Berkeley Carnival Revolution seeks clarity on Special Operations Bill impact on Carnival

Berke­ley Car­ni­val Rev­o­lu­tion (BCR) is call­ing on the Gov­ern­ment to clar­i­fy how spe­cial op­er­a­tions mea­sures, in­clud­ing pos­si­ble cur­fews, move­ment re­stric­tions and per­mit re­quire­ments, could af­fect Trinidad and To­ba­go’s cul­tur­al sec­tor.

In a state­ment on Mon­day, BCR said mas camps, pan yards, stu­dios, the­atres, dance com­pa­nies and oth­er cul­tur­al spaces pro­vide young peo­ple and oth­ers with pro­duc­tive out­lets while build­ing skills, strength­en­ing com­mu­ni­ties and pre­serv­ing cul­tur­al tra­di­tions.

The group said many of these spaces have de­vel­oped in work­ing-class and mar­gin­alised com­mu­ni­ties, with much of the work tak­ing place at night.

With the 2027 Car­ni­val sea­son ap­proach­ing, BCR said cul­tur­al prac­ti­tion­ers can­not sim­ply be told to move their ac­tiv­i­ties to day­time hours be­cause many peo­ple in­volved in Car­ni­val have reg­u­lar jobs and par­tic­i­pate in cul­tur­al ac­tiv­i­ties af­ter work.

The is­sue was al­so raised dur­ing Fri­day’s par­lia­men­tary de­bate by Diego Mar­tin West MP Hans Des Vi­gnes, who said the pro­posed mea­sures could af­fect cul­ture, sport and youth.

Des Vi­gnes said cul­tur­al per­form­ers would have to move in and out of com­mu­ni­ties for re­hearsals and per­for­mances.

“Let us un­der­stand what this means in terms of cul­ture,” he said, be­fore be­ing in­ter­rupt­ed by Cou­va South MP Bar­ry Padarath.

Des Vi­gnes lat­er said he was “stand­ing up for my con­stituents who are cul­tur­al per­form­ers” who would have to “tra­verse in and out of com­mu­ni­ties”.

Padarath ar­gued that peo­ple in dif­fer­ent pro­fes­sions would still re­quire per­mits, while Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Mooni­lal told Des Vi­gnes to move on, say­ing Par­lia­ment had al­ready heard con­cerns about peo­ple in­clud­ing plumbers, elec­tri­cians, car­pen­ters, ath­letes and singers.

BCR al­so raised con­cerns about move­ment re­stric­tions, not­ing that Car­ni­val ac­tiv­i­ties in­volve peo­ple trav­el­ling be­tween com­mu­ni­ties and dis­tricts.

“A per­son may live in one dis­trict, work in an­oth­er, at­tend re­hearsals in a third, and trav­el through sev­er­al dis­tricts to get home,” BCR said.

It al­so ques­tioned how a per­mit sys­tem would af­fect peo­ple with­out smart­phones or re­li­able in­ter­net ac­cess.

BCR said it was con­cerned about com­ments at­trib­uted to De­fence Min­is­ter Wayne Sturge sug­gest­ing that mem­bers of the pub­lic need “an ounce of com­mon sense” to un­der­stand the per­mit sys­tem.

“Ask­ing le­git­i­mate ques­tions about how new re­stric­tions will af­fect peo­ple’s lives is not a lack of com­mon sense. It is re­spon­si­ble cit­i­zen­ship,” the group said.

BCR is ask­ing the Gov­ern­ment to ex­plain how cul­tur­al prac­ti­tion­ers and work­ers will ac­cess mas camps, pan yards, stu­dios, re­hearsal spaces and oth­er work­places; how peo­ple trav­el­ling be­tween dis­tricts will be ac­com­mo­dat­ed; and how per­mits will be is­sued to peo­ple with­out smart­phones or re­li­able in­ter­net ac­cess.

It al­so wants clar­i­ty on how late-night cul­tur­al ac­tiv­i­ty will be ac­com­mo­dat­ed and what arrange­ments will ap­ply dur­ing the Car­ni­val sea­son.

BCR said it does not sup­port “the cre­ation of a po­lice state to en­force a sys­tem of apartheid” and called for the pro­tec­tion of hu­man rights and dig­ni­ty.

“Se­cu­ri­ty can­not come at the ex­pense of peo­ple’s abil­i­ty to move, work, gath­er, cre­ate, and par­tic­i­pate in their com­mu­ni­ties,” the group said.

“Cul­ture can­not thrive when the peo­ple who cre­ate it can­not freely par­tic­i­pate in it.”