War Tunes And The Price Of Peace

This episode is a sneak peek into the kind of conversations our Patreon community enjoys every week — deeper discussions, cultural analysis, and unfiltered reasoning about current events through a Caribbean lens.

We explore:

• How global tensions can impact small nations like Trinidad & Tobago
• The connection between oil, economics, and everyday life at home
• Kaiso as social commentary — from Lord Blakey to Bunji Garlin
• The lasting message behind “nobody wins a war”
• The recent Calypso Monarch controversy
• Kenny Phillips joining the conversation to share his side of the story regarding Helon’s muted mic

As always, the focus is culture, context, and conversation — not noise. We reason through history, music, economics, and media, and reflect on why the microphone still matters in shaping public dialogue.

If you enjoy thoughtful, culturally grounded discussions like this, Patreon is where we go even deeper.

Click the link in my bio for the full episode.
#coriesheppardpodcast

Transcript

Opening, Copyright, And Patreon

Corie 1:30

I talked to Chicanal for so long. I feel like I'll have my nice with them now.

SPEAKER_08 1:47

So you're going to get too. They keep in me best and they fall in command up. Like I want you to send your collections.

Wartime Headlines And Visa Jokes

Trump, Iran, And Peace Claims

Why Play War Kaiso Today

Corie 2:03

Welcome to episode. Welcome to this episode of the Quarry Shopper Podcast. Welcome back to everybody who's been listening. Welcome to all the new listeners. I come together sample today where this podcast starts off and what it's like, right? For all the people who saying we don't play the music and we just talk about songs, I want to let you know that when you see this episode and you see a big copyright strike next to it, there is a reason we don't play these songs while people here. You can't play it, YouTube and then stop it. But I want to let you know that every week without fail, I have an episode like this going up on Patreon. So please, the best way to subscribe, the best way to um it's support the channel. And people is asking about things and what we could do and them kind of things, there are a few ways you could support the channel because again, the quality by affordable imports is nice. The quality of the research that's going on to the episodes is nice. The quality of the guests that we're booking is nice. But it ain't free. It's not free. And the cost adding up, and we had to make sure that the people who behind the scenes particularly could get paid and everybody could be happy with this thing, and we could continue. According to the man from Diary CEO, we want to continue to get the best, the get best guests. How is it the best, the guests that you want and make sure that? So I'll tell you now that Patreon is one of the best ways. I want to thank everybody who's been supporting our Patreon page and been pledging. You had to consider the Patreon a donation, you know. You will get episodes much earlier than everybody else. You will get some exclusive episodes. And for the purposes of things like my visa and my freedom and so on, anything that I say about war and any current affairs will be kept behind a paywall. Well, they can't just screenshot me and say this and say that and say the other, not doing it, and not doing it. Whatever they want to be the code, it can be the code behind a paywall. We're not doing that. And we come to talk about things today because out of the blue, I home and I just started here bombing. What is happening? Well, I pointed words carry, but the men say oil Caribbean. All three can alan says, all in carri com. Why, why? Is a free world is a zone of peace. So let me tell you what I know and what I don't know, right? And why I ain't sure about. For the purposes of this episode, we will play a lot of kaiso and calypso and sooker related to war. If it's wartime, we wartime. If we supreme leaders say we wait, we can't say supreme leader. If our leaders say it's wartime and we're supporting war, we supporting war. One ban, one sound. One ban, one sound. Let me read from the least credible source I could find, right? The Vox, you know, I mean I could go with BBC and them guy thing ball, you know, me and the reading. They say, early Saturday, the United States and Israel launch an attack on Iran. Wait, my visa. Anybody see my visa anywhere? What is my visa up to date? Early Saturday, the United States and Israel launch an attack on Iran, marking the start of what appears to be a far-reaching and open-ended war. President Donald Trump said the operation was meant to eliminate an imminent threat, destroy Iran's missile and naval forces, and ultimately encourage Iranians to overthrow the government. He later said the strike had killed Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It's the right pronunciation somewhere in the environment, or what I just say, right? Along with other senior regime figures. Iran has since responded with retaliatory missile attacks on US Israeli and Allied targets across the region. After weeks of military buildup, all signs point to a campaign far larger than the recent recent clashes. So it's looking like we back there. Uh the presidents who um the the the the the the people who have supported this president openly since the days of when they say sleepy Joe and the fed up a Biden and all them kind of thing. A lot of and I talk when I'm talking about people, right? Well, you gotta understand that my experience and knowledge is very, very limited. I'm I'm I'm I'm very much a Caribbean person and I have a Caribbean perspective. You know what I mean? I I don't have a world perspective and not up to date on all the world affairs and all them things. So all you gotta take my word when I say the people, I always mean us. I always mean us at home and abroad. I always talking to Caribbean and West Indian people. Yes, that is weak. But the people who I know who is West Indian who supporting Donald Trump, should I use fake names to protect the innocent? You know what I mean? I could do one of them reenactment things like when Netflix series do say the names and so on or things to protect the innocent and we change the story. This is a fictional, you know. This podcast is for entertainment. Don't forget that, right? But I know that people say the president and he's coming in and he was doing wars, and he brought less people than Obama, and he doing all and I find in that the Joe Rogans and the Andrew Schultz of this world and the Caribbean people who are supporting the Trumpers of this world, they're starting to um they're starting to have a little less and less ground to stand on because one of the things that was said was that all wars would end. But I guess one of the ways to end war is to end war. You had to find all the warriors in the world and start war with them and then end them and then we could end the war. So maybe in the third term, right? Maybe in the third term. The third and the fourth term is when we're gonna really end the war. You see, after years of condemning the Iraq war and even branding himself the peace candidate, he has now embraced the kind of regime change conflict that he long criticized. Allies once praised him for avoiding new wars, including politicians like JD Vance, while contrasting him with past hawks like Hillary Clinton, who infamously backed the Iraq war as a senator. That record now collides with a war whose goals and consequences remain deeply unclear. These are the words of let me find the author of this because all I'm gonna do is take me down. This is written by Vox Staff, Vox Staff, that is who write that, right? I didn't ride that. I just try to read, I basically Google what this Iran war is about because all I do week to week, when you talk about these episodes, right? Any people on Patreon didn't join these, we really just start them back this year when we get some um some time to recover from the carnival. And I I enjoy talking about the current affairs of this country, but to tell you the truth, what I enjoy more is really just coming and play kaiso. So the war had nothing to do with this about oil and who block hormones and the straight taunt and these people can't get a oil out. Whatever it's about is really an excuse for me to play kaisu that is associated with war. So we will hear some kaisu and some soap through this episode that is war-related. It's simple. I have no opinion on these matters. Wait, let me talk to young people for a while, right? I apologize, only but my Glenn rays. Let me just talk to youths for a while, right? Uh I hear a lot of rhetoric about the about our heroes, right? And only make me into a Marshall Montano defender for the last two or three weeks. I had to be I fighting for Marshall like if I checked over the last few weeks. Because we have a short, short memory, you know. We have a short, short memory. And the Garland is one of the I hear people talking about Bungie Gar. And you know, this country have a contempt for people who in who get enormously successful at anything. Because I don't know if only understand what used to happen in places like PSA and the Oval. When these kind of tunes singing, when when and and for people who don't remember, right? I know I relating it to the war and the bomb thing, but people might remember that there was a time when and I was working in talking the time, I was working on Park Street, and randomly, and I say randomly because up to now I don't know, they lost that like the Brent Thomas thing. But what Brent's name again, they file. I don't know where this happened, but they had a point in time where for maybe about two or three weeks, or was it that long? They just had random bombs going off in dust bins in this country, right? And for people who was a wrong only gonna remember this immediately when I talk about it. I I might be mistaken, I know memory's not the greatest, but I know that a lady would have lost her limb. If it's not her arm, it's her leg. Uh I think it was a vendor who was sitting down close to one of them steel bins they had in tongue. And that one was in downtown Port of Spain, but bombs was going off in the in the bins around Port of Spain. I want to say it was like about four or five bombs, right? Random days, random times, you had no way of knowing. I was working in TST on Park Street at the time. And I remember the chaos that used to ensue every time one of them bombs went off, and you had to try to get home. Keep in mind, I leave in from Park Street to drive right St. James, right? I used to walk up, I used to park somewhere kind of opposite Vincent Street, I think HR had a car park there in TST. I had to walk there and get my car, and it could take you two hours, two and a half hours to leave from there to reach home. I heard up till this morning, Blazer and them was talking about the traffic congestion that could be caused by any little thing that happened out of the ordinary, including the weather, including the rain, it could lead to a situation where there's complete gridlock in tongue and nobody can get anywhere, nobody can't get home. I know people, some people will remember them days with them bombs going off. It was scary, you walking through tongue, you're frightened to pass too close to a bin. It was a real thing. If I'm not mistaken, I know that episode here with Gary Abud. Salute to Gary Abud from Moda Live, right? I still dealing with that carnaval flu, right? Only bear with me. But salute to Gary Abut. Gary Abud, I believe one of them bombs went out right in front of Moda Live on Frederick Street at the time. And Galen, as he used to do, uh well, as he's still doing, come out with a song like this, which uh for us when we was young, right? Political commentary and social commentary to we had mean bada bah jamba jamba j. It was them kind of thing, it was choked that say, This thing called PM, kind of this thing called UNC, his one bag at his name. So mama, guy, you want me. Remember tune like that? That what we know was so when Bungie coming with tune like this and and singing about things were really happening, what people feel it. When he's when he when the man said the grung control cann't he's not joking, you know, because he's talking about things that are affecting people on the ground. And boy, when he sings this song, all you don't understand how the ground used to shake when Bungie Garland comes out on a stage and you just hear asylum kick up this.

SPEAKER_05 15:46

The call for the bomb, the call for the bomb, the explosion, the call for the bomb, the call for the bomb for the explosive, it's the go and so we're going up so we're going to go, stop, we're going up so the one big gets close and get the same down. Anybody feel anything type one, four, three, two, one, up, down, stop a run, up, top.

Bomb Scares Memory And Bungie

Peace Over War And Gary Griffith

US Alignment Fears And Venezuela

Oil Dependence And Tough Tradeoffs

Construction Slowdown And ReadyMix

Corie 16:47

Listen, I'm calm down, my blood pressure, my blood pressure. So Lucy and bungee girl and Alfred, my blood pressure to go get too high here and go finish this episode, you know. Because taking my back to the time. When bungee says start to run. Run, you know. It had no, you know, the days, it had some people in fed now. Like, only remember last year when party was going on. One of the things in part of Marshall Party campaign was a woman who vexed and telling people, listen, calm down, you're rag hitting me, you know. I mean, relax, relax. And I see social media taking both sides of that. But let me explain something to you. When you was in the PSA, and when you say start to run, take off, you know, because other than that, it's trample them enough. Dangerous and beautiful times. Any wise words are trick and all, it was horrible. It was beautiful. It was amazing. It was the words. That was that was what Fed was about. But people who was there, take take your time and and flash back to them moments when them bomb was going off in tongue and what that feels like and what I look like. And spare a moment. I know I'm joking about the thing, and this thing is not a joking matter because uh I am a man of peace. I don't understand the things of war. I hear people talk about war and talk about human life as collateral damage, and them things just make me uncomfortable. You had to understand a little bit about who I am, right? I'm a very peaceful, non-confrontational person. Maybe I'm naive to believe that we could have a world of peace and a world without war and them kind of thing. And so let's a Queen's Flip, right? I saw Queens Flip out an interview yesterday with Gary Griffith. And you know, sometimes it's take foreigners to come in a country and interview some people for them to just talk normal. Because I have not seen an interview with Gary Griffith in a long time where he just talked normal. I don't understand this um this thing with our politicians and aspiring and would-be politicians where he's had to talk to you in a kind of way, you know what I mean? I always look at Gary Gary. When he comes interviews, he's looked like he fed up of the interviewee and the interviewer and the whole questions. He's looked like he fed up from the beginning. When he started like this, Gary Holface like from the beginning, from question one, like from how you're going, Gary, Gary's like. But with Flip, he was in a good mood. And so look at Flip. Flip knows how to get people in a good mood to do interviews. And I I say not to say I hear Gary talk about war and the tactics behind it, and the fact that he's internationally trained and he knows what war looks like and them kind of things. And I'm flashing back to a Friday some weeks ago where I was in the States and my family dung here, people dung here, everybody home. And news come to me as soon as I I I think I leave from DC to to Miami, and then I hear news about this Venezuela war thing, right? And you know, there's again some people who are because I I think at this point we could safely say that a Trump supporter is a UNC supporter, right? These two things go in hand. Wait, can I say that out loud? Can I say that in a minor out loud? They're going hand in hand. Everybody, everybody aligning themselves. Now is the Prime Minister aligning herself with the states, and the people who support the Prime Minister aligning themselves with her, so it's safe to say that is one accord, right? But these same people I know from our region who are vocal supporters of the of the Republican Party of the US, this iteration of the Republican Party, they tell me as a fool. They basically tell my boy you're stripping out, you don't know nothing about war and da-da-cha-cha-ta-cha-ta. And why would why would Venezuela attack Trinidad and da da da da da? And I'm I'm thinking to myself, but you know, I I find it's such a ridiculous notion that people could just dismiss with frivolity the concerns of people who saying, hey, why we getting myself involved in these people battle? Like, let's with them battle one another. And let me try and stay neutral or stay out and stay peaceful so that we don't get if if they were to retaliate, what is going to happen? But boy, they tell me as a damn fool. They say about you're the thing and you don't know nothing. And you know, you can't say too much, you can't you have about five sentences before you is a PM. If you go five sentences deep with any any people supporting the current uh administration and administrations, you have five sentences before they say about your PM. Yeah, you know, these PM and them. Where are you gonna do? Where you go to? Maybe I just had to accept that that is what it is. The counter-argument after sentence five is PM Corey. But when it's on the M, they they're telling you that you have no reason to be concerned about that, and the Prime Minister doing the right thing by aligning with the states because the states will protect us and himself in India, but you cannot a whole lot of nonsense was being said. But to think that there's no concern that a retaliation could come and affect us. And the the the thing about it is this we we uh there is an upside to aligning with the US. I don't want to be naive, I don't want to be stupid. We have an oil and gas problem in this country that. Plague in the economy. The economy is not going good, right? And it has nothing to do with the people who are in power or who were in power. The economy is not doing good because we're an oil and gas-dependent nation, regardless of what we want. I can come and talk about Kaiso and Soka and Calypso and all them things and all kinds of other exports. We're an oil and gas-dependent country. I think when I was looking at something, 80-something percent of our foreign exchange is coming from oil and gas. So when we run out of oil and oil, production low and gas price low, we are affected badly by it. And you see it in the society. You see it with the idea that CPEP workers went home or that the fines and the traffic thing went up. And I don't know if it would be any different if any other government in power, you know, because the government had to find some kind of way to make money to be able to just pay salaries, the recurring expenses. And one of the ways to make money is to when all they drive fast, or they go pay, right? You know what I mean? Take all the time and drive. And don't drive careless. By my definition. You could pay a couple thousand there too. So that's just the reality of it. So when I when I when when the discussion happened, these people that I'm fearful, I looking at the thing with Iran, right? What to me, I don't follow the news abroad and them kind of things enough to know what is happening and to see these things coming. But one of the things that I did see, it was just very strange to me, is people, Trinidadians who in Emirates and who in Dubai, because we have a good bit of Trinidadians working over in these places because of oil and gas, too. People are traveling and go and work in them places. I start to see people saying they're safe. I see people say, well, they're safe and nothing happening. I say, well, I say, when you go on Iran, what are you doing over this though? Why are you in Iran? Not realizing that the people who responding there in Dubai, then UAE and all these places. So so UAE is a separate place from Dubai. I mean, it's only foreign affairs too much and all the work with me. But the truth is, one of the responses I see from Iran is to attack US military bases in other countries. In other countries that was home, me and nothing to do with this war. I in Dubai, I enjoy my little. You know what I mean? I live in good, I'm gonna buy my little gold and my Lamborghinis and so on. And and according to Dave Chappelle, I am a little falcon mining and them kind of thing. And all of a sudden, US military bases getting bombed. So I just would like for people who were so adamant that this could never happen and Venezuela to remember the situation that was happening last year, late last year, where we facilitating radar to set up in Scarborough and rumored to have been facilitating placing um in stadiums throughout the country so man can have this thing and that in peace. What if the Venezuela at the time decided that hey, if Oli attack here, we're gonna respond by bombing military bases anywhere we could find it, anywhere in close proximity, we're gonna do it. But I mean, Oli must only know more than me, yeah. So Oli know in advance that Maduro was gonna have a rubber ding ding, a rubber ding ding and a sweatsuit and get walked through the airport over there. You know what I mean? Maybe maybe Oli had no better than me. So the I I just want to remind you of Bungie Garland's song, Look Out for the Explosion. And just remember what it was like in Tongue when dustbin was blowing up. And it is no comparison to YC in the Middle East over the weekend. Or no comparison to any war that we were to see over time. We're not ready for it. I am very nervous when we have leaders who posting and deleting statements basically saying, hey, because and again, I want to be clear that there's real benefit to aligning with the US, right? I could talk about some of that benefit today, but I just find if it was me, and maybe fairly right, fairly say the Prime Minister is the only one who carry com who are the balls. You could say that to come me, I have it. I can tell you that because I would I would uh the kind of support I giving you. I gave you support like them long time training, brah, not this new technology. Now I gain your support where you could just say I have one training, brah, yes, that's about it. She's gonna bongs. I know I I I can't do it, but she's come out and say, Ha, we with you. Any war, take down dictators, take down narco-terrorists, take I I I would have put a shortest statement out, and and and maybe I would have lose out on the benefits that can come to us and and will come to us from aligning with the US. Because one of the things that I sure about is that if we are oil-dependent, right? And we have a problem with both production and price. And 2028, from everybody who is any kind of expert or have any little bit of knowledge about the energy industry, is really our own one of our the only place where we have a little hope for the economy to rebound. And I just want to say again that two years of the government struggling to keep up with salaries to be paid, uh, negotiations getting pushed back further and further and further, more and more businesses, small, medium, and large, getting shut down. It's not an easy thing for government to manage. That is very, very difficult. And you see, them kind when man kind of accustomed to according to my boy Ninja from Christmas time, when Ninja say you work hard and you retire, you expire. And he say, if you're feeling for pork jobs for Christmas, eat what you want to eat. It's brandy and whiskey we're drinking, and every friend start to beat, spend your money. When you see people work their whole life and they're ready to cock up their foot, right? And they retire and they have money in their pocket now, they have money in their hand. And when they're looking to buy the brandy and whiskey, brandy and whiskey going up, and now all they could drink is punch on. And and now this can't even afford the punch and they start to not pay the bills and then the money running out. Those are things that are fertile grown. And I don't want to be the one who put in these things out there, but those are things that are fertile grown to see return of times like 1970 and 1990, which none of us don't want to see. We just want Galen to sing now about road man and thing. We don't want Galen sing no more bum song, no more. We don't want to, you don't want to live in that. We don't want to live through that. Some of these youths now, they're born after 1990, you know. 1970 was a kind of I born after 70, so it wasn't. I don't think of it the same way I think about the coup. When I was a child in the coup, I was frightened. I see it. I was living in St. James, so I see her. I could have seen a Bubaka and I'm the moss from down there, you know what I mean? You see, you can walk through tongue, you see the burning. We we identify things with the coup now that people born after 1990 will never be able to know. But as much as I want them to experience a Marshall and a Kurt Allen and a Eddie Charles and these fellas and them in PSA and a Steve Seeley, Ronnie Macintosh, super blue. I don't want them to experience what 1990 was like. But the issue is that when money starts to run out with people who are custom having money, you could, you could, you could lead to very, very serious times in any economy. That is not um That is not a welcome thing, and it's not anything that anybody should be hoping for. I worry sometimes about the political situation in the country where dependent on what side you on, it it feels as though sometimes people willing to see Trinidad and Tobago burn for the sake of their party looking good or getting back in power or whatsoever it might be. I find that that's such an unfortunate thing because it seems as though some people celebrate when we not looking good because they see we not looking good as them not looking good, and I'm not sure that I agree with that at all. But I always hear to play Kai, so you know me, you have no sort of heavy talk. One of the greatest war tunes we ever had. And it has some truth to this statement, but in our case today, most of it not true. So let me take it in and we go break it on after. This is a place where we always have love and space for icons like singing Sandra, you know, always have love and space where she rest in peace eternally. Let me tell you something. The notion that nobody wins a war is not true. The idea is that I mean, when you have war, it's devastating to the psychology of the people first and foremost, physically. I mean, you lose lives and all that. Your infrastructure and what it takes to build back a country, we forget, we forget, we forget, we forget what it was like when Tong Bandong. Again, I wouldn't like these youths to experience that because anybody who went through this could tell you, whatever age they was, what it felt like the first time you went in tongue after the coup. Axe around if you don't know, if you're now born and them thing, axe people, you know what I mean? Nothing wrong with not knowing. But find out when you get time, you know what I mean? When you walk and you see the drag mall bundung and don't dung by Salvatorian thing, they're building bundle. It's it's let me tell you something. That is not a nice thing, the police headquarters burn. And when it when when I say police headquarters, some people just think about our next building in front of a trick and I'll do the thing, right? And some people just think about the brand new sh- when I say brand new, it's shiny and it's new again. But we we rebuild that because a car bomb driving through the thing. This is not and I agree 100% with what's singing Sandra C. Them kind of thing. It it is not easy to build back the infrastructure in our country after a war. It is not cheap to do. The citizens are the ones who pay for it. And the um the civil engineers and so on benefit greatly, you know what I mean? So the idea that nobody wins, I don't know if that is true. Because the people who have large the people who could do large-scale building of cities and large-scale infrastructure, they benefit from war. The people who sell weapons and do them things, they benefit from war. The consultants and so on. Uh-uh, well, i when I hear Gary Griffith talk, he's a good man to go and say, well, hey, we have a war situation, we're gonna need your help. Although he says like they discard him, but he could benefit. If you have consultants, it's thinking it'll be cheap to pay Gary Griffith to say, well, what to do if Venezuela decide they go put some um bomb in some dustbin around tongue, he might be a good man to call. So the idea that nobody benefits from a war, I mean, I understand the sentiment, but we must we must we must we must look at it and realize that okay, there are people who benefit. And then you might be able to start to see, well, why people might support one thing. Look at the oil price. Every time we saw it in 1990 when they had um the Gulf War, uh, a war that I would say that, I mean, to be to be crude, we benefit from because when we we I don't know if people remember the late 80s and how deep the recession was, similar to now. And you have a war that's sustained for a little bit of time in the Middle East in particular. War in the Middle East has pushed up the oil price high, higher than war anywhere else because of how much oil that comes from them areas. And you we had to remember, we we live in a country where it's one temperature, right, through as rainfall, people start to go for hoodie and them kind of thing. When we lack in resources or we lack in energy, it will affect the country badly, right? But when you see in a cold country, let me use Russia as an example. If you don't have enough oil out, parts of China or parts of the um Nordic places like Norway and them for the Nordic is Norway, but them fellas are them up close to the North Pole. When you see winter coming in, and them anyhow oil and gas, you're talking about loss of life now. People are going to die if the winter comes in and they can heat the place and them kind of thing. So the the price of oil and gas is the world go by that. So we in a situation now where as an economy, and I see the old minister energy, Mr. Syotyong, and the and the new minister energy, Mr. Munilal, are back and forth again between two of them about thing, and he said, but blah blah blah. I don't know that if either one of them was in power, it would have been the same thing. Maybe the biggest difference between two of them, and I don't find these parties any different than one another, the biggest difference between the two of them is that one side say things a lot more directly and crudely than the other, the other have a little more diplomatic way. And somewhere along the line, the population start to believe. I hear young people talk like this a lot. You see, once you're real crude and you're willing to say things real direct, and maybe even cost two time when you're saying it on them kind of thing, too. They start to see you as real. You real, you're real. And once you say things in a diplomatic way, you fake. I don't know where this, I don't know where this notion comes from and where this rhetoric comes from, but that is what younger people in particular today believe. Not even younger people, not because in his states is the same thing. That is why they like Trump. Because Trump they say he says things crudely without consideration for he's not buttering up nothing then. And and we in a society now where we see in our politicians, mostly the one in charge, the head people it's called H-L-I-C. She's willing to say a lot of things in very direct, very, very crude ways, you know what I mean? And people buy into that because when you say it rough now, it becomes true. It's real. You're real. But the truth is the truth, the truth is the truth, whether you say it kindly or you say it rough and you say it crude, and but but the reality is that now we're in a situation where at least in the immediate future you could see where the oil price will benefit Trinidad and Tobago, and we will that go help. We pay some bills. We know we're in a rough patch here. We're in a rough patch. And the truth is that that that economic downturn that we're going through now, that I I'm not I am not seeing it, and the experts not seeing it. The people who, the people who just talk crude and just say things rough, them seem to be seeing a way out of this thing, and they're according to them, nothing ain't wrong. Crime dung, the economy good, everything's smooth. But anybody watching it could tell you that we have a we have an issue. We're seeing it again with several businesses. I was watching, the boker shutting down, Hagenda shutting down location. Well, town today shutting down, but here they were just running across the road. Like things good in town restaurant for some reason. You know what I mean? Yes in peace to Shamel. But reading from the papers again, ready mix shut down a logical move. This from Vishana Pagu from The Express. President of the Joint Consultative Council for the Construction Industry, Fazir Khan, believes that Trinidad Siemens Limited decision to shut down ReadyMix was an attempt at portfolio optimization and one which has wider implications for the construction sector. In an email sent to the Express's letter to the editor, Khan noted that over the last decade the concrete concrete ReadyMix market in TNT became crowded and highly competitive. These other players, he said, are Kusals, Alice Khan Jr., Sami Namalko, Advanced ReadyMix, GEML, Lutch Missing, and other small contractors. This has inevitably compressed margins, particularly for large integrated operators carrying the fixed cost of multiple plants, a sizable truck fruck truck fleet and quarrying operations. In such a commoditized business, selling prices are driven down towards variable costs, leaving limited room for an integrated group like TCL to earn an adequate return on capital. Let's talk about that for a little while, right? A lot was said there, right? More players come into the market, margins will be compressed, right? He's trying to say that it's not as profitable because you could get it from anywhere. But the truth is, commodities like cement or concrete, right? If you're mixing concrete, is commoditized. Commodities always produce uh prices how they will compete. That is the reality. There's no differentiating factor. They will they would do one man go tell you, nah, man, because cement better or concrete better than the all of them getting in the same place. So I'm not sure that there's a reasonable argument that could be made to say one set of concrete is markedly different as a brand than the other set of concrete, especially when you paint up the building nice. So he said again, TCL have more overheads than some of the other people, maybe, but again, you're concerned as a business. And uh he said that the TCL's move looks less like a retreat forced solely by rising costs and more like a portfolio optimization. Well, he could say that. You see, this is this is what I mean when I say because there's there's there's there's a risk to the party in power to accept or accept a rhetoric out there that since only all kinds of businesses closing down. It's not necessarily true either, but there's a risk for them to pro they have to protect their reputation. So this little looking like a reputation protector for me. Because one of the reality is that rising costs also met by one of the things I'm not seeing him here saying is that the construction sector slowed down. There's not as much conceived here. I want to lie into it. Khan explained that this means exit exiting a structurally low margin downstream segment to concrete on a higher return core cement production. From a shareholder return and investment standpoint, this is a rational reallocation. So in other words, he's trying to say it has nothing to do with local conditions, is rationalization. But I don't know if you could reasonably make that argument. The truth is that when the economy in downturn, which it is now, regardless of what we want to say and who we want to, how we want to politicize it for to increase benefit or or reduce any damage, that economic downturn, one of the first things that will slow down in any economic downturn is construction projects. Because construction projects, the return is typically long run. If you want to build a house to rent now, it's gonna take you six months to build. And if you use the contractors that build my house, it's gonna take you 14 years to finish. So the return on that investment, you're not seeing that till 2095. It's as a long-term investment. And I just talking about a house to rent. Imagine you're gonna build a hotel. One of them um sandals or whatever deal they want to make. If them fellas and they want to build that now, the return, the first time you sell in a room in that hotel will be could be years after you break ground and spending money outside. That's the reality of construction projects. When the economy is uncertain, nobody wants to get into nothing like that. Only notice this talk about sandals and the I hear about that in a long time. The last time I hear about sandals was from a gentleman by the name of Juvies Wanaha. Him on the podcast the other day. He goes tell you a little bit about that when you see that. Oh, and just so let you know that that's on Patreon already, right? One of the ways to see the episodes really is to subscribe to the Patreon. We need money out. We in the same economic downtown as everybody else. So we had to make sure we don't end up like Hagendas and the Bocus and um and TCL and things. We don't want to be in a situation where they had to shut me down. You know what I mean? I might be as lucky as Lead and them in the bokers to open back some weeks after. And fellas and them know business better than me, you know. I want to remain open. So the truth is, we we in a world now where we have a war in the Middle East. From the responses you're hearing from the Middle East or from Iran in particular, it looked like, you know, when you lash me first and I lash you back and I tell you I ain't taking that, I'm not taking that. It's looking like one of them situations where we will be in that for a while. The Venezuela thing, Diana Wimper, you know what I mean, Robert Ding Dings and so on went up the road and that was the end of that. But this war looking like something that could sustain. And for as long as it's sustain and the oil price and the gas price end up high. Despite what singing to Andrew said, Trinidad and Tobago stands to benefit. And while we benefit from it, the money that comes going to come into the economy at this point in time could be some money that stabilizes rough patch and this economic downturn that we're going through. I guess subsidized where you have to subsidize, pay your recurrent expenditure and so on, and maybe even follow through on some more political promises and see how those things come back up. So don't be surprised if this was sustained for a long time and it had no end to it. That you start back hearing about talk about what will happen to Bago and Sandals and all them kind of thing. You know what I mean? Don't have the radar already, we need our all-inclusive resort now to be to finish up. To finish up the dead, you know what I mean? The island will look nice now. Two three radar, an army base, and an all-inclusive resort. I want to come off for things like this. I want to stay here too long. I want to tell all about my week, you know. Usually the the format for this is where I start by talking about what happened over the course of last week, where I was, what it is I do, and them kind of thing. But boy, let me tell you something. Linda make a child who likes to talk, you know. Linda make a child who like to talk. So sometimes they talk this ge. I would like to let you know that you may or be may not be recorded right now, so don't say nothing to incriminate yourself. Don't say nothing to jeopardize.

