BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - A Kittitian businessman has donated thousands of dollars to calypsonians who are currently competing at the two calypso tents for selection to this year’s National Carnival Calypso Competition.
Carlton Dupont, Managing Director of Dupont’s Jewelry and calypso enthusiast has made a donation of $7 000 to 10 calypsonians.
After hearing about the donation, SKNVibes sought to find the reason behind this kind gesture and was told by Dupont that “things are slow and life is hard but I work for my money and I decide what I want to do with my money, even if later on I pay for it I don’t mind.”
“This money that I gave to the calypsonians came from my hand straight from my heart,” he added.
He however state that there are calypsonians who went into his business place to ask for money and he is not pleased with that because he does not want to give them any funds just out of ignorance.
“I work hard but people don’t think so. I do work hard and to provide these calypsonians I had to sacrifice, and since I have given out this money many people have come in here thinking that a bank has opened up here and I am ignoring them.
“I am going to change my attitude about giving out money like that because I realise now that people are no good and people have no heart and are using my kindness and goodness as a weakness. Those who think so should think so should think again. I have a wife now to help me and bind me so that I don’t go hungry tomorrow. When you see me give money like this, it is not out of ignorance; it is out of love for the art form and I don’t think the people understand how important calypsonians are to the art form. Calypso makes a country’s carnival a big success…it’s one of the vital parts of carnival.”
Dupont declared that initially he wanted to give the calypsonians $5 000 but had to add $2 000 because of how impressed he was with some of them while they were onstage.
“They are good and calypsonians and they have to work hard, and it costs them $500 to produce each song. However, I am not certain that I can keep this up every year, so I have a little warning for the calypsonian. If calypso is an art form that you love, you must work a whole year in advance to save money to do what you love, you can’t wait until December comes to put money together to do songs; it is never going to work.”
Dupont also declared that he is pleased to give out the funds to the calypsonians and that would be his quota for the year to go along with the $5 000 that he would be giving to ‘King of the Tents’ to assist in the payment of the calypsonians who participate in that event.
He also urged other businesses and individuals to support the calypsonians.
“I am saying to people that if you have a little extra money and you could help. Carnival means a lot to me, it my life, it is part of the cultural aspect,” Dupont said.
When asked about the standard of this year’s competition, Dupont said, “I expected a little higher standard because they are so many things to sing on. But I feel that calypsonians have plenty songs they are holding back, hoping that they will get into the finals and release it. And the standard actually will go up, but it is not as good as last year’s.”
He also highlighted a number of short comings in calypso, explaining that calypsonians are not doing enough to develop the art form and that they wait until it is too late to release their songs.
“Calypsonians, to my mind, wait until the last moment to release their songs. If they take a longer time to be more thoughtful and start to think about writing too late, a lot of these songs should have been playing two months earlier.”
The calypsonians who received donations from Dupont are: Trashrow $1 500; King Socrates, Queen Anastasia and the Mighty Kirk, $1 000 each; while Forest, Jungle Lion, Conse Edwards, Watusi and De Unexpected each received $500.
