PM tells revellers: Enjoy Carnival, but don’t embarrass yourselves

JENSEN LA VENDE

Se­nior Re­porter

[email protected]

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is call­ing on mas­quer­aders to re­frain from do­ing any­thing to em­bar­rass or hu­mil­i­ate them­selves or their loved ones while en­joy­ing the Car­ni­val rev­el­ry. Her com­ment came amidst calls by Arch­bish­op Ja­son Gor­don for the Gov­ern­ment to reg­u­late the fes­tiv­i­ties.

Guardian Me­dia asked the Prime Min­is­ter yes­ter­day to weigh in on the con­tro­ver­sy sur­round­ing the dis­tri­b­u­tion of adult toys by mas band Tribe in their good­ie bags to fe­male mas­quer­aders this Car­ni­val.

On Sun­day, the Ro­man Catholic Arch­bish­op, in his homi­ly, con­demned the move. He said if Car­ni­val con­tin­ues to slip in­to this type of “he­do­nism,” the Gov­ern­ment should step in and reg­u­late, par­tic­u­lar­ly Car­ni­val Mon­day and Tues­day, if mas bands fail to do so.

In a What­sApp re­sponse on the is­sue, Prime Min­is­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar of­fered some words of ad­vice, urg­ing mas­quer­aders not to em­bar­rass them­selves or their fam­i­lies.

“My ad­vice to Car­ni­val rev­ellers is to en­joy your­selves, but don’t do any­thing to em­bar­rass your­self or de­mean your loved one’s rep­u­ta­tions. I wouldn’t want to see any­one who was re­al­ly just try­ing to have a good time be­ing hu­mil­i­at­ed on so­cial me­dia be­cause of a re­gret­table act they com­mit­ted in a mo­ment of bad or im­paired judge­ment.” The Prime Min­is­ter did not ad­dress the call for the Gov­ern­ment to reg­u­late the fes­ti­val.

But pres­i­dent of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Car­ni­val Bands As­so­ci­a­tion (TTC­BA), Mark Ayen, said any move to reg­u­late mas or mas bands must be­gin with con­sul­ta­tion with the stake­hold­ers. Ayen said he hopes his or­gan­i­sa­tion is con­tact­ed be­fore any­thing is im­ple­ment­ed.

“When we speak about our cul­ture, our cul­ture is a man­i­fes­ta­tion of our peo­ple, a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of our peo­ple. So, what I would say is that con­sul­ta­tion is re­quired be­fore any de­ci­sion is made where our cul­ture and our Car­ni­val are con­cerned. And I do ask and will man­date that the rel­e­vant stake­hold­ers are in­volved in that con­ver­sa­tion be­fore any de­ci­sion is made,” he said.

Cul­ture Min­is­ter Michelle Ben­jamin said she could not im­me­di­ate­ly com­ment and want­ed to re­spond in writ­ing to the ques­tions raised in re­la­tion to calls for the Gov­ern­ment to reg­u­late Car­ni­val.

When con­tact­ed, Tribe Group CEO Dean Ackin said he had no com­ment.

But for Ayen, the dis­tri­b­u­tion of the sex toy is just a con­tin­u­a­tion of Tribe as a pri­vate en­ti­ty, do­ing as it sees fit. He added that “many years ago”, the band dis­trib­uted con­doms with not as much push­back.

“So, are they pro­mot­ing safe sex? Is that what it is? So again, it’s al­ways how you look at it, you look at the cup half emp­ty or half full.”

In a post in the Catholic News, Fa­ther Robert Chris­to penned an ar­ti­cle en­ti­tled “Is Car­ni­val for Sale”.

Chris­to said the Church is not against Car­ni­val, but what he said was over­con­sump­tion. Chris­to said there is a love for Car­ni­val, not just by the Arch­bish­op but al­so by the Catholic Church.

“The Church is not an­ti-Car­ni­val. We are a peo­ple of Res­ur­rec­tion joy. But joy turns in­to idol­a­try when free­dom mu­tates in­to ex­ploita­tion, when cre­ativ­i­ty be­comes com­mod­i­ty, il­lic­it sex acts re­place sa­cred sex­u­al­i­ty and when the poor dis­ap­pear from the streets they built with their sweat. The prophets al­ways asked the same pierc­ing ques­tion: Where is the poor? If the an­swer is ‘out­side the ropes’, then some­thing holy is be­ing stolen.”

He said the fes­ti­val, born on Pic­cadil­ly Street and in Laven­tille yards, has a soul, which was shaped by “the breath of the small man, the drum of the poor, the craft of the cre­ative, and the joy of a peo­ple.”

“But to­day the ground be­neath us has shift­ed. A new tribe has risen, not of cul­ture but of cap­i­tal. A tiny cir­cle of mon­ey-hun­gry moguls, a mafia-like oli­gop­oly, now holds the reins of the fête econ­o­my and dic­tates the face of cel­e­bra­tion in Trinidad and To­ba­go. What once be­longed to the many has been cap­tured by the few.”

His com­ments echoed the Arch­bish­op’s, who blamed a few band lead­ers for the sup­posed moral de­cay of Car­ni­val. Chris­to said there is a “small clus­ter of pro­mot­ers” gate­keep­ing ac­cess and deny­ing any­thing and any­one they deem un­fit to match their band.

“Mean­while, the or­ange ven­dor who once stood by the gate, the snow cone man who sweet­ened the night, the bot­tle col­lec­tor hus­tling with pur­pose, the small rum shop feed­ing a cor­ner crew, the young hus­tler with a cool­er, the pan around the neck side rais­ing funds un­der the street­light, all find them­selves priced out, fenced out, or reg­u­lat­ed out of spaces they helped to build. The cru­el irony is that we are pay­ing the moguls for the priv­i­lege of feel­ing in­clud­ed.”

Touch­ing on what he called the he­do­nis­tic turn of Car­ni­val, Chris­to wrote that the coun­try is view­ing a trou­bling ex­change where he­do­nism is over­shad­ow­ing her­itage and elit­ism re­plac­ing in­clu­siv­i­ty.

“Con­sump­tion is swal­low­ing cre­ativ­i­ty, fash­ion out­shin­ing folk­lore, com­mer­cial­i­sa­tion eras­ing com­mu­ni­ty, and sex­u­al spec­ta­cle dis­tort­ing a God-giv­en sex­u­al­i­ty. When a fête be­comes a mar­ket­place of bod­ies, wan­ton greed, and al­co­hol rather than a cel­e­bra­tion of beau­ty, re­silience, com­mu­ni­ty, his­to­ry and be­long­ing, some­thing sa­cred is lost.”

Chris­to said Car­ni­val is now at a cross­roads and the ques­tions must be asked: who is ben­e­fit­ing, what is be­ing cel­e­brat­ed, who is be­ing pushed out and who we are be­com­ing.

He said Car­ni­val Mon­day and Tues­day have been qui­et­ly cap­tured by “the same mafia-like moguls” who are cu­rat­ing an “ul­ti­mate ex­pe­ri­ence” which he said felt more like con­trolled con­sumer events than peo­ple’s mas.

“The pure brand of Car­ni­val’s au­then­tic­i­ty is fad­ing as the old free­dom of Mon­day wear gives way to a nar­row, brand­ed road ex­pe­ri­ence man­aged by a few and paid for by the many.”

He said the way Car­ni­val is mar­ket­ed now seems glut­to­nous.

“You smell the moun­tain of wast­ed food. You hear mu­sic so loud it drowns the pos­si­bil­i­ty of re­al con­ver­sa­tion. You taste the pres­sure to over-con­sume sim­ply be­cause the price was high. You touch the vel­vet ropes and guard­ed en­trances de­signed to sep­a­rate peo­ple. You see a hy­per­sex­u­alised im­age of free­dom that feels more cu­rat­ed than cul­tur­al. Every­thing is loud­er, prici­er, and more ex­trav­a­gant, yet strange­ly emp­ti­er.”

He quot­ed US Bish­op Robert Bar­ron, who said when plea­sure re­places pur­pose, the soul shrinks. He added that the Church’s the­ol­o­gy of the body is a re­minder that the hu­man body is sa­cred and is made not for con­sump­tion but for com­mu­nion and re­la­tion­ship.

He said a re­bel­lion is ris­ing in the form of Patrice Roberts’ free give­back con­cert and a “pay-what-you-can” mas band by Berke­ley Car­ni­val Rev­o­lu­tion. This, Chris­to said, was a form of push­ing a dif­fer­ent kind of in­clu­siv­i­ty.

“These move­ments whis­per that the peo­ple are tired of be­ing priced out of the fes­ti­val they cre­at­ed.”