Shas­tri Boodan

Ramdeen "Fal­co" Ma­haraj, the 2009 NL­CB Na­tion­al Chut­ney Monarch, is sup­port­ing calls to keep rum and al­co­hol-re­lat­ed songs out of the 2010 com­pe­ti­tion. Ma­haraj said while he did not want to crit­i­cise the cre­ative tal­ents of his fel­low artistes, he be­lieved that the well-be­ing of so­ci­ety should come first. He said artistes should look at the wider role they played in im­pact­ing the pop­u­lar cul­ture of T&T. He said: "I am not against my fel­low artiste...I have noth­ing against the par­ty songs every­body is singing about rum. "How­ev­er, it's break­ing down the lifestyle of In­do-Trinida­di­ans and send­ing the wrong mes­sage, and projects the wrong im­age," he said.

"In my song�Free Rum, I fo­cus on the neg­a­tive im­pacts of al­co­hol on fam­i­ly life." Ma­haraj said "rum songs" were detri­men­tal es­pe­cial­ly to In­do-Trinida­di­ans, and might con­tribute to the de­cline of fam­i­ly life and pro­mote a neg­a­tive im­age on the In­do-Trinida­di­an male as a drunk­ard, in­ca­pable of do­ing any­thing else but me­nial jobs and drink­ing rum. Rik­ki Jai said he had no com­ment on the mat­ter, while Adesh Sama­roo whose mega hit Rum Til I Die in 2001 shot him star­dom said he was not tak­ing part in next year's com­pe­ti­tion.