SPEAKER_10 50:04

I have concern I have concern incriminating myself.

Corie 50:08

Don't say nothing to jeopardize no board positions or no radio station positions or not. Not by me.

SPEAKER_10 50:14

Well, I I have but I've done nothing to do anything like that. No, you sure?

Corie 50:20

I am perfectly sure. So I was just about to tell people, right, that I went to a show over the weekend, Simi D Trini. Salute to Simi D Trini, right? And I'm I met a gentleman for the first time I ever see him, a gentleman by the name of Helan Francis, right? You know him? Right, right, right. You ever hear him or you get you didn't get to hear him? Uh I'm heard of him. I'm both with him already in him. I'm sure you have. I'm sure you have. Yeah. So let me get on to this now, because I'll tell you, I was here last week and I was talking about the whole lineup of things that happened with the with the Kaiso this year. Where I see certain Caledonians who I think had great songs. Like I told you, I feel there's no world I could see where there's a semi-finals that Queen Victoria couldn't gain, Mr. Shock couldn't gain, Chucky couldn't gain, Matics couldn't gain. And all I know, all on the octave to me, I know his. I know as I hear his song and I know his ability to perform. So when I see what happened in his semis, my first assumption is boy, somebody making sure nobody bad talk any government any in the calypso. And then when we fast forward to finals night now, and I see the one man who could bad talk the place because the the cat tell me I come in the win last year, eh? I see he he well, I don't know, Mike get muted, stream get muted. I know that technical boost enough, so mean go understand. But then people sorry, people say that they see on WAC now. Because while I watching it on Facebook, uh TTT stream, I see everybody in the comments say WAC still carrying it. But then I see I see you I see you going viral and thing. I see you and Aaron going viral. It looked to me like you come to tell you come to tell them, hey, that's what we say we're mutant. That's what you tell them, I thought we say we're mutant, Helon. That's what you said.

SPEAKER_10 52:10

Wow.

Corie 52:16

What does he say? What does he say? Because I didn't even realize what you come on the screen, you know.

SPEAKER_10 52:21

Well, yeah, I I saw the thing going around and say, Ah man, official. An official came to tell Aaron and the gala that we just muted it was like so that is not what you say.

SPEAKER_14 52:42

So this thing is no sir. Oh, sir, how one one, let me let me let me let me analyze.

SPEAKER_10 52:50

I won. How could I mute how could I mute TTT's audio? How? Well, I don't know. First, let me watch that.

Corie 53:01

You you you this stream does not come from one place. Your stream is yours and TTT is theirs, or all that's work. Yes, yes, sir. Okay.

SPEAKER_10 53:09

I have my own cameras, TTT have their own cameras. Yeah, um, we get a feed from the audio system from Frank uh Agarat from Rentham. Right. Right? They have their own system. I have my own system. Okay. Okay. So I was I was leaning over the um, I was leaning over the railing in front of the stage.

SPEAKER_14 53:29

Right.

SPEAKER_10 53:30

After I finished, I was the host originally.

Corie 53:33

That's the host on Waxstream, right? You so you were on Waxstream before Iran and then came on.

War Prices, Energy, And Rebound

SPEAKER_10 53:38

Right. I was the MC, I was the announcer. Okay. Because Arana and Miguel didn't reach yet. Right? Okay. So I did the open, I interviewed um Ken Simmons, I interviewed Kes. Thing think thing, nice. So when they come and I get a chance to relax, I am watching the show.

SPEAKER_14 53:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_10 53:58

Because I have horses in the show.

SPEAKER_14 54:01

Cool.

SPEAKER_10 54:02

I'm looking at I'm looking at my my horses in action. So, mom, when he's loaded on, it was on second to last or something. Right? So um, during Elan's performance, or just at the end, I get a text on the phone saying TTT's audio was muted or cut or something. Right?

SPEAKER_14 54:28

I like what people could do that.

SPEAKER_10 54:32

Why? Why would they even why? You know what I mean? So I got I was I got kind of emotional and I went to Iran and Iran was telling him, oh, we are live. I said, but I know I make it live. I just want to sit on you. You live, yeah? We are live, we are live. Like, yeah, I had something to say. And I said, I said, they muted Elon's audio. And I I think I said TTT muted Elon's audio. Right. But we don't mute anybody, we play all Kaisos on what all Kaisos that we played.

SPEAKER_14 55:17

So you have I was kinda angry that that's what I said. And I was kinda angry that somebody would even try to you know because it doesn't make any sense. Right, right.

SPEAKER_10 55:31

You know, because we heard the song, we heard the song. And all the people who call it up my name would i mute, where thing they get to hear Elon from.

Corie 55:40

Well, that's true. That's I didn't understand that part because the truth is when I switch over, well, two things. When I switch over, I was able to catch the Anna Elon performance as well as the next person who came because she started off muted on TTT as well. But I think that the recording that went viral of his song now, that so many, I mean, it's become the most popular Calypso in the carnival, that is from your stream, no, so yes, sir.

SPEAKER_10 56:05

You could see the whack logo, bigger the top. Yeah. So I could not understand how I become personal and grata and it's my feed you watching. You know what I'm saying?

Corie 56:16

No, well, you see, when you watch the video in isolation, you was there, right? So you see the whole picture. But when you watch the video in isolation, I was telling you, I and all record last week, and I find it look away because it looked as though. Now, if I know it was you, I would have probably think differently, because I don't think Aaron will tell you. I just thought somebody came and and and Aaron was basically saying, no, no, no, no, no. We we play all Kaisos here. We don't stop anybody. As if somebody was teasing a lot of people.

SPEAKER_10 56:40

Aaron was teasing me. Okay, got it. Right? Got it. Because that's how that's how we behave. You know what I mean? We tease one another. Right. Because you just tell, boss, we're alive. And I like, yo, dog. I know you're live. But I mean, so and no problem, no problem with that. That's cool. But and and what make it worse, what make it, what compong everything, is that right after Rosalind Reed was the last competitor, my feed was blocked. Was and I got a message saying you have been blocked because somebody hijacking, hijacking your your your feed.

SPEAKER_14 57:22

Right.

SPEAKER_10 57:23

You understand? And I couldn't understand it, but it happened about last week, the week before, with stick fighting. Okay. So the person, okay. The YouTube people didn't understand what the stick fighting is about or whatever, whatever. No problem.

Corie 57:38

All right, they could strike it for violence.

SPEAKER_10 57:41

Right. Um, harmful and suspicious, harmful and suspicious. Okay, okay. No problem, no problem. All of that happened. But then I I see my all kind of MPs starting send around my feed. Some big ones for my prime minister started calling me out. Right. As I I knew what was going on, and it's censorship. And to tell it the honest should the song have anything to censor?

Corie 58:08

Yes, it's also the the the the police killing. It just seemed like people want these things to be disgusting.

SPEAKER_10 58:16

But how you could censor it in one place and not censor it in the next.

Corie 58:19

Well, this is how it looks, Kenny, because alright, if if it is look at look at the layman now, myself. I watch any feed, I see Aaron tell somebody something. Next time I see yours gone down, it look now like Aaron ain't want to listen, so you pull the plug on the whole YouTube after.

SPEAKER_10 58:34

Wow. Unless you write scripts, you know. That would make a fantastic movie.

Corie 58:44

Well, movies is be based on real life, you know. Movies is be based on some kind of some kind of truth, you know what I mean? Some kind of truth. Right, right.

SPEAKER_10 58:52

I it was just a it was a fantastic coincidence to tell you the other.

Corie 58:57

But from your experience in broadcasting, something like this, it I know you can't talk on behalf of TTT, but something like this could happen. It's stuff that really just could happen, or is more likely to be somebody else.

SPEAKER_10 59:08

Yes, it can happen. Things can happen. It was unfortunate that it happened during Elon's song. But the way all that happened, that could happen from someone, to tell you the honest truth.

SPEAKER_14 59:20

Right.

SPEAKER_10 59:20

And um because I was I've seen operations already and I've seen it happen like that. A cable go down, a unit drop out, and I'm not making no excuse for nobody, but things happen. Right. Things happen. You know, it's the electronics, things happen. It didn't have to be no sinister, hey, we're going to do this because we know. Because when you do that, you make the song more popular, people hear the song more.

Corie 59:50

So Well, agreed, agreed, which is exactly what happened. It it propelled the song. But I think for me is the is the chain of events because the the semifinals ain't look good, if you ask me. When I when I watch the semifinals, I'll say boy, like somebody afraid Kaiso.

SPEAKER_10 1:00:04

Right, I agree. I totally agree. I totally agree with that. Because I had songs that did not get into semifinals at all. And and I like, but I could judge Kaiso. I know Kaiso. This song deserves to be there. Unless this person makes a horrible mistake during the performance, this song and and it were four songs. Four of them couldn't make four horrible mistakes. You know what I'm saying?

Corie 1:00:29

No, they especially because of who the four is. Because even I keep forgetting to mention Dwayne O'Connor had a song about the Alexander the Great, which to me, and any given. I mean, if you say he didn't make the final, that's a different thing. But for I was there on Judging Night when Dwayne O'Connor, it was flawless. Chucky was Chucky was the best. Chucky was the best on the night in Dynasty.

SPEAKER_10 1:00:50

And Chucky was the best. Chucky was the best on the night in on the day and night in semifinals.

Corie 1:00:57

Well he makes.

Small Biz Closures And Reality Check

SPEAKER_10 1:01:02

Listen, I had all Sicily race. I had Kurt Allen. Right. To me, one of the better writers in the game. And people just nothing. And you know what amazes me is that things that happen, boops, and everybody just, he made I move on. We just move on. This has been happening for years. What are we going to do about that? Because it it's not gonna stop if we don't do something.

Corie 1:01:28

Yeah, agreed, agreed. Well, I mean, when we spoke, you had a suggestion that I really like. I find that that I wish I had seen something like that. Because for me, right, if I was anywhere in the political directory, I would have called in the I would have called him in the diplomatic center, it'd still have that and say, boy, come and sing a song. We apologize. You know what I mean? But I don't know. I know if that would make it worse because I've never seen a prime minister respond to a um to a power outage on a on a TV station like that. So clearly Kaiso have some effect in terms of people. And we hear stories like that before where you know Kaiso changed the way people see somebody who's going up for office or see somebody who's running their business or whatsoever it might be. So I suppose it's a thing to fear, but even Kurtz, as you say, Kurtz song to me, Kurtz song, there's no world where that's not in a semi-final. I I I can't see it.

SPEAKER_10 1:02:20

That's my point. That's my point.

Corie 1:02:22

So people take any suggestion we're going to bring all the people who didn't get any semis and do a show that happened, or somebody called me about that.

SPEAKER_10 1:02:31

A private, a private um promoter. Yeah, that could be nice. I don't know, no, no. It should be nice.

Corie 1:02:38

Yeah, because I find Kaisov as as fans, and that's something I tell somebody this week. Yeah, say, boy, somebody say, boy, Kenny Phillips. You feel I say, boy, one thing I show about with Kenny, I think Kenny, we could safely say that Kaiso has come first. Everything else I feel has come second. But I feel we deserve as fans, we deserve to see Mr. Shock and Hollando Octave on the same stage in attack. On the same stage, we deserve that. We deserve that. We deserve that.

SPEAKER_10 1:03:04

Sharing, sharing pick all. I thought that that would have been that would have been a great, great, great um selling point for semi-finals. Yeah, but I don't think I don't know the thing so far. Yeah, I don't know the thing. I don't know, I don't know. Immediately I thought, well, all right, this is it. You know, yeah, the thing is nice. The thing is nice. But nothing.

Corie 1:03:32

Salt. Well, you see, the problem might be, the problem might be if you put if you put Kurt, you put Shaq, you put Orlando, how much time you go mute the mic, you know what I mean? You could only mute the mic once.

SPEAKER_10 1:03:47

You know, you know, I am a I am a Pekong specialist, right? I just hit you, I hit you before you hit me. Yeah, yeah. So right now, man just hit me. Well, you come here to mute my mic, or all I can do is laugh and say, oh boy, well, boy, well, I'm gonna tell you.

Corie 1:04:09

You're gonna never escape it. You're gonna never escape it. That is you from now. You know, people gonna never handle it.

SPEAKER_10 1:04:16

I can handle it. I can I can definitely handle it. You know what I mean? Good, good, good.

Corie 1:04:21

Well, I'm glad. At least, at least, at least I have a different perspective and a different different side of the story. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_10 1:04:27

Time to come back. Somebody call me and say, oh, they cuss, somebody get cuss. Somebody, I'm gonna, a friend of mine say, I get so much cuss for you. Like, you get cuss for me. Why do? Wow.

Corie 1:04:43

Well, listen, they tell me they tell me I spend two weeks defending Marshall. Now they're gonna tell me I'm spending two weeks defending Kenny Phillips. So let me go and finish the recording. I don't want no problem. Yeah, I want to go back to the format where all ladies come and say everything all they had to say, and then all ladies take the blame, and I just say, well, all I do is ask questions.

SPEAKER_10 1:05:01

You don't you had to defend me.

Backstage: TTT Mute Controversy

Semis Snubs And Kaiso Fairness

Corie 1:05:02

Nobody had to defend me again. A hundred times. Exactly, exactly. Come up, Jr. Alright, boss. Will we go pick up? Thanks a million. All right, brother. Well, you hear it, you hear it from the man, right? You hear it from the man himself. We hear it from the man himself. Kenny say he had nothing to do with that. Aaron make the thing look away. We gotta call Eron a day to win it to see to see if we could find out where it has happened. Because Eron, Eron, Eron make the thing look away too. We gotta admit that Aaron it didn't look right when the Aaron put together, but who who knows? But I was telling you, as I start off that talking about meeting Helon during Simi D. Trini's performance. And let me tell him about it, right? Because I think Simi deserves some credit. Simi as a comedian, I I I like, and I realize I don't go see enough comedy shows, right? As somebody who loves stand-up comedy, I have seen. Some of the greatest. I've seen um I've seen Bilbo, who's one of the best comedians, but also people who talk uh directly about what affects any society and the their viewpoint on it. I've seen Dave Chappelle live as well, same thing. And um they don't shy away from the issues like because like for instance, Bilbo, did they I see Chappelle, Chappelle was drunk like a fish. So that didn't um it didn't go well. I'm gonna put it like that, right? It didn't go well, it didn't go well. But uh Bilbo was on point and it was before it was just on the last days of Biden and the early days again, Trump ushered into the thing. A matter of fact, the same um I want to say it's Marco Rubio, you know, frightened to call her name, but when we were there to see Chappelle, the building we were staying in was I think they had secured a whole couple floors because one of them was in the I believe it was Rubio at the time, was there for some speaking thing in Florida, right? Florida being a red state. And Bilbo spoke about Biden for a good 10-15 minutes. And 10-15 minutes of Bilbo is a lot. And talking about if, you know, we we talk about laughing at this man who is senile, if we had somebody who was senile and thinking we know And listen, the the the crowd was erupting with laughter. We was having a time because of course I don't know why I don't know that I care about politics enough to take it personally and take it. I don't it don't matter to me. And a good joke is a good joke, even if it's on me, right? But when that man switched and stopped talking about the Democrats and start talking about the Republicans, we laughing and thinking, now we the only four black people. Four black people in a whole arena, right? But what do you call the arena again, the Hollywood? I I could never remember the name of it. Hard Rock Cafe, whatever the place is. Hard Rock Cat Bull. And we laughing, and at a point in time I realized we the only people, the whole arena was silent when he's talking about Trump and people driving to the Confederate flag and how they pick up and thing. And we at one point I started feeling cast, boiler, we don't laugh too hard now because they bring back Lynch and this place over the first of all. And I realized that you know, just going and see some of these greats, I don't spend enough time watching my own greats here because I used to I remember comedy from Young Gatang and them days, you know what I mean? Will Lingo walk out and he says, Oh, they're looking nice. But in fairness, as much as I love the Larry Joseph, they tell me Joseph, everybody named Joseph. Uh Sprang Alang's was Spranger Lang to a less extent. But most of the comedians that I had loved from back in the day, they used to tell joke jokes. Sprang alang might be one who was a little more serious with the jokes, especially when he was on 102 back in the day. He used to talk about the current affairs. Uh but it, you know, I would if you ask me, I would have said, boy, local comedians don't talk politics and things, they just sell jokey jokes, you know what I mean? But that is not, I want to say it's not true. I was wrong about that, and I don't go enough shows with these with the comedians now. I was saying the other day that I'd never went to I know Rachel Price in the tent, but I never went to a full Rachel Price show, which I understand, and and from seeing some things that she has online, she's not holding back on anything. And I had to say that about Simi. I reach I reached just before Simi started performed, so I enriched early enough to see the other performers. I know Kevin Sawyer, you know, they had great comedians there, but I reached just in time for Simi. You know, as a man is be home. And Simi, the theme of her whole thing was an up and her dung. But she spent a lot of time, despite uh other than talking about her um her exploits, you know what I mean? Her exploits, that a lot of talk on that too. But she spent a lot of time talking about the fact that because she did talk about that moment we were talking about Kenny, and salute to Kenny for taking the call and jumping on for a little bit. But she talked about Helon might get muted. And Helon was there. I wish I could have seen his face to see how funny he finds some of them things, you know. But um, when you hear her talk about the importance of speaking up, and she was basically saying that listen, the Ministry of Culture is sponsoring me, and I have no big set of sponsors anyway. So I talk in my mind. I appreciated this sentiment. And she she did. Marshall Montana was there. And then I thought it's important in that audience to tell to talk about the importance of her having a mic and what the microphone does for her. And why it's important that she's not concerned about this one or that one or how this one will feel or what the retaliation will be. Because we're living in a time where people with a microphone might be a little bit of threat. You know, people with a microphone might be might be threatened, they might be fearful of saying this, that, or the other. Because it might mean losing your sponsorship or losing your your footing or losing your name, or sometimes losing your freedom. Dangerous, dangerous thought. Dangerous, dangerous thought. But I've I found it very uh Bravissimied to say what she said because she wasn't spaying nobody. I mean, she really went in on J Angel and Fear and I was like, well, why is this necessary? Why is this necessary? Why we had to be shooting at people like this? I don't know, I don't know if it's necessary. But she did speak to the political directorate, the business sector. She was she wasn't she wasn't holding any punches, and I think it's important that we We live in a world where people are not fearful of saying things. I know uh uh all the joke with Kenny and we talk about it at some length. But I feel it's important that we also live in a world where the people who things are being said about are comfortable with that. You know, you you you put yourself in public life, you put yourself in the political forefront, you have an enormous amount of call it power or whatever, but what it boils down to is a enormous amount of responsibility. And if you put yourself there with that amount of responsibility and access, and you're making decisions on our behalf that can affect generations. I'm I I I think it would be unfortunate if you're in that position and you're thin-skinned and you so want to be sure that nobody does say nothing about you, and you so want to control your rhetoric and what is said that you're willing to go to extraneous lengths, extraneous is a word. You're willing to go to extraneous lengths to try to silence people who just who just talk in who just talking. Because again, I don't want to live in the world with tongue bundung and them kind of thing again. But one of the things you could sh be sure about is that if you try to suppress people's ability to speak or people's ability to respond to the things that you're doing or saying, people will respond in other ways. And I'm talking about people who typically peaceful will respond in other ways, and we we don't want that. Because one thing we good, I think Trick and I'll put it though, we we we we we talkers, we just talk, and that is a beautiful thing. The idea of diplomacy seems to be a thing of the past, the idea of democracy and all seem to be a thing of the past, but nobody ain't better at it than we. When we get together and we think we talk and we we we we reason things out, we barbershop it out, we we panny add it out, and who say he had it out, and we grandparents heard it out. We we we we we that's how we are. And we use that as an outlet, we use that as a way to solve our problems. We we we do the Woodford Square thing. We even protest and we get placards and them kind of thing. I prefer that than to see tire burning and road blocking and those types of things. So I I I I I want to join semicolon to both the people who speak, like myself. So don't be silent on nothing. Don't be silent on nothing, don't be afraid of nothing because nothing, nothing and you like it so. I really feel like stricken. I'll know how to play this song and not just talk about this song, right? I'll play it and just and just just not not just talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, right? But one of the ways to get through the things is to have open and honest dialogue with one another. I know it's not a popular thing in the in the politics and them things these days, but it it is work, it's not it's not something that we have to completely abandon. And the truth is that Simi is absolutely right, and a great show by Simi. Very, very funny, very pointed. I think a good comedy show should leave you laughing at them kind of thing, but it should it should also make you laugh at yourself and question some of the things you're doing and saying. But the truth is that if we're talking and we we're resolving differences and we're going together, we're going forward as a nation to for betterment. Uh at the end of the day, no matter how much talk you talk, nobody really cares, do we nothing? So nothing, Sonny, whoa, whoa, whoa. Nothing for you when you like it, so it's gonna be this show if we talk about culture a little bit, right? And I see Sonny Bling do it, I want to salute to Sonny Bling. But one of the things I like, I like I like a lot of this kind of all season, and I'll talk about it as often as I could talk about it, is when we have people who break through. And I want to commend a couple of people along with Sonny Blink. You see Mila Karibi? Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad artists, bad, bad artists. Kind of be stopped, you know. I mean, I just hope she continues to grow from strength to strength because you see that lost in Trendago that have a vibe and an energy that unmatched, unmatched. I think he also spoke about I can't remember the third person he talks about, but one of the people he talks about is Crystal, right? Bad, bad piece of music. And one of my concerns about Carnival all the time is that this idea that is what you do for me lately. This this you're only as good as your last performance. I don't like it. I don't like it, I don't like it, I don't like it. Because the truth is, right? You have uh you have a carnival where we didn't see Patricia Robert's book, I was in a whole bunch of fets. You know, yeah, and I was asking Nadia Batsinda when she was here. You see, and and and she had a response that was interesting, right? She said, I wear many lucrative hats. And salute to her, salute to everybody, even figure it out. But the truth is that we're living in a world where you have a let's say you have Marshall, you have Bungie, you have Nila, you have Nadia, you have Patrice, you have people who are catalogued for years, who write big songs and big hits for themselves and for others, who throw their own shows. So I want to say that even though it's unfortunate for them too, that no matter how big their hit is this year, they have to have a hit next year to get books. I don't like that even for the top people in the anything, Destro. It don't matter if Destro have a hit or not, she she will be fine. Assuming that the people who are called there, they're good regardless. And and and and it's not a knock on them, it's credit to them to for figuring out fair and in the same boat. Well, two them money bunk snub money, you know what I mean? Money's bunk snub money. It's piling up, they know what to do with it now. They just had to bury it like Escobar. But the truth is that they set up their life and they do their thing to a point where they're not as affected by the seasonality or the seasonal nature. Somebody was here saying that the festival itself is a beast. I think it was Private Ryan, salute the Private Ryan, was saying that the festival itself just demand the music. The festival is what drives it. But I don't like it because I think Doodoo Darling is too big a song. It's too big a song for us to just have somebody like him break through. And now I hear hoping and praying that he find a next doodoo darling next year, which is real, real hard to do. Other than that, all the money that he makes this year for all the bookings that he gets that that that that that really should be able to now sustain him and his family and let him achieve all his financial dreams and wishes. Could good go down the drain because no matter how much you make, if you ain't make good next year, you have to now try to beg people to come on the stage and perform for free just to keep your name out there and then all the money that you're making now sucking up in your monthly bills going through because now you don't have hope again to make money till December, January 2028. If you don't catch a do-doo doll. And again, we we we had to help youths break that. It's it's it's too much of a gamble. It's not a business, it's not an industry, it's a complete gamble. And for those again, salute to the top people who fit because the top, I saying Marshall and Bungie, but them went through the same thing. We not forget that them had to go through the same thing. What I appealing for is for us to change it so that youths coming up now don't have it so hard. Where because I it like I listening to that doodoo darling and thinking, and apart from feeling sorry for Crystal already, because I can't imagine the pressure he's under. Because he has a family, he has a team. So, and and you know, sometimes that pressure itself, and I was asking Nadia Batson, I was asking, like, you don't feel pressure, and she's like, Nah, I can't live so she makes it to where she don't have to depend on that, and she don't have to feel that pressure. So this farmer nappy, I always remember him in an interview, and you know we talk, right? He says, You see me, I'm a man of my garden, and if they don't call me for no fet, I stay on my wet my plant on them. I stay no, me, me in coming. But again, look at his age and look how long he's in the industry. He could afford to do that now. Hopefully he lives his life and reach a point where he could afford to do that. But what about the crystals and them of this world who or the Miller Caribbean who contribute so much to us with songs like these? And so you're telling me that after lost in Trinbago, if she don't have a uh, according to JDL, a monster again, that is it. We we could not hear from them again at all. I think what they missed when Wendell Van Warren was talking about Bud. And people might remember how big Bud was when when Bud, a Jamaican artist, um came here and in the year when Marshall and them had unidentified flying objects unidentified. I believe that is the same year. But but it's wrong that same time that that K-Day of 97 to 2000, Bud come and sing, Man, that Batman done in Nathan, you know, my ladies again. I had to stop singing songs and play them, you know. You know what I mean? There's a there's a Melissa gangster war songs to play for the episode I will play before we done. But the fact that you could come out, have a song like that, and then after that, nobody don't hear nothing from you is unfortunate. It's unfortunate. So I I I'm I hear a rooting for Bud. I hope I'm a bud now. I'm rooting for Crystal and I hope he catches it. But all in the way I am I I'm very very very biased. So before I get to Bud Man or Badman, right? Which is one of the I mean, all you don't understand the chaos that them songs used to to to to to cause in fett. I remember being up in um in where coconuts was again Cascadia. I can't remember what they used to call the long time. I didn't think it was Cascadia, they used to call it no. When you go up in the inner and they had uh they had watercolours up on the hill and bud come under stage. Oh Lord, chaos. Chaosity. Hide your daughter. You could be in some trouble, you could be in some trouble. But I want to play for you because I mean again, part of this thing is always Kaiso, right? And all you know I like long time music bad, only bear with me now. But this is not the first time we hear about Crystal. Long before there was a Crystal and long live crystal, Crystal get through how Crystal finds the hit and come true. But long before Crystal, you remember Lord Crystal.

SPEAKER_06 1:24:29

This morning at Hilo, Crystal went to buy beef and potato. This morning at Hilo grocery, Crystal went to buy beef and celery. A young woman walk inside of the grocery in front everybody took up a pole, box a chicken breast, promptly concealed below the dress. She took this coal, bumpsta chicken chest, she took love the test, mama discord, bumps a chicken chest, and that's an island dress I had once to watch up. This woman didn't friend influenza. I love road streets, Cash and Carrie Watch. This young woman said in Spanish, I know comprehensive Cash and Carrie blankets So she decided to work out the rules, but they printed on the daily news She took this photo, Bafsa chicken chest, she choose out the vets, mama yours cool, boxa chicken chess, was phone as an island dress They had food stocks of all description, line up on the shelves, and partitions, full pots of all variety, with prices to suit everybody. This young woman changed the system as best she can go a tip, snatch and carry plan So they call the pants the best To retrieve the chicken below her dress She took this colour Box the chicken chess She took out the test Mama yo discourse Box the chicken chess was found as island dress Hey the boss of the grocery wanted to extend some sympathy But this woman's a ballot Steel and using in the people And constable bed to bat the chicken I watched the woman and start the grill She bought a crumb and fell down twice Her Tommy was as cold as a block of ice She took this cold box of chicken chess She choosed out the best mama Yo, this ice cold box of chicken chess was found under an island dress.

A Stage For The Left-Out

Corie 1:27:02

At that time I used to walk with her quatrain things like this in the voice of the man Christopher Laidlow, Lord Crystal. Crystal made a living as a cabinet maker and sang in church choirs before he became the lead singer for the John Buddy Williams band in the 1940s. You heard John Buddy Williams? His Calypso career began in 1942 when he appeared at Attila the Huns victory tent. He then joined the McLean brothers and accompanied them on a tour to the USA in December 1952. He later moved on to the Young Brigade tent in 1955. The Young Brigade tent became the original Young Brigade in 56, and Christo continued to sing with the original Young Brigade until he left for Chicago, Illinois, USA, where he appeared at various nightclubs and on television. He returned to Trinidad in 1960 and continued to sing at the OIB for the rest of his career. Although he never won a title, Christow's popular songs, Miss Universe and Chicken Chess, were tailor made for steel bands and were played extensively on the road. During the 1957 carnaval. And in the wise words, add an ideal. If you didn't know, now you know. Now let's have some people, let's have some people like the bad first. Again, out of here, right? But again, if you're playing war tune and you're playing Batman tune, this is not a high so that you could leave out of a list like this, right? And I want all your youths to close all your eyes and pretend all your mother and them is scandalous up in Cascadia Car Park. Listen, here what we do, right? Anytime you're of a certain age, if you're in your twenties something, and your parents anywhere around their forties from late thirties to early 40s, are where you're just the name of this song is Bud Mana Badman, right? Be you the mana bad man. I want you to find that on YouTube, right? Don't make them wise and just play it, right? Just play that song for me and watch how mommy react. Watch daddy's face, watch for any little eye contact they make. They can't tell you they were loose. They telling you to think no, but it was loose. You can't play truth about war and war in society without distressing certain artists, right? Because it has certain artists with name war lord.

SPEAKER_12 1:30:55

And when it comes to war, you don't leave out men like these shiny man truck, and a Negro man maker call the channel, but the two truck, squeeze a car, which was driven by a woman. Well, friends, I love to bad until I near go insane. When the magistrate call the shiny man to explain, he said my lord, honey up, he lost it, honey tongue, it too lois, for the lady, it's a guy just Well is back on a low friend, I saw real you didn't day When you I say first for hear what the Chinese say But the boss like if he went out the brain The Madest street passanora but he asked the Chinese game, the Chinese say my loli Koni, he loli, gong, it do lolloli, boni lady, life, eliboty, but he loli, sham si pianan pushi le cat on, on my loli, so please tell me who plasti loli monsters far foo get fixed and call to the prosecutor Before things get out of hand, get this man a lawyer. Well, in no time at all, they brought in this man a lorry. What was said by the Chinese man? He said what's his lorry coming up, his lorry, coming down, into lorry, bounced the lady right in front. Everybody, but his lorry jam she behind and push the lady cut down on H Lurry, so please tell he who blast the lorry more wrong.

Corie 1:34:20

They say Blakey was born in 1932, grew up in San Wah, which was a rough area known for bad johns, and his upbringing is what gave Blakey some, they say bringing is what gave Blakey some of his song ideas about violence and bad john culture. You know what you're like bad what Blakey sing? When you're talking about war and international relations, and you're talking about Caribbean people, and why they just vexed with Trinidad. And you see, every minute now is an argument between Dominican thing about Booyah who's his thing and so grenaders saying they're kind of all better on Trinidad. You don't want to fight them and them kind of thing. These is the reasons why people of the islands have a problem with training.

SPEAKER_11 1:35:16

Move Lemmy Gamish here, they beating grenadian down in the square. I must give a last lemmy gamus here, man they licking grenadian in Woodford Square. Since they here we are federation, all of them pack up here in the island. Immigration have them under test. If you see how they hole in the scam, but them friends your bum too ball. Some of them could read and spell but they can't.

SPEAKER_09 1:35:43

The policeman telling them say big you're stupid, man. And as they say hug, licks in the police van. Madam, madam, madam.

SPEAKER_11 1:36:10

I first them grenade and ship it. Here what happened to one who them cupid. I woke me man went to seek, the boss tell him five dollars a week. He say boss, me not tell you flat. Me not walking for that, alright.$20 a month. He boss say that songin' better me woke right away. If you see how they all in this camp and them friends, you bong your tall. Some of them three them spell, but they can't pronounce at all. The policemen telling them say pot you shopping, man.

SPEAKER_09 1:36:41

Man, as they say pat licks in the police van.

Corie 1:36:49

When you're talking about international relations, and it's more international problems we just have with people in the Caribbean, you just start to understand why we have these kind of problems, right? Great Lord Blakey. I'll leave anybody just want to know. Anyone who listened for a while knows this is easily one of my favorites. And as I say, sign up for Patreon if we make episodes like this every week because we have to be able to make sure we can cover with bills if only what we play song, whole episode and thing, and then YouTube go and prolong my whole channel. Let me do this the right way, right? So we can protect ourselves and we can know for sure we have something to come back and enjoy at some point in time. The great Blakey. What does it say about Blakey here that we should know? He was remembered for his iconic laugh and humor, which features in a lot of his songs. He was also known to have large boots of energy and joy despite coming from a bad john environment. Lord Blakey said, I have lovely steel pan and the instrument featured in many of his songs. Blakey also participated in friendly banzo with other Calypsonians, which was common. Various Calypsonians made songs about other Calypsonians. One such example is his song Sparrow Lost. I don't tell all about Sparrow Loss at all. Because Blakey had, I think it was it wasn't an independence competition. I think the competition was a king of kings competition. And Blakey entered the competition on win and beat Sparrow. And he said, he basically said every time Sparrow lost a competition, Sparrow have a problem. Sparrow making a problem over any competition he lost. He's a man wanted to win. You win everything and how to possibly win. But when you see men come out here to beat people and come out to win, they may come to make no joke when it comes to that. So you see where it started from. The man wasn't wrong when he said when he say um he said you don't know that people like a race. He said you don't know Kitchen and Sparrow was always it was always Kitchen and Sparrow. It was always Rose and Francine. I see that man, I see that very man inside um inside Simmy D Trinity show. But again, that is a man who ain't frightened to talk. He said you're willing to come back already for part two already. He said, Yeah, I see, well, I say, well, now you had to come and sit on here every weekend, or you might be the only guest I get after you come and talk all kinds of things. I don't know if nobody's coming back by me now. But you say you're willing to come and talk anytime. Because as you rightly say, with people careers who last as as long as some of them who are there, like Marshall Montano, David Roddown, it's very, very difficult. You can there's only so much that you could capture in the couple hours that you get. But I do respect and as I said it here last time too, and I want to say it again. I respect the fact that he came here, he was very open, he let me lead the conversation, he let me talk about whatever I want to talk about, he laughed at my few little still jokes and things. And both him and I met his mom as well at Simi Show, and they'd be very, very happy with the interview and the way it went. I don't know if he was exactly happy in the moment. Because to tell you the truth, I feel if I had given him the chance, he would have talked for the whole two hours, he would have talked about what's happening in Carnival 2026. But no, no, that is not the format for here. That is not the format. That is not the format. I guess I don't care about no song for the whole two hours, but uh it was very gracious of him to talk about some of his darkest times and internet, and which I I feel like as somebody who loves watching interviews, that is one of the better Marshall Montano interviews I have all there. Or the toothbone horn. I feel it's one of the better ones I've seen all day. But before I go, I want to leave Oli with one here. I wanna I want to leave you with again one of my favorites, Lord Blakey. Any any time a day I could listen to Blakey, and in the spirit of war, we must play some tune from the warlord.

SPEAKER_12 1:40:46

I hear you know, but don't be bad Wendy ma beat bottom button, the map be a bit of beat by bother my girl in feet of beating sweet ah come in up sweet you come in gun eating very two I'm friendly 22 if it's me but lunch never be again jumping up in what a spin.

Corie 1:42:16

Hey I'll leave an old after the weekend. I will talk to Oli next week again. I want to say a special thanks to Tomika Costello who called me into I-95.5 interview last week. It felt surreal being an I-95.5. You only know how long I listen to them fellas. And as I walk into the lobby, I meet daily knock to me who's one of the greatest and one of the reasons I do this. So salute to Tomiko and salute to I-95.

SPEAKER_12 1:42:44

Lord Picky, running a home spy I lady. Never be again.