things we shouldn’t and make a huge fuss over things that are very trivial. Additionally, it is a testimony to our bankruptcy in criticl thinking that we still hold onto certain ideas of morality, guilt, modesty and “sin” that even when they were first conceptualised so many thousands of years ago were based on lies. In any event, they were developed in a different time, with situation that are much different than what exists today. We simply must address some of the ideas we have about mores, sex, relationships and perceptions of women if we are to go anywhere and be comfortable with ourselves and this is why I wrote this the way I did along with the last two essays which in my view were much more provacative than this one.
I never said anything about vernacular, I’ve got no problem with that, man.
No need to convince me again. In principle, I already agree with you. All I’m saying is the argument would fare better if it didn’t come across as a rant, or with the energetic devotion of a ‘new convert’.
For the close-minded, backward, ‘moral’ members of society are ranters and ravers, and I thought your article deserved better.
best, hope to hear more from you.
I hear you comrade, especially the last point about the more close-minded ranters of whom we already have way too many.
You raised some very valid points in your article Mr. Gilkes. The points you made were beautifully illustrated in a book I read by Barbara Kingsolver entitled “The Poisonwood Bible” In one of the chapters, a missionary preacher becomes enraged when he views the bare chested women of an African tribe and takes them and the tribal elders to task for this.
Although it was only a work of fiction, that scene is so symptomatic of way in which many Westerners (particularly evangelical Americans) view sexuality. Perhaps it is a small wonder why so many marriages fail in the US.
Anyway, very well writted article and your use of the Trinbagonian vernacular was very well done.