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'Kitch' cleans up daddy, calls for governmentt to maintain icons' statues. Nneka Parsanlal Created: 11 February 2020 T&T News http://www.looptt.com/content/kitch-cleans-daddy-calls-govt-maintain-icons-statues |
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Aldwyn Roberts, better known as the Lord Kitchener, died on this day 20 years ago. Roberts was known as the grandmaster of calypso, one of the pioneers of the genre, that Trinidad and Tobago would continue to recognise despite his passing. In 1994. Lord Kitchener was immortalised in two statues; one in Arima, where he was from, and another in St James. Sadly, since then, not much has been done to preserve his memory. This morning, to commemorate Kitchener’s passing, his son, Kernal ‘Kitch’ Roberts took matters into his own hands. With some help from the Port of Spain City Corporation, ‘Kitch’ took to his father’s statue in St James to give him a much overdue clean-up. “A couple days ago, I was really depressed and saddened because some tourists came to my house and they were visiting the statues of our icons in Trinidad and they were really upset at the state that Trinidad has Lord Kitchener in,” he explained. He added that the tourists encouraged him to appeal for better maintenance measures for the statues, so he decided to do what he could for his father’s. Kitch says he was able to partner with GIno’s Restaurant and Bar in order to execute the clean-up. He expressed pride in being able to restore the Lord Kitchener’s statue to its former glory. “It means everything to me because daddy is a legend, he’s the grandmaster, he did so much for Trinidad and the culture. It’s all well to have him standing there, towering over St James, but have him clean. If you go to Jamaica and you see the Bob Marley statue, it’s shining like a diamond, so I think we have to cherish our own,” he said. Unsure of who to appeal to, Kitch says he hopes the relevant bodies take notice and seek to preserve the memories of our cultural icons. |