Pat Roxborough-Wright
MONTEGO BAY, St James — Prime Minister Bruce Golding yesterday told the congregation of the New Testament Church of God on Water Lane in Montego Bay that the Almighty was moving Jamaica in the right direction and encouraged them to keep praying for the country.

In a five-minute address which which foreshadowed the message that was to follow from the Reverend Clement Clarke, Golding expressed confidence that all was going to be well, notwithstanding the public backlash that his administration has been taking over their handling of the US extradition request for Mr Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke.

“There are many of us who have taken it upon ourselves to sit in judgment. Our God is an awesome God who moves in mysterious ways that none of us can understand. I believe that we are at a turning point and the direction in which God is turning this country is the right direction. It is he who leads and captains the ship, all of us are only sailors, no matter how the storm may rage and the winds buffet, I smile because I have a faith that all will be well,” he said.

Golding’s words came against the background of calls for his resignation following his disclosure that he had sanctioned the hiring of US law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips to lobby the US government with a view to influence the request for Coke.

Coke is in US custody awaiting trial on drugs and gun-running charges, having waived his right to an extradition hearing here.

Noting that the Almighty could turn around the most dismal of situations, Reverend Clarke encouraged the congregation to shrug off the devil and take comfort in the fact that blessings were in store for everyone who stayed the course.

“I’m not talking politics. God is not finished with us yet. It is to that end that we continue to pray,” he said directly to Golding.

The service, one of several events scheduled during the Prime Minister’s tour of Montego Bay last weekend, was attended by Minister of Water and Housing Horace Chang and Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlet among other poiticians. It was followed hours later by the North West St James Constituency Conference at the St James High School. (Jamaica Observer)

Rousseau wants special payment structure for sportsmen, women

BY HG HELPS Editor-at-Large icu@jamaicaobserver.com

(Part two of a series)

SOME Caribbean territories, including Jamaica, are moving vigorously to pull cricketers who play the game on the regional and international stage into their tax net.

Like track and field athletes and footballers, cricketers have the potential to earn comfortable salaries, but historically, they have not been required to pay taxes on those earnings.

Former West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) president, Pat Rousseau, said that the taxing of West Indies cricketers was not something that he was aware of during his time as head of the Board, which enjoyed its best financial position under the Jamaican lawyer’s tenure.

“It was left up to the individual countries to decide. I don’t think that there was any pressure on them to pay taxes, because for many years their income was not that good. It’s only now that the income has got good,” Rousseau said.

While he served as Jamaica’s leader, in the first instance from 1972 to 1980, former Prime Minister Michael Manley, the self-professed best lover of cricket, officially exempted Jamaican cricketers who represented the West Indies from paying taxes. If was felt that the glory that they brought to the region warranted reward in the form of tax breaks.

These days, however, high earnings associated with the game, coupled with the low success rate, have some calling for cricketers to fall under the tax axe.

The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) did not confirm the reports with regard to the other territories, but said that there were plans afoot in Jamaica.

“I am not sure,” said WICB media relations officer, Philip Spooner. “I believe that the Jamaicans have either started to pay, or arrangements are being made to have them pay.

“I am not sure which other country has started to ask cricketers to pay taxes,” he said, promising to get additional information.

Operations officer of the Jamaica Cricket Association, Courtney Francis, told the Observer that as far as he was aware, there were cricketers who represent Jamaica and the West Indies who do pay taxes.

Francis said that Jamaica’s cricketers who participated in the historic Stanford 20/20 match as part of the West Indies team against England in 2008 and who had earned US$1 million each, were contacted by Jamaica’s tax authorities.

“I remember some of them coming to me saying that they had got correspondence from the tax office about the Stanford money. The tax office wrote to them and the correspondence was forwarded to the WICB, because payment was made through the Board.

“Those persons were required to pay taxes on their earnings. I am not sure if they paid taxes, but I know that one of them had gone down to the tax office to make enquiries,” Francis said.

West Indies captain Chris Gayle, fast bowlers Daren Powell, now in England playing county cricket for Lancashire County Club, and Jerome Taylor, were the other Jamaicans who earned US$1 million for the victory over England.

Up to the start of the four-day championship in January 2009, regional cricketers were getting US$279 per match, a figure that would increase in accordance with West Indies experience. The team captain’s rate was higher.

However, a strike led regional administrators to revise the fee structure across the board, resulting in a minimum US$1,300 (presently worth J$111,800) per four-day match. For one-day regional matches, the fee moved from US$300 per match at the start of 2009, to the present US$700 (J$60,200) minimum. Fees for the inaugural regional 20/20 championship, which begins later this week in Barbados, were not available.

Jamaica’s cricketers who went through a full season of regional four-day, one-day and 20/20 matches, would therefore be eligible to earn up to a minimum of J$670,800 for a season of six four-day matches based on the present fee structure; a further $301,000 from five one-day matches if their team makes it to the final; and even more from the 20/20 competition, which replaces the Stanford 20/20.

The cricketer’s ability to earn up to J$1 million and more in some cases, would push them well over the tax threshold, which moved to $441,168 on January 1 of this year.

While West Indies cricketers do not pay taxes consistently, employees of the West Indies Cricket Board were required to pay taxes when the Board was headquartered in Barbados.

Lester Bird’s Antigua government at the time offered the WICB tax free status and the Board moved its headquarters to that Caribbean island during 1994.

David Simmonds, Barbados’ attorney general and minister of justice at the time, upon hearing that the WICB would move its headquarters to Antigua because of taxation issues, turned up at the Hilton (Barbados) hotel the morning after the decision was taken to move the Board’s headquarters to Antigua, with a letter promising the Board duty-free status in Barbados, if it stayed.

However, delegates had already decided on the shift to Antigua.

“The WICB paid taxes to the Barbados government and that was one of the reasons they left,” attorney-at-law and former President of the WICB Pat Rousseau told the Observer.

“It was also the key factor in the ICC (International Cricket Council) leaving the UK (for Dubai). It is not fair for one territory to collect taxes from a WICB with 14 sovereign members. The WICB is now incorporated in a tax-free location and is exempt from taxes,” Rousseau said.”I have no problem with cricketers paying taxes,” Francis said. “We are all paying taxes. They are doing a job and they are using the same services that taxes are being used to provide.”

Similarly, Rousseau said that he was not against it in principle, but felt that a special payment structure should be put in place for professional sportsmen and women.

“They have a limited income life. I think that they should pay, but there should be a special structure. In a lot of sports, the average career is 10 to 12 years. In that period, at any time injury can terminate income. There should be a percentage of the income that is not taxed that goes into something like a pension fund, which would be tax-free as long as it is not touched for a long time.

“I don’t take a view that you should just tax them like that. Sometime ago the US Government allowed the deferral of taxes paid by boxers for four years, because their careers could end in five years and they could end up with nothing,” he said.

West Indies international cricketers are among the highest paid of all workers in the Caribbean.

Earnings per annum can range from a low of US$100,000 to over US$1 million, depending on matches played, endorsements sealed and incentives gained from sponsorship.

Among the highest earners are veteran batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul of Guyana, Jamaica’s Chris Gayle, Trinidad & Tobago all-rounder Dwayne Bravo and his countryman Kieron Pollard, one of the world’s most sought-after 20/20 cricketers.

Their earnings, however, do not come remotely close to those of other international cricketers, including India’s captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who Forbes Magazine said earned US$10 million last year.

Dhoni recently signed a three-year advertising deal that will fetch him a further US$40 million over the period and pushes his annual earnings even higher than the world’s best batsman Sachin Tendulkar, who previously earned close to US$8 million per year on average, including one year in which he made US$15 million, which included some one-off promotions.

Dhoni is now associated with 18 brands, among them Pepsi and General Electric.

Tendulkar, however, remains ahead of him in terms of overall earnings from cricket over the last 15 years. He was designated India’s first sports multi-millionaire in 1995 and still endorses brands like Visa, Action Shoes, Adidas, Pepsi, Colgate, Boost, Philips, MRF and Fiat.

A ginger display at last Friday’s Gleaner Editors’ Forum in Christiana. Alvin Murray, head of the potato cooperative in the Manchester town, said the local industry is under threat from imports. - Norman Grindley/Chief Photographer

Jamaica’s penchant for foreign produce is strangling the operations of small farmers, claims general manager of the Christiana Potato Growers Cooperative Association, Alvin Murray.

Murray, in lamenting the struggles of local farmers, claimed Jamaica has imported 70 per cent of ginger used domestically despite supplying 23 per cent of world demand.

“Right now, the farmers are meeting hell. They are in trouble,” he told a recent Gleaner Editors’ Forum in Christiana, Manchester.

Supporting Murray’s claim, Finance Minister Audley Shaw, who is also member of parliament for North East Manchester, disclosed that, among other things, Jamaica imports a significant amount of tomato paste and pepper mash.

“We were importing pepper mash from the Dominican Republic and places like that although we produce the best scotch bonnet pepper and the finest-tasting in the world. But we end up importing most of it,” Shaw said.

Waiver woes

The finance minister did not provide any figures, but argued that, with more greenhouses, we “could produce all the tomato that we could ever need and produce all the tomato paste that we could ever need to supply the local market.

“As minister of finance, one of the things I am tired to do is to sign waivers … import waivers for tomato paste,” he lamented.

Shaw said the shift towards foreign produce was taking place even though Jamaican farmers provide the marketplace with good-quality fruits and vegetables.

“When people go to Sovereign supermarket (in Liguanea, St Andrew) and see those sweet peppers, they want to know which state of the United States it was produced in … where was it imported from.

“There is not even an assumption that it was produced in Jamaica, much less in Devon, in North East Manchester,” he added. (Jamaica Gleaner)

Zadie Neufville, Gleaner Writer

Some relief is on the horizon for Jamaican and regional farmers who have been forced to endure the effects of extreme weather events without crop insurance.

The Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) has signaled its intention to support the Caribbean Community’s com-mitment to developing affordable agricultural insurance solutions.

While the facility is not specifically designed for agri-culture and will not benefit farmers directly, Executive Director Dr Simon Young noted that the CCRIF provides an opportunity for governments and their agents to access cost-effective re-insurance for the agricultural sector.

Risk-pooling facility

“It will be up to governments and the private sector to build institutions and systems which can aggregate the farmer’s risk into a single portfolio, either at a sub-national, national or regional level, which CCRIF can then provide onward coverage against natural catastrophes,” Young said.

Described as a “risk-pooling facility”, the CCRIF offers parametric insurance to member governments against the impacts of hurricanes, tropical storms, and earthquakes and, come year-end, excess rainfall. Parametric insurance provides budgetary support payments to the affected countries, based on specified intensities of the event and not on actual losses.

The CCRIF remains the world’s first and only multi-country parametric insurance fund. Its chairman, Milo Pearson, said recently that it was designed to limit the financial impact caused by the devastation of hurricanes and earthquakes by providing “short-term liquidity” when the policy is triggered.

Japanese funding

Launched in 2007, following Hurricane Ivan’s devastation of the region in 2004, CCRIF was developed through funding from the Japanese government and capitalised through fees from its 16 member governments, the World Bank, the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), the European Union, the governments of Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Ireland and Bermuda.

CCRIF’s newest tool is regarded as being critical to the development of parametric solutions for the agricultural sector. The synthetic excess rainfall model will provide rainfall data that will enhance the management of excess rainfall and drought risks. The tools could support local efforts to find suitable insurance instruments for local industry.

Crop insurance is “essential to making the business (farming) a success”, Director General of the Coffee Industry Board (CIB) Christopher Gentles noted, pointing to a World Bank-funded study now being under-taken by the CIB. The study is to establish wind and rainfall patterns in the Blue Mountains in an effort to establish risk, design a suitable product and establish a pilot programme for the industry. Productivity and profitability of coffee and banana, two of Jamaica’s best export crops have, over the years, been severely impacted by severe weather events.

Crop insurance became less accessible after Dyoll Insurance crashed in 2004; following Hurricane Ivan’s devastation of the region. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, re-insurance options to the region dwindled because of its vulnerability to natural hazards. Crop insurance policies are now too expensive and are generally offered as non-catastrophic policies- providing no coverage against extreme weather events.

Among the CCRIF’s member states are Jamaica, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and the Turks and Caicos Islands. (Jamaica Gleaner)

Alvin Murray, general manager, Christiana Potato Growers Cooperative - Norman Grindley /Chief Photographer

Cummings - File

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Christopher Serju, Gleaner Writer

AGRICULTURE INTERESTS have accused hoteliers of undermining local farmers by refusing to enter into contracts for the supply of produce. But the tourism and hotel sector has denied the charge, while calling on farmers to get their act together.

Alvin Murray, general manager of the Christiana Potato Growers Cooperative , charged during a Gleaner Editors’ Forum on Friday that some hotels were manipulating the pricing system by refusing to sign contracts with farmers - taking advan-tage of gluts and playing farmers against each other during shortages.

He urged hotels to sign contracts, thereby guaranteeing consistency of supply and price year-round, whatever the circumstances.

Murray was supported by Vincent Thompson, agricultural specialist with the Jamaica Social Investment Fund.

“The hoteliers behave as if the farmers are unable to supply when, in fact, this is not so. Hotels continue to treat the farmers as they did 50 years ago,” Thompson told the forum, which was held at the offices of the Christiana Potato Growers Co-operative Association in Manchester.

“I did a survey with all the hotels in the Corporate Area and the eastern part of the island, and none of them is prepared to offer a contract, even though farmers are willing to reduce the price to have a continuous supply through the year for them.

“And what have they (hoteliers) been crying about? That they can’t get a continuous supply.”

Wayne Cummings, president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA), has defended the policy of its members to buy

agricultural produce from large distributors instead of individual farmers. He has described as impractical, the demand for hoteliers to deal directly with farmers on a one-to-one basis.

“We are in the business of providing meals at the best price for a number of people, every day. At Sandals (resort chain), we have signed an agreement with one man who buys from at least 50 farmers across the island, but other farmers say they are being left out,” Cummings told The Gleaner.

“When you are providing 2,000 meals a day, you want to make certain that price, delivery and supply are assured. I don’t quite follow their argument. Why in heavens would you want to sign a contract with a farmer to supply two things, say, tomato and scallion? You want a bigger distributor who can bring 20-30 items to the table,” Cummings reasoned.

The JHTA president had this advice for the farming community: “They need to get themselves organised in cooperatives and then get a marketing manager, or someone who can market their produce, and ensure that they are supplied at negotiated prices,” Cummings said.

“And it is not true that we are measuring the supply throughout the season and taking advantage of gluts and shortages. In many instances when there is a glut, we only learn about it afterwards. How do you explain everybody planting the same things at the same time, and when there is a glut, everybody complaining? That is because farmers are not communicating!”

However, Thompson argued that during visits to some of the top hotels in the Corporate Area, managers told him they deploy middlemen to Coronation Market in downtown Kingston to buy produce.

The JHTA president hit back by saying that while it might work for small properties with a maximum of 50 rooms, this method was not practical for hotels with 200-1,000 rooms or more.

“You cannot do that kind of subsistence purchasing,” he insisted. “We want to buy their produce, so if they can organise, as the minister of agriculture says they will be doing, by creating central receiving points and make it easier for the sector to access produce, we will support them,” Cummings added. (Jamaica Gleaner)

Senator Basil Waite gets a hug from Joyce Perry-Jacobs, a PNP supporter, at a car park in Santa Cruz, St Elizabeth, after he emerged winner in a selection exercise held at the St Elizabeth Technical High School yesterday. - Photo by Noel Thompson

Noel Thompson, Gleaner Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:

After a sometimes bitter and bruising campaign in the North East St Elizabeth constituency, Senator Basil Waite emerged victorious in an internal poll to choose the People’s National Party candidate to line up for the constituency in the next national election.

Waite, an opposition spokesman on education, had squared off with four other PNP contenders during a selection exercise which saw close to a full turnout of delegate electors at the St Elizabeth Technical High School in Santa Cruz.

The contenders were Nigel Pagon, a businessman; Winston Samuels, a teacher; Wensworth Skeffery, Region Five chairman; and Lynden Rose, a dentist.

Three hundred and fourteen of a maximum 327 ballots were cast.

Julian Robinson, deputy general secretary of the PNP, announced that Waite polled 179 votes; Skeffery 109; Rose eight; Samuels five, and Pagon 13.

There was jubilation inside the room as Waite’s supporters sang and danced popular revival songs such as We Nuh Want No Botheration.

“I am humbled by the reaction of the people. They have spoken and I have heard them. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve them. We will now have to work towards reuniting the constituents and establish our strength and structures within the constituency and our development plan to create opportunities for the people,” Waite said.

Waite, born in the north St Elizabeth town of Elderslie, near St James’ southern border, said his hometown roots and political work in the constituency had significant bearing on his triumph.

“I think the support of stalwarts such as Roger Clarke, Danny Buchanan, the councillors and my campaign manager, who shall remain nameless, have also contributed to my winning.”

Anxious supporters

Shortly after 4 p.m. yesterday, orange-clad supporters wearing T-shirts emblazoned with photos of their preferred candidate streamed into the schoolyard to hear the announcement of the winner.

Not even squalls could deter them from coming, as party loyalists crouched underneath umbrellas, along piazzas and inside minibuses.

President of the People’s National Party Youth Organisation, Damion Crawford, beamed with confidence ahead of the count that Waite would be declared the winner.

“I am extremely confident that Basil is a far better candidate, and the result will reflect that,” Crawford had said.

Weeks earlier, rifts had appeared among the PNP’s North East St Elizabeth base, as intra-party rival supporters engaged in a public war of words - climaxing in a shoving match at a party meeting - and forcing PNP President Portia Simpson Miller to impose a gag order on candidates in a bid to defuse tensions.

The contest was set after the party hierarchy decided that Kern Spencer, the sitting MP, could be a political liability to the PNP were he to face the electorate again. Spencer is on a fraud rap related to his involvement in a light-bulb distribution programme while he was junior energy minister in the Simpson Miller administration. (Jamaica Gleaner)

noel.thompson@gleanerjm.com

By Anna Ramdass anna.ramdass@trinidadexpress.com

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has lashed out at those who criticised her dancing in Jamaica, saying she loves her dancing shoes and any shoe that will allow her to continue serving the people.

Persad-Bissessar was speaking at a People’s Partnership Local Government campaign meeting in Sangre Grande on Saturday evening.

An energised Persad-Bissessar said her detractors in the recent General Elections had criticised the sweaters she wore and now they were criticising her shoes.

At the Caricom Heads of Meeting in Jamaica two weeks ago, Persad-Bissessar stole the show when she danced at a farewell function for the leaders.

On Saturday, she said, “In this campaign now they talking about Kamla’s shoes! Hello, I love shoes, I have nice shoes. I went to Jamaica, which is my second home, I lived there for 14 years, I was a student there, I was a teacher there, I was a lecturer at the university … and they playing the songs I love to sing with you.

“So they saying Kamla put on dancing shoes in Jamaica. Man vex because they have no dancing shoes, and on top of that I will put my dancing shoes on in Trinidad too. But hello, I put on my Wellington boots as well and walk in the water in the floods on the first day I became Prime Minister.”

She added, “So fellahs, if you don’t like my shoes I’m very sorry for you. I love my dancing shoes, I love my Wellington boots and I love any shoes that I will wear in service to the people of Trinidad and Tobago.”

Persad-Bissessar also pointed out that in just over 50 days the People’s Partnership Government has delivered many of its promises made on the campaign, such as shelving property tax and the revenue authority of Trinidad and Tobago, laptops for school children, establishment of a children’s life fund, removal of the Coat of Arms from the Prime Minister’s official vehicle, establishment of the Ministry of the People and increased old age pension among others.

“Those are some of the promises we made and those are some that we have kept, and I want to tell you tonight we will keep every single promise we made to you,” she said.

Transport Minister Jack Warner also sent a message to Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley.

“Rowley could say about me what he want … I will take him on headstrong, but you tell Rowley for me tonight, leave Kamla alone because if he believes he will be able to succeed against Kamla as he considered and was able to succeed against Manning, I have news for him,” Warner said.

He said Rowley has been in Parliament for 20 years and never told former Prime Minister Patrick Manning that what he was doing was wrong until he was fired.

“Therefore, when Rowley come to you to ask you for your vote, ask him why he didn’t come to you for the past seven years … ask him why on four occasions he voted against this elections,” Warner said. (Trinidad Express)

By Renuka Singh

The People’s National Movement (PNM) lost the May 24 General Election because they failed to serve the people, says former PNM MP Roger Joseph.

Joseph has resigned from the PNM and joined the People’s Partnership.

Speaking on the political platform of the People’s Partnership on Saturday in Sangre Grande, Joseph explained why he left the PNM after 28 years.

The former Minister in the Ministry of Works and Transport said when he got into office on a PNM ticket, “what I expected and what turned out were two different things”.

He said he grew up with the political philosophy that a representative must serve the people.

“When I came into Parliament as an MP, I tried my best … when you have to depend on your Cabinet colleagues to give you services to the people, when you not a Cabinet Minister dog better than you, the people of La Horquetta/Talparo will tell you the lengths and the extent to which I went to serve them,” he said. “When the PNM lost the election they lost the election for one reason only, and that was no service to the people. And I also want to tell you I ask for nothing, I don’t want to be a candidate, I don’t want any directorship, I want to work in the community and serve the people.”

He said after the PNM’s defeat he tried to encourage members Pennelope Beckles and Colm Imbert to strive for leadership.

“But then Dr (Keith) Rowley became political leader and I decided that I did not want to be part of that, because I am not going to be part of a bunch of misfits whose only agenda as far as I’m concerned is one of victimisation and one of spite,” he said.

Joseph, also a former chairman at the Tunapuna/Piarco Regional Corporation, urged the people to vote for the People’s Partnership.

“If you put the wrong councillor there you will frustrate the work of the parliamentarians, you are going to cause conflict … it is very important that you put a team that can work together for delivery of the services to the people,” he warned.

Joseph was the second PNM member to join ranks with the People’s Partnership in as many days. On Friday evening, former San Fernando mayor Ian Atherly mounted the political platform, also in support of the People’s Partnership.

Calls to Rowley’s cell phone yesterday went unanswered. (Trinidad Express)

–Anna Ramdass

By Gary Cardinez

The audience at the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA) in Port of Spain was shocked on Saturday night, as they watched the Calypso King of the World, the Mighty Sparrow, sit throughout his entire performance during NAPA Fest.

Slinger Francisco, brought on stage in a wheelchair, was placed on a chair in the centre of the stage before the stage lights went on. The sight of the once-powerful performer, now just a shadow of himself, brought tears to the eyes of many. The effect was so disturbing that some patrons left the building.

Sparrow, 75, who lives in New York, is suffering from diabetes, which continues to take a toll on his body. However, on Saturday night it was clear Sparrow’s voice is still strong.

With beautiful music coming from the Police Service brass band under the baton of Enrique Moore, Sparrow started off with “Education”. He performed well and while the audience was taken aback by his appearance, they still requested songs from his extensive repertoire. “Saltfish” was next and this is when the situation was driven home—fans began to talk about actually seeing Sparrow singing “Saltfish” sitting in a chair.

Sparrow then told the audience, “There are a lot of things we have to deal with in life, look at this.”

As he did so, he opened his arms to show the audience his immobile position. By then, he appeared to be getting tired, but Sparrow refused to give up, moving on to “Mae Mae”. Several patrons felt he had done enough and should have left the stage. Sparrow then called on the band to play “Jean and Dinah”.

It was, however, during this song that MC Alvin Daniell realised that the calypsonian had reached the end of his tether. The lights were dimmed and the wheelchair crew came on stage to gently push Sparrow off but not before the audience, unprompted, rose to give their king a standing ovation.

In contrast, 70-year-old Calypso Queen of the World, Calypso Rose, showed she is still going strong with a rollicking, dancing performance. She told the audience she had survived two cancer surgeries and continued to thank God for her survival. One of the songs she sang was her crown-winning “I Thank Thee”, in which she praised the people and places responsible for her success. One of them was Sparrow, whom she considers her mentor and with whom she has performed in many parts of the world.

Contacted yesterday, Sparrow’s wife, Margaret, said it was not that the master calypsonian could not walk, but that walking has been causing him severe pain over the last month.

She said doctors in the United States, where her husband has been based for years, have been unable to pinpoint the cause. She said she was hoping that the results of tests he had taken would throw greater light on the precise nature of the affliction this week.

Sparrow flies back to the US today, where he is booked to appear on shows, including one with the reigning monarch Kurt Allen, who also performed Saturday night. The rate of his recovery will determine whether those shows now have to be put on hold. (Trinidad Express)