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Do we know even half as much about Derek Walcott as we know about Paris Hilton and Rihanna? Does anyone care that we don’t?
It was Andy Warhol, the avant-garde filmmaker and pop painter, who in 1968—and without the smallest soupçon about the coming of the Internet—predicted that “in the future everyone will be world-famous for fifteen minutes.”
Four decades later, from the comfort and presumed safety of our living room sofas, we can in real time enjoy breathtaking high-speed police chases along the Hollywood freeway, or court hearings, whether centered on the proclivities of Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton or O. J. Simpson. We can at the same exhilarating moment experience with millions of fellow voyeurs the world over the shock and titillations of wardrobe malfunctions that “accidentally” expose to our libidinous inclinations the most intimate secrets of Janet Jackson, Madonna and Britney Spears. Small wonder that we know more about the secret lives of such as Rihanna and American Idol’s Adam Lambert than we do about ourselves “as a people,” to borrow from our more intellectual culture vultures. But you say, dear reader, that I exaggerate. Then tell me, without peeking at Wikipedia, what is Derek Walcott’s middle name? About whom does his Mongoose poem speak?
See what I mean? You don’t know, right? If you experience embarrassment, fret not. All is not lost. Unlike scores I could name, you can still feel some discomfort at discovering how little you know about our world-renowned Nobel Laureate, the universally acknowledged greatest living English-language poet, whose genius is seriously celebrated in every country save that of his birth—and I don’t mean celebrated as carnival is celebrated.
But I digress. We were talking about Warhol’s fifteen minutes of fame. I cannot help wondering, when he made his prediction, what was uppermost in the mind of the artist: was he saying future fame would be deciduous, that the unending fame associated with such as Liz Taylor, the Beatles, Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Hemmingway and James Baldwin would in the future give way to a fifteen-minute quickie kind of thrill? That every fifteen minutes or so Hollywood would dump a star in favor of a new supernova? If so, then how to explain Ms Taylor and the others earlier named, who endure despite the Kardashians and the Simpsons and Hugh Hefner’s evanescent troikas?
Or was Warhol referring only to our attention span? The evidence suggests we have lost our natural ability to concentrate, leaving it to others to determine where our focus must be. Consider the Dudas Coke matter that only a few weeks ago was as much fodder for CNN as it was “a hot button issue” for Newsspin. How many of us, despite all the political voodoo that accompanied the brouhaha, know where Coke is at this moment or what might be his current situation? Has he, is he likely to, cut a deal with the Feds that could see leading Jamaican politicians and businessmen in serious trouble? Did Dudas have connections with politicians in the other islands, including Saint Lucia, that could affect ordinary citizens?
And what about the list of unsolved killings in our country? Do we care that those responsible are at large and threatening our safety? Or were we always more interested in the political ramifications inherent in the government’s decision to change police chiefs? Where is Ausbert Regis? Is he still on sick leave? Is he drawing a salary paid out of the Consolidated Fund? Remember Laborde, Saint Lucia’s premier drummer deceased? Remember how we showered such agape love on his perforated naked corpse that our beleaguered cops dared not follow a trail that could lead to motives other than burglary? How quickly we seem to have forgotten Laborde’s “countless contributions to local culture!” So, again I ask: Do we care that killers and rapists and burglars are out there, altogether contemptuous of the police, waiting for the next defenseless citizen to walk by? Not by the evidence, not when there is “the scholarship thing” to rant and rave about this week! But that too will pass, the government might well be thinking, as so many earlier life-and-death, hot-button issues have passed—all having had their allotted fifteen minutes in the spotlight, if only nationally!
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Between now and next year things will get real messy. Dudus Coke will cop a deal and many will fall and then you will know who in St Lucia had any connection not to mention those right here in the good old USA. The US already inform Jamaican Officials of new indicitments and this new list has many big fish on it , nuff people sweating all over. Coke’s operation was not based in Jamaica alone.
tell me about it……stlucia have things…..i wonder if i am the only one who knows about our regular submarine visits………….tick tock……..tick tock……some body getting paid…….the marine police better start looking down ….or maybe they getting paid to look up?
I think you give Warhol too much credit, the guy did a lot of none sense film and talked utter crap. Do the research and you will see for yourself.
Fame is not real, it’s just a form of marketing.
you missed the point bredren!!!!!!!!!!!!
I usually miss the point when I read Rick’s articles, I need to go back to university to refresh my brain.
Rick I do agree with you on this point- that we as a society, and not just St.Lucians, tend to forget quickly and move on to the next big thing.
My issue, however, is the one you highlighted. The power of the media in our current social settings. Like you said our media houses, including the Star, are integral in the choices people make in their day to day lifes. From the brand of soap we use to the kind music we enjoy.
But what people easily fail to realize is that these media houses, like any other profit driven venture, are in it for the bottom line-the dollar. Why would they cut the hand that feedds them? That is the current BIG ISSUE. Rick would you on next week’s issue of your paper run a story that you think the public would not be interested in? If you did your papers would remain in the stands and consumers would buy some paper that they believed was more relevant to the current events. As a result, today’s burning issues become tommorrow’s after thoughts.
My point is that you come out here chastising the St.Lucian public about our lack of interest in our country when you and your kind- the media establishments- continue to make profit based decisions and expect society to act differently. Stop calling kettle black. The power is in your hands use it for the right things.
Well said. the Media is the biggest culprit in the de-contructors of our society.
Right on….the media is the problem.
Rick, please don’t make life hard for us cuz we are working to keep our reputation and label as ‘Small Island folks’ mostly given to us by our larger Caribbean neighbors. How dare you try to force pride on us when even recently we were the 2nd dumbest in the world?
Silently, we know who we are, we know our achievements but we don’t brag and we are proud of our folks. We are more evolved (consciously) than most and hence the fact that we are so friendly, and we don’t pound our chests like baboons.
Down deep, Derek knows that we are proud of him, perhaps we just take him for granted since we don’t wear our pride and show-off like others do. He knows it.
ACTUALLY DUDUS IS A HERO
please think about this statement for a moment….
you might even agree with me
however DUDUS IS A HERO
Rick you are one of the key perpertrators of hype and delusion.how many times have you coined a dramatic headline only for the body of the article to unrelated.
More to the point you are guilty of promoting, highlighting an issue for one week in your paper and very rarely is there follow up.
Delusion for the past three and a half years you have defended the indefensible ie the current government. the only issue you have been consistent on is your paronoid obsession with Kenny Anthony. And even on this issue I predict by the next election you and Kenny will kiss and make up
.Come on Rick you were one of the prime promoters of Compton unsuitability to govern the country, yet you backed him in the last election- yes you backed him by your silence on his moral malaise and other matters.
Delusion Mr. Wayne you are the master of D E L U S I O N
Rick Derek’s middle name is Alton and he wrote “The Mongoose” about his contemporary/”adversary”, VS Niapaul. In that poem he viciously criticized VS Niapaul for a variety of sins, among which were Walcott’s observation of Niapaul’s declining ability as a poet, VS not crediting Trinidad, the country that “nursed his gift”, to wit: “cursed its first breath for being Trinidadian” alluding to Niapaul’s be unpatriotic, his seeming racisim where he quipped “he, VS, does not like black men but loves black c..t” among other things.
Now to the meat of the matter, we are in America’s backyard and we mimic American culture in many ways not the least of which is our interest in the new fad, the newest soaps about Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton etc. We are virtual cultural colonies of America. The phenomenon of short memories and not being able to focus on one important issue and bring the matter to at least an acceptable resolution has it’s orogins in the classroom the two words that was repeated the most by our teachers in school was “pay attention” that was the case when I was a student as well as when I was a teacher.
“Tallpin” made mention of the role of the media but I have to say that the media does it’s job to bring the important matters the affect our lives to the fore by reporting on them. There have been exposes and more than one article about a matter in the Star for instance. At any rate the onus is on us the electorate, the population, to keep the pressure on the powers that be to address the issues satisfactorily. The media has it’s job and yes they have to balance the fact that they are a profitable venture with their social responsibility. Some do a better job of it than others. As far as The Star is concerned, I think they have a passing score in my book. Let me say here that hold no brief for the paper or it’s owner/editor. “Haiee chien la dee dent ye blanc.” (Hate the dog, but acknowledge it’s white teeth).
Tell Derek Walcott connect with the ppl - FIRST, then we will get to know him.
OK, here it is. We as Luciano have lost our sense of who we are or rather who we were. Our history is lost. We associate ourselves with a recent political history that has left us bitter, resentful, without trust and unfortunately, greedy. Our greed is for quick fixes that serve us like coke to the drug addict. As long as we get that fix yeah its ok until we hit that low then we explode in reaction looking for anyone and anything to lash out against and to blame. Our culture has been replaced by the media and we live in a world of what else can I emulate from my flat screen god. The contributions of the men and women who shaped our nation, those whose sweat is mingled in the concrete if our buildings, those who traveled abroad and lost their lives for a cause, those who died senselessly at the hands of crime, those who educated us, our parents and their parents, have long been trivialized and long since forgotten. Helen of the West? That’s how I still think of our home but in my heart that image is quickly fading. It is our duty to not forget our heritage. We are and always will be SAINT LUCIANS! Let us all wake up and make our beds. Be our brother’s keeper. Stop trying to rob your neighbor but instead help protect the neighborhood. Times are tough but we need to share nor scare! Let there not be cause to right another poem about “a city’s death…”
” flat screen god ”. I like that…
OK, I read the article but I missed the point. You were all over the place dropping names as you went along. St.Lucians may not be unique in their thirst for information in this celebrity driven culture, as a New York resident I cannot help but notice how gossip magazines fly off the shelf, and main stream media newspapers now gravitate to more salacious headlines to boost sales. It is epidemic, and the explosion of reality shows is rendering viewers to the dumb and dumber scrap heap. Now that you mentioned the Kardashians…….