Onslaught of Carnival Blues

06, Mar 2000
T&T Carnival has directly and indirectly spawned almost 100 Carnivals globally. Out of such revenues we should be able to build our own Carnival Centre.

Sometimes one is tempted to advocate that we stop the show for however long it takes us to get our act together.

Each year we rush headlong into this frenzy of maddening activity, undaunted by our failure to bring reason to bear on the agenda.

Every year too there is an attempt afterwards to do a "post-mortem", usually utilising a conference format, in which the noted intellectuals and "culture-vultures" come to pontificate, displaying their command of the poetry of language and their penchant to over-dramatise, but at the end of the day, nothing happens.

By the time transcripts and conference proceedings from the "post-mortems" become readily available to all and sundry, the mas-men and "Carnivalists" are already back into camp preparing for the next season of punishing frenzy. Who needs that?

In fact, the people who are directly involved tell us that there is only at most a three-month rest period after Carnival, usually from the middle of March to May, and by June they are back at it again.

It would seem as if this nation is riding the proverbial "tiger", a Carnival tiger, and we are unable to get off as a first step to harness the process with the power of human reason, intelligence and imaginative native wit. Hence the temptation to say, stop! stop! now! and put a rational programme in place. Everyone spoken to says that "stopping" is a no-no approach to the problem. That is not surprising.

Our national psyche is such that we seem to have a penchant for enduring and suffering ongoing crises indefinitely, as if awaiting some form of divine intervention that never comes. Nothing fixes itself. God helps those who help themselves. We must gird ourselves to take firm positions and fight to the end for what we believe to be right and just. Only stupid people, without a sense of history, hold fear of confrontation in such a context.

But most of all, there must be a vision of what we would like to implement as a means towards social development. What is the vision for Carnival?

We said before in this said space that T&T Carnival has directly and indirectly spawned almost 100 Carnivals around the world. Neither Brazil nor New Orleans has proven capable of doing likewise.

The reasons for T&T Carnival having developed export-potential shall be examined on another occasion. However, what is important for us to note in this discussion is that, altogether, these T&T -spawned Carnivals generate according to the Henry/Nurse study some US$4 billion annually, very little of which accrues to us because of our lack of entrepreneurial spirit and inventiveness, and our failure to grasp the fact that the entertainment industