Doctor Ent Dey [Song]

DOCTOR ENT DEY
Blakie (1965)

Doctor, please take this warning
Am giving you, and you better do something
I tired put this thing in your brain
But all I try is the bloody same
Me and you sit down and draft a plan
How easy we go trap these hooligans
But since the riot start back in the place
From that day I can't see the Doctor face.

Chorus:
Every day I ring where he living
The Doctor ent dey
I ring Governor House in the evening
The Doctor ent dey
Then I ring the White House
His secretary come to explain,
"I'm sorry, Blakie, the Doctor left this morning by plane."

Doctor, I find you getting on funny
I talking mih mind, believe the Lord Blakie
I believe is 'fraid you 'fraid
Of San Juan All Stars and Renegades
But remember, you is the leader
All you got to do is to pass an order
Before you see about your territory
You chartering plane and flying from country to country.

Dr Williams, take Lord Blakie advice
If you want Trinidad to be really nice
To stifle my conscience, that I can't do
Trinidad and Tobago depend on you
I doh want when I watch the daily paper
You talking and smiling with Nkrumah
Nk smiling... Why? He have cause
He seeing 'bout he country, you see 'bout yours.

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A Note From The Gull

After conspicuously evading public debate on the issue of the proposed smelter plants the Government finally noticed that things were "getting out of hand" and decided to respond. Better late than never, that's what I say, and with guarded optimism, I welcome the announcement made yesterday that there will be a public symposium on the issue.

Chatham residents believe that they have good reason for continued caution and will stay on alert.

Putting all grains of salt and cynicism aside, I want to believe that our Government will now seriously consider the concerns of the people.

On the matter of things getting out of hand, that has got to be the understatement of the century. Wasn't it the disregard for the citizenry that was getting out of hand and what of all the other runaway ills. We'd be lucky if proposed smelters were the only problems requiring urgent attention. Turn the spotlight also on all the existing manufacturing plants and business places pumping poison into the air and flushing untreated waste into our waterways. Turn the spotlight also on all the farmers who are quietly continuing to douse our food with chemicals. Turn the spotlight also on all the brutalized people who don’t have a clue about how to rescue themselves, and are transferring it all to the children. Things are certainly getting out of hand, but most Trinidadians still care. We still fighting here.

So...
Doh out de flambeau
Doh leggo de bois
Fight on for prevention
Doh settle for cure.
---Guanaguanare

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

Thank you Blakie.

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

One Day [Song]

Uploaded by cool4rocknroll
ONE DAY
Performed by Natasha Wilson
Arranged by Leston Paul
Introducing Miss Natasha Wilson
T&T 1987

This love affair we had for the summer
Things ent the same way like when we start
Because of your neglectful behaviour
The time has come now for we to part...ah-ah
You shoulda never let the ways of evil
Dominate your soul and rule your mind
You must always remember when people treat you gentle
You don't treat them unkind, boy...

One day, ah tell you, one day,
One day you’re going to call [Not certain about this word]
One day, ah tell you, one day,
One day you’re going to fall
One day you’re going to cry
"My God, the well run dry!"
You took me for granted, now we are parted
Like the old people say, "You go pay for it one day."

You haunted now like a fish out of water
Broken to tief, you ent have a dime
The dollar only work out to a Yankee quarter
Because you never learn to be thrifty at no time...ay-ay
There was a time when money was no problem
You had no reason to neglect me so
You listen to your crooked partners and them
Spend, spend, spend, spend
Easy come, easy go, boy...

One day, ah tell you, one day,
One day you going to fall
One day, ah tell you, one day,
One day you going to fall
One day when all is lost through no fault of yours, of course
You will remember I tried to warn you
But like the old people say, "You go pay for it one day."

I give you my undivided attention
Anytime you call, I never say Nay...ay-ay
On top of that I give you so much affection
I stood beside you every step of the way...ah-ah
If anyone at all had told me that you
Would ever be so mean as now I see
I woulda tell them straight and plain, "That ent true.
No, not my dou-dou." but now they laughing at me.

Boy, one day, ah tell you, one day,
One day you going to call
One day, ah tell you, one day,
One day you going to fall
One day when love is gone and you're left there all alone
The evil that you do comes back to haunt you
Like the old people say, "You have to pay for it one day."

In the beginning you were a treasure
I couldn't find no fault with you at all
Now you jealous, wicked and spiteful as ever
Ah hope you see the writing on the wall...ah-ah
You better learn to practice what you preaching
If you want to be held in high esteem
Honesty and truth --------- teaching
Put more interest in and forget your evil scheme.

So, one day, ah tell you, one day...oy-oy-oy
One day you going to call
Boy, one day, ah tell you, one day,
One day you going to fall
One day you're going to find you can't get me off your mind
That's when you'll wake up, too late to make up
Like the old people say, "You have to pay for it one day."

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!

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"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

Universal Aboriginality

Cuban petroglyph

To say that I have aboriginal ancestry is to proclaim that I belong to the human race. Every single one of us is descended from an aboriginal. On the physical level, DNA markers are obsessive recorders and guardians of our genetic roots and meanderings. If, for my survival, due to the introduction of competition or threat, I must lay claim to a particular geographic location or cultural identity, I must also admit to myself that this aboriginality as location is also temporary, not written in stone, not bequeathed for eternity.

Most of us originally came from elsewhere. If the centre of human genesis as we know it thus far, was located in Africa, then according to our logic, African peoples who still occupy their lands are the only genuine aboriginals. Even so, the connection to land, although a source of real comfort and rootedness, does not lock us into infinitely attaching ourselves to one location. There are many original peoples who have over time made voluntary and epic migrations from their “aboriginal” lands. We tend to think of diaspora in terms of specific ethnicities and geographic points. More interesting to me is the psychic diaspora which is part of man's experience over time and for many is remembered only as a bridge irreparably burnt.

I speak of this in order to delink and liberate the concept of aboriginality from physical location. I myself, own no land and feel no desire to reclaim the specific lands that were “taken” from my ancestors. It does not mean that I do not feel the loss but this comes NOT from my not having access to the land of my ancestors. It comes simply from not having access to any land which I feel is the right of every human being who is a citizen of this earth. I do not believe that land should be owned privately and in perpetuity by anyone and that includes myself. I will return to the topic of rights to land at a later point but I mention it here only because that is often the starting point for discussions about aboriginality.

I instead want to put aboriginality before land. I want to put it before everything else by which we allow ourselves to be distracted. Long after religion and philosophy had been trying to convince us of the brotherhood of man, science confirmed that we did in fact all come from the same place, that we had the same parents. That this discovery was not met with greater universal rejoicing is an indication of our amnesia. I want to go back to the Guacara, to remember the place where there was no doubt that we were ONE.