Play Mas', Doh Play De Ass

By Gene Wilkes

How come we shocked when school children
Partaking in pornography,
When we doh try to regulate
What kids see and hear on TV?
They getting "Sex Education"
From Hugh Hefner and Howard Stern,
Then from Machel and Saucy Wow
Trini wining techniques they learn.
Destra dare man to test she wine,
Suggesting simulated sex,
Den she tun rong and tell schoolgirls
Pornography does get she vex.
We idolise woman bam bam
So all man want to take ah taste,
Adolescents' rite of passage
Is their prowess in throwin' waist.
Dancing for most men is foreplay,
A preview of what's to be done,
And when they find ting getting hard
They mus' get dey satisfaction.
The lyrics of most party songs
Does promote promiscuity,
Then the singers soothe their conscience
Warning we about HIV.
On-stage antics of performers
Does focus on bumsee and crotch,
And wid so mucha flesh exposed
Everybody "Tempted to Touch".
When you rub two sticks together
Ent yuh know yuh could start a flame?
Human frottage eh no different,
It will get you hot all the same.
Education is the answer,
According to the Condom Crew,
As long as you practise safe sex
STDs won't happen to you.
So enjoy yuh carnival, people,
But please play it safe, all you do,
Remember, if you slip you slide,
And de Devil go do for you.
We people of the Trinity
Must humble, pray and seek God's face,
Try to turn from we wicked ways,
If we want Him to heal this place.

© Copyright – Gene Wilkes, Cocoyea.
Posted with the kind permission of the poet.

VIEW ALL WORKS SUBMITTED BY THIS AUTHOR.
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A Note From The Gull

This poem makes its arguments well. Mr. Wilkes looks at the big picture to consider the simple physics of slippage. Great wheels are set in motion by the removal of little chocks, and often with a runaway speed that leaves us aghast. Like the question asked by Chalkdust, "Wey all dem bandit come from?" in his Bandit Factory and Jeremy Taylor in his Stop the Carnival , "Everywhere, people ask how things have come to this pass, how their beloved country could be turning so ugly…”, Mr. Wilkes opens with,

"How come we shocked when school children
Partaking in pornography,
When we doh try to regulate
What kids see and hear on TV?""

Mr. Wilkes is perplexed by our wide-eyed consternation which laments the present situation without taking responsibility for our contribution. In this poem, the focus is on sexuality and the consequences of the manner in which it is presented in our society, but the underlying criticism of double standards could be applied to all areas of our lives.

Readers will appreciate that Mr. Wilkes is among those who hold fast to some traditional mores which many Trinbagonians have long discarded. The problem, as far as I see, is that at this point in time we are all caught between that process of "the discarding" and "the not knowing" exactly how to proceed from there. While it may be liberating to shake off "the old ways," are we really prepared for life without their stabilizing, some might say, stultifying presence? So while the argument can be made that there is nothing inherently wrong with "dutty wining", and it is in the eye of the prudish or aroused beholder, that the taint is applied, the fact remains that for most of us, old values die hard and even while we are applauding or going-along-to-get-along; taint, rather than glory is what registers. Without clear rules, the terrain of acceptable behaviour has become extremely complicated to negotiate.

Those, like Mr. Wilkes and myself, who try to uphold more conservative values and are convinced that we have, more often than not, proven their underlying logic in our own lives, will look upon these displays with anything from sadness to disgust. The apparent synchronicity between this loss of traditional values and the state of chaos in which we find ourselves, may be shrugged off as mere coincidence by some, but to others it is definite proof that their time honoured beliefs/concerns are vindicated/justified.

Some who have dispensed with these rules, will simply accept any expression in dance for what it is and move on with a smile of appreciation or wonder or amusement. Those among them who are aggressive to begin with and maybe also because they are making value judgments (It wines like a whore so it must be a whore), will jump to the conclusion that that wine is an open invitation. If the woman attracts unwelcome advances or worse as a result of her behaviour, there are those, even among her cohorts, who will say that she looked for it. If a child is seen in public imitating these antics, the outrage or applause is even greater. There are those who will congratulate children on their skill in this area but those who hold more traditional values will see this (and on this I have to agree) as opening the door for trouble. In a society where child abuse is already a problem, we should not allow adults even more opportunities for exploitation whether in fantasy or action. A child's, "No" is more easily ignored than that of an adult.

Whoever told us that it is possible to juggle double standards and a healthy society, also forget to teach us exactly how to accomplish this feat. Some of us have responded by becoming expert at leading double lives, and many of us, especially our young people, do not have the tools to make distinctions between how things are fed to us and the reality for which we are personally responsible.

"Destra dare man to test she wine,
Suggesting simulated sex,
Den she tun rong and tell schoolgirls
Pornography does get she vex."

So while Saucy Wow's titillating gyrations are accepted as low art, or as God's gift to mankind, or yet another aspect of our exotic culture, or as a celebration of female pulchritude, liberation and sexual prowess, or has managed to leave its skid marks on the national consciousness simply by virtue of the persistence of its rubbings, the fact remains that some cheering onlookers, especially among the younger women, forget or simply haven't been told that off the stage, there are still very few places where this behaviour is appropriate, and many more places where it could instead threaten a woman's wellbeing. I don't mean to pick on Saucy. She is just one of many, and not just in Trinbago, who are willing to make spectacles of themselves for attention and gain. Very often these are the same individuals who can casually blame their admirers for being led into temptation, for how they decide to act upon such stimulation. After all, "We big an’ have sense."

"On-stage antics of performers
Does focus on bumsee and crotch,
And wid so mucha flesh exposed
Everybody "Tempted to Touch"."

and

"When you rub two sticks together
Ent yuh know yuh could start a flame?
Human frottage eh no different,
It will get you hot all the same."

I had been thinking about this topic recently, and not because we are in Carnival mode but during and after viewing the music video for "Sumintra". The obvious shyness of the young lady who represents Sumintra, her companions, and Rikki Jai himself, took me back to another time when there was that sensitivity, that code of propriety that governed the way people danced in public. The knees and feet didn't stray too far from each other, the feet weren't raised too high off the ground, elbows often returned to the dancer's sides. Yes, the dancer still danced to and appreciated the rhythm, and it was possible within these boundaries to display skill and share enjoyment. There was a quiet synergy between the dancer and the music. Opportunities for Maticoor Night type displays had always existed but we understood that there was a time and place for them. Now, it often seems that dancers are out to outdo, for everyone to see, the excesses that the guttural songs and music urge.

"Adolescents' rite of passage
Is their prowess in throwin' waist."

The poet concludes,

"We people of the Trinity
Must humble, pray and seek God's face,
Try to turn from we wicked ways,
If we want Him to heal this place."

There are people who might not be comfortable with the concept of a God entity to whom we have recourse, to whom we can pray, and they should simply translate Mr. Wilkes' advice into a call for some honest introspection (God is in us already). Some people might have (or pretend to have) difficulty agreeing on what exactly are "wicked ways" but again, if we are honest, we can judge wickedness by its fruits.

The final "If we want Him to heal this place", says it all. Since God helps those who help themselves, this line with its "If" is of particular significance. The question remains, "Do we really want this place to be healed, or is the present crisis the not surprising outcome of decades of accumulated undervaluing, neglect of and disdain for the wellbeing of Trinbago and its people?

In High Mas I, David Rudder addresses Jah,

"On this lovely day when we come out to play and we come out to sway and we breaking away, some will say what they have to say, but only You know the pain we’re feeling.
Amen."

I don't think that he is condoning vulgarity but if there had to be an apology for our actions, I would borrow his words, since I believe that very often dissipation is a symptom of and temporary fix for underlying emptiness and pain. Why else would we be hell bent on 'breaking away'(breaking away from what?), 'freeing up' (freeing ourselves from what?), "waving like we just don't care" (don't care about what?) What is this discomfort, this pain that we must deny/defy/defuse? Is resorting to this exaggerated expression an attempt to flaunt in the face of our impotence, and against all the odds, a most potent aspect of our humanity? Is this the straw which we throw to our drowning selves? Is this how we prove to all detractors, ourselves included, that we are still here and very much alive? Is the preoccupation with sex and public displays of our sexuality a symptom of our upheaval and the loss of control over other aspects of our lives? Do we suspect that partying, sex and violence are the only arenas left to us in which we can give free expression to our creativity/frustration?

OR.....Why Guanaguanare doh just shut he big trap and leh people play deyself out here?! Tinginniki, tinginikki....De more dey try to do we bad is de harder we go wine in Trinidad?...

Thank you, Gene Wilkes.

"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare