‘It dey, dey good so’

By Johnny Commansingh

 First, let me explain what the phrase ‘It dey, dey good so’ means. Howsoever and whatsoever is done is accepted as good. It doesn’t matter. There is this ‘nobody is watching mentality.’ In other words, mediocrity and shoddy workmanship could pass for excellence. It’s like nobody will die if there’s no steel in the house posts. There was a day when I checked on my shoemaker friend. As I entered his yard, I repeated the sentence “The end is near!” written on my T-shirt. Like a bat out of hell, his little sister ran down the rickety steps of the two-story house. She said that she heard “crick, crick, crick” and that was enough to tell her to run! They came tumbling down. The pillars showed the absence of steel. The person who built the house probably said to himself: “It dey, dey good so.”

In the 1970s, during the expansion of Northeastern College (NEC), my high school, I asked for a job as a mason helper. My first assignment was the measuring of ventilation blocks. They all looked equal to one another, but not all the blocks were the same size. I was energetic, happy with my job and maybe quite garrulous, asking all kinds of construction questions. I remember the night watchman with his shotgun on his shoulder greeting all the workers at seven o’clock in the morning with the words: “Wuk and ded!”

After a few days, the contractor called me to work with a professional mason. Here I was bringing sand and cement in a wheelbarrow, mixing plastering mortar, and making sure there were enough concrete blocks on the immediate site for the mason. I was also given the authority to collect the gun for stitching wire netting connections for attaching the blocks to the concrete pillars. My work with the mason was short-lived. The contractor asked me to go with a pointing trowel.

Pointing out the creases between rows of blocks was a bit difficult for me. I was told to point out one panel of blocks for my day’s work. After a few tries, I mastered the art of pointing. The ‘Clerk of Works’ came around to inspect the quality of work. He asked me if I did this panel. I answered in the affirmative. He complimented me on my good work and called the other pointers to see the quality of my work. Sadly, the panels that they pointed to were broken down and carted away. The Clerk of Works did not believe it dey, dey good so.

In 2004, when I visited Trinidad, there was no toilet paper and no soap in the international airport terminal at Piarco. Considering the amount of money that was spent to upgrade the airport, the restrooms were deplorable (crappy) and foul-smelling. Who were the people behind the designs of these restrooms? It is a burning shame that Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) could not find a good designer for an airport restroom. The tiled tops of the lavatories were flaking as though somebody literally kept biting off pieces. Well I guess that a latrine is a latrine in T&T. I mused that all that was missing in the airport is the shiny latrine lizard and two blue fly [vung-vung fly] to make it a complete latrine. We must place the blame squarely on the government at that time for this debacle. That whole damn airport should be done over! Nah boi! Oh gawd man!

Here’s what I published in my book Sweet and Sour Trinidad and Tobago (2010), about the Piarco International Airport:

“I never saw a cheap arse piece of work like that in my life…that airport has plenty bobol (malfeasance) inside dey. Fuh the amount of money dey spend…primitive, primitive, primitive! On top ah dat, dey cut dong all the nice trees dey had around the airport because the US president was coming tuh T&T fuh the Summit of the Americas. Dat geh mih so vex eh. Why dey eh cut dong all the damn trees in America all whe the president have tuh pass. Why dey eh cut dong all the damn cherry trees in Washington DC whe he living. Disappointed is an understatement!

How is it that in other places things run smoothly? I am not a Cleark of Works,’ a plumber or toilet inspector but ah have tuh drag mih bow. How is it that the airport toilet facilities in Bridgetown/Barbados, Maui/Hawaii, Baltimore/Maryland, Miami/Florida, Atlanta/Georgia, Kansas City/Kansas, JFK/Newark/New York, Salt Lake City/Utah, Chicago/ Illinois,  Minot/North Dakota, Detroit/Michigan, West Palm/Florida, Omaha/Nebraska, St. Pauls/Minnesota, Charleston/South Carolina, Houston/Dallas/Texas, Albuquerque/New Mexico, Tulsa/Oklahoma, Missoula/Montana, Kalamazoo/Michigan, Los Angeles/California, Boston/Massachusetts, Amarillo/Texas, and even Philadelphia/Pennsylvania are all clean, tidy, and smelling fine?

I am a geographer…I travel! Do I dare say again that white people seem know how to manage things? Watch some of the Trini custodial workers in Piarco, dey liming, sh*t talking, suiting gyul, watching woman bamsee, licking doubles paper, and dodging the supervisor…and on top of that, giving yuh cut-eye when you’re watching them leaning on their broom. What a travesty!

Am I in your face T&T? I guess T&T is a third world country, and dis is di best dat they could do. Many people in T&T are so accustomed to second and third class status that they are now used to it, so anything goes. If yuh smelling hog mess in Erin Village since yuh born, yuh bong tuh wonder why visitors blocking dey nose when dey come tuh Erin Village. Once the Trinis could ‘get ah ten days’ buy some hops bread, black pudding, two Carib beer, some doubles, and a Pepsi and wine dong the place well dat good! I am not blaming the government…ah blame the people for putting the government dey. So as we sometimes say, it dey, dey good so.

Yes, many people in T&T have toilets, but they still live in latrines. All dey missing is the latrine lizard in dey pocket. My Trini friend from Washington, DC said: “It is difficult to put ten gallons of petrol in a five-gallon tank.” It is all about the mentality…so jump and wave! Even better, pull off your panties just like the schoolteacher in the carnival band and wave for everybody to see.

I was right dey dat night in the Jean Pierre Complex (Steelpan Festival) when somebody did say with dey couyou mouth, “We like it so,” just like when Dr Eric Eustace Williams say one time, “Money is no problem.” (Right now money is the problem). Sir Ellis Clarke, former president of T&T was bound to say that because he was living so much higher than the steelpan players. Did you hear his name? Is “Sir” yuh talking ‘bout oui.  He and the queen of England is fren. Yuh think he could care less how dem fellas learn tuh play steelpan. He couldn’t care if dem fellas eat ah breakfast or ah lunch. Some ah dem fellas who was playing dey dat nite must be din even drink a glass of juice before dey start tuh play, buh we like it so.

Most ah dem fellas who playing steelpan eh know a G Clef from a Bass Clef, not an ounce of music, buh Sir Ellis like it so. Yes, he must like it so because he is now a master and dem steelpan boys and dem is slave. And yuh know what? Everybody thought dat the statement was cute and applicable to the masses. O gawd, some Trinis dotish yuh hear. Ah hope we like it so now with all the killings in Laventille, John John, Morvant and Patna, Waterhole, Cocorite, Diego, Arima, San Fernando, Sangre Grande, Tobago, and everywhere else not to mention the kidnappings, and the horrible murders of sweet little children…yes, we like it so!

Some ah dem steelpan players living in some of the wuss places in Trinidad and we like it so.  No upward mobility fuh dem fellas because we like it so.  Yes, we like it so with Patrick Manning, the PM (Project Manager) blaming Dr. Keith Rowley for missing money. Yes, we like it so with food prices getting so high dat yuh have tuh take ah cocoa knife tuh juk dong dem prices. Yes, we like it so, when the project manager sponsor two billion dollar international conferences with we money and we eh geh nutten in return.

Yes, we like it so when the people in Santa Flora and Los Bajos, and Palo Seco, and every damn place else cyar get ah lil water in dey faucet. Poor Hedwidge Bereaux, member of parliament for the area…he try so hard fuh the water tuh come in Santa Flora, Los Bajos, los Charos, Palo Seco, and Erin. It look like all dem people who wuking in the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) and public utilities have ah disease called ‘Stoppage ah water.’ Ah hope Mr. Bereaux could pee yes. Soon enough the good coconut water dat God heself send fuh we will disappear because dey have the Red Palm Mite (Raoiella indica) affecting the coconut trees now. It look like we doom! We time come for the seven last plagues tuh hit T&T.

Yes, we like it so; ah hear Desperadoes Steel Orchestra had tuh toes it out of dey steelpan tent in Laventille. After all these years on the pinnacle of Laventille Hill dey had tuh duss it from dey…violence in the place breds, gun toting violence! I read some time ago on the Express dat some T&TEC repair men went up dey tuh fix some electricity problem. And yuh know what?  Dem bandit and dem up dey rob the all the workers and dem at gunpoint. Yuh could believe dat?  And once again, we like it so! PNM win yesterday in Laventille, Morvant and Diego Martin buh the people of the country have tuh live today and tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.

Dis eh no joke, buh ah hear an Indian man from Cunupia was robbed, and dey even tief the man dog. I had a good laff…yuh eh have tuh listen tuh Tommy Joseph or Sprangalang fuh ah good laff; it coming tuh yuh live and direct from the villages of T&T. Sir Ellis, we like it so! The Hindu people and dem say, regardless of the Hanuman 85 foot high statue on the plains of Freeport, Trinidad, dat Kaljug come ahreddy in T&T. Ah will keep reading and watching the drama of life and death as it plays out in these two tiny rocks in the Caribbean.

Our mentality is one of intolerance. Kill or be killed. Leh the hurry road hog bullies of the society pass, doh argue…mash brakes, oh gawd chile, leh dem pass! When yuh hand in the lion mouth yuh have tuh pull it out easy. The era of the Wild West has now arrived in T&T! Where is Jesse James living? Up the hill… Boot Hill, Dodge City? Excuse me. I should not use Dodge City because Ford County in Kansas is the number-one safest place to live today in the USA. Dodge City is in Ford County. And we all know the exact location of Boot Hill in T&T. Yes, it dey, dey good so because we like it so.

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