Pao­lo Ker­na­han

This week many Tri­nis were con­sumed in a pas­time at which they ex­cel: point­less de­bate.The de­bate, in the form of on­line chat­ter, took on a par­tic­u­lar­ly com­bat­ive flavour, with many re­sort­ing to ob­scen­i­ties much to the de­light of oth­er chortling, "less­er" con­trib­u­tors un­able them­selves to en­gage the "is­sue" but hap­py to syphon from the side­lines, the pal­try en­ter­tain­ment val­ue.

The "is­sue" which stirred pas­sions so, which gen­er­at­ed more com­ment than Face­book posts on crime and pun­ish­ment, hinged on the ut­ter­ly ab­surd "Pan Splash," the pool par­ty sched­uled for the Na­tion­al Panora­ma se­mi-fi­nals at the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah.

Pan purists such as arrangers Len "Boogsie" Sharpe and Ray Hol­man have poured their con­tempt on the pan-pool-par­ty con­cept, cit­ing un­fath­omable dis­re­spect for the na­tion­al in­stru­ment. It is ar­gued by these starchy, an­ti-fun cur­mud­geons that a pool par­ty en­vi­ron­ment is a blas­phe­mous dis­rup­tion to the hal­lowed pro­ceed­ings of a very se­ri­ous com­pe­ti­tion.

On­line, the youth in re­bel­lion fought, from the com­fort of their chairs at home, for their right to par­ty: "I will tell you straight up, I not in­to pan but if I want to pay my mon­ey to go to a pool par­ty no f---g body could tell me any­thing." In­deed, and no one should want to.There were many com­ments like this, echo­ing the sen­ti­ments of Machel Mon­tano's 2014 Car­ni­val hit song Live Meh Life. This record­ing ex­em­pli­fies the Tri­ni spir­it and men­tal­i­ty to­day.

http://www.guardian.co.tt/dig­i­tal/new-mem­bers