“I’ve been in rooms, at the top of the top (in) which albums are prayed over, demonically, music is prayed over, demonically, and that goes out to the world, goes out to the radio stations, out to the public” (Shane Lynch, former Boyzone band member, 2023).

Culture is the US’s biggest export.

I was no longer a child when I realised that my beloved Sesame Street had one objective. It was to sanctify monsters and satanic things.

In the innocence of childhood and youth, one has no idea of the specific agenda.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines “monster” as a “mythical creature which is part animal and part human.”

How many monsters are there in the Sesame Street universe?

Cookie Monster, Grover Monster, Oscar the Grouch, Elmo Monster, Herry Monster, Imogene monster, the Two-Headed Monster, and the Cereal Girl’s dad with the relevant “devil” horns prominently displayed, among many others.

However, the most insidious of all is Count Von Count.

This is a satanic character, based on Count Dracula, who drinks human blood, turned into a “lovable” count teaching children how to count numbers – together with the relevant lightning and thunder in Count Dracula’s castle.

Many people do not know that vampire folklore states that if pursued by a vampire you should throw some seeds behind you. The vampire will have to stop and count every seed. Read it again.

These issues are raised in light of the significant advertising witnessed for American Halloween in TT this year.

Ancient peoples believed that on Halloween ghosts and monsters could visit the living. People dressed up as monsters to ward off evil.

The great irony is that the Christian Bible has various descriptions of monsters as well, including cherubim with four wings and four faces – that of a lion, man, eagle, and ox, with legs fused into a single leg like a calf’s hoof.

May God forgive us for our foolishness. We follow and appropriate things that we do not understand, and believe are harmless.

I lost touch with contemporary music when rap came along with its corrosive language.

It does not take much listening to realise that the US’s main objective is to significantly muddy the waters of other cultures.

LINUS F DIDIER

Mt Hope