By Mighty Sparrow
Arranged by Art DeCoteau
Album: "Vanessa" - T&T 1985
The reason why you can't get no foodstuff to buy, the Minister say
No more foreign exchange
We cannot afford to import goods from abroad, no money to pay
No more foreign exchange
All the money in the Treasury done
Nobody ent know wey you spend it on
But money went out for everything except for what people really need
Priorities really mixed up indeed.
Sugar and flour [No money for dat]
Split peas and butter [No money for dat]
Oil and vinegar [No money for dat]
A million that they could throw way at ISCOTT [Money dey for dat]
The royalties from the petroleum industries dwindling away
I pa fini l'argent
So is six percent we offer dem civil servants, is all we could pay
Beta, paisa na gaa
Presently we need more money than Dumas
That's why we go raise on your income tax
We have the Hall of Justice and the Financial Complex we building for you
Don't forget to pay Inland Revenue.
Medicare attention [No money for dat]
And old age pension [No money for dat]
School feeding programme [No money for dat]
Sodeteg, Higgs and Hill and Wimpey [Money dey for dat]
[The money done. No money. The money done. No money]
The DEWD workers now have to be digging horrors, you cut down their pay
Pressure without warning
And when the country depended on the lil subsidy, you took it away
Oh lord, people bawling
Electricity, phones and water rate
Gone so high, poor people straining to pay
Then the hospital is no better although you impose a health surcharge
Casualty like PTSC garage.
Nurses and doctor [No money for dat]
Street lights and water [No money for dat]
Houses for the poor [No money for dat]
Two hundred million for horse in the country [Money dey for dat]
Your ------- and your household appliances cannot be replaced
No fuss, buy spare parts
I hear the latest news is for Christmas we own local foods we go get to taste
-------------- Old Oak and Vat
Still with all ah that the money is strong
The only thing is that you spending it wrong
Wastage is evidently displayed on land, in the sea and air
We complaining but nobody ent care.
To help agriculture [No money for dat]
And airport run proper [No money for dat]
A deep water harbour [No money for dat]
But to pay Immigration to deport Grenadians [Money dey for dat]
[The money done. No money. The money done. No money...]
Source: The lyrics posted on this blog are often transcribed directly from performances. Although it is my intention to faithfully transcribe I do not get all the words and I have a knack for hearing the wrong thing. Please feel free to correct me or to fill in the words that I miss by dropping me a message via e-mail. I'd be forever grateful. Thanks in advance!
.............................................................................................
A Note From The Gull
Thank you, Mighty Sparrow!
Such is the insidious witchery of our music. The Mighty Sparrow saw nothing incongruous in discussing matters of grave import to a beat that is so sweet, so deliciously infectious that it can, with its little finger, raise your troubled self smiling to your dancing feet.
The year is 1985 and I believe that the complaint has not lost its relevance. He complains of mixed-up priorities and I agree though I don't think that the problem is unique to Trinbago, as all over the world access to money or credit has encouraged cultivating unsustainable lifestyles and economies. Even if we think that we have an unlimited supply of money, we still need to focus on the things that in a crisis, money would not be able to buy in the short term. These include, among many others, the following:
- a well supported, highly valued and defended food production system with crops always awaiting harvest and an initiative to make tree crops, for example, freely available to citizens via subsidised plantings on remote and urban state lands. In Trinbago, we are blessed to have growing conditions that favour the growth of a wide variety of food crops.
- a population with realistic/sensible expectations and approach to life - a culture of respect for the environment
- a culture of reverence for life and especially the lives that are most vulnerable - a well supported, highly valued and defended health system with a holistic approach to the maintenance and restoration of good health
- a well supported, highly valued and defended system of arts and crafts promotion and support - a completely reconsidered approach to educating our children and their educators
- a peacekeeping/civil order service with more demanding/sophisticated recruitment requirements and enhanced remuneration scheme that will eventually supplant the existing system of policing
- an emergency response service that can be deployed internally as well as to other countries requiring aid and a system of warehousing emergency supplies including food, water, medical and temporary shelter supplies
- an efficient mass transit system that will reduce the need for private transport and all the serious complications for human health and safety and the environment arising from the number of vehicles now on the roads.
- an intelligence and feedback processing service that actively monitors how the various sectors are being managed, that solicits and welcomes feedback from managers and citizens on all problems being encountered. This service also functions as a referral centre, directing complaints/suggestions to the relevant managers and always with the documentation to provide evidence that managers were informed and were well aware of problems in their jurisdictions.
Have you noticed that most of these do not involve the erection of ostentatious structures but are more about realising our potential by developing minds and attitudes? I can think of many more but if you have additional ideas, why not add them in your comments?
"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
4 comments:
Brilliant blog!
Akalol,
Thank you so much for visiting and blessing me with your comment. Coming from you, with your beautiful blog/s, this is a wonderful compliment. The composers, musicians and performers whose works are presented here must be given all the credit. Without them, this blog and I would be sad and empty shells. All the best to you and yours for the New Year!
Blessings
Akalol, Now this is what happens when one has got music on the brain. I forgot to accept your praise on behalf of the artists, poets, photographers, writers and others who have also shared their works through the blog. What an oversight!! Forgive me people!!
Blessings
No problem Guanaguanare and I really enjoy the music and the lyrics of these classics. Thanks for presenting them and they should never be forgotten.
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