TWO of TnT’s leading exponents of the Calypso art form who were extremely critical about the performance of judges at C2K6 National Calypso competitions have been involved in workshops which teach judges how to judge kaiso, for the past two years.

But veteran Calypsonians Luta (Morel Peters), 2006 National Calypso Monarch and Shortpants (Llewellyn McIntosh), whose daughter Heather McIntosh failed to make it to the Dimanche Gras stage last Carnival Sunday, feels that for better results the workshop must be an on-going process.

Even though he won, Luta was still critical of the judges, while Shortpants slammed them for not picking his daughter as a finalist.

With the entire pre- and post-calypso bacchanal still fresh in some people’s mind, Shortpants, a school principal, didn’t want to say that his “students” over the years didn’t learn anything.

“One could say so, but the truth is that the process will take time before we get it right,” declared the artiste, who for two consecutive years focussed on how to judge lyrics in his classes with the calypso judges.

“I only dealt with one aspect of calypso judging,” he added.

Luta, a former teacher himself, however, is convinced that bad judging in calypso these days is because of the judges’ inability to separate their political bias from objectivity.

“It’s a clear case of ignorance and that’s responsible for poor judging,” Luta insisted.

He said there was always a wide disparity between judges.

Referring to his own case in 1994, when he was left out of the National Calypso Finals and following protest eventually got in as a finalist at the Queen’s Park Savannah and went on to capture the coveted crown, Luta added: “How in a semi-final, one judge could place a calypsonian last out of 24 and another judge have that same person first out of 24?

“That’s enough ground for discussion.”

He’s annoyed that judges are never called to account by Trinbago Unified Calypsonians’ Organisation (TUCO).

“It bothers me a lot that the judges are not called upon to account for the way the judging went,” he continued.

“You don’t have to interfere with the judges, but there must be some dialogue after a competition.

“It’s only so the standard of judging could be improved.”

Luta said he blanked this year’s judging seminar because TUCO called him “last minute”.