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Saturday, January 19, 2008

Carnival is over

So this is how it ends: with neither a bang nor a whimper, but a meeting of "stakeholders". This is the logical and utterly depressing conclusion of Carnival's mercenary debasement over the last two decades: representatives of Pan Trinbago, TUCO, the NCBA, and the NCDF want to "set Carnival to a permanent fixed date in April" because "Carnival is now an industry and like any other it needs regulating". These are the same people who have cut Carnival off from its community roots in the name of corporate sponsorship, pushed spectators off the streets and corralled masqueraders behind cordons in the name of security, suffocated real creativity in the name of profit margins, and are hell-bent on making Carnival the preserve of tourists and the comfortable middle class. Now they want to efface Carnival's ritual and historical roots in the name of convenience and efficiency, just as the PNM culture ministry effaced the Savannah barbergreen.

Minshall said it already: This Is Hell.

4 comments:

Mary Adam said...

Not being a Trini I don't feel as deeply as you about Carnival itself, though I can understand your despair. On the other hand, the unprecedented destruction of the Savannah is breaking my heart.

GirlBlue said...

I can't believe that this is even a. an option b. up for discussion

Katness said...

And so, one by one, the institutions disappear.

Stefan Falke said...

They could move Christmas to the end of September, that would leave enough time for the preparation and marketing of Carnival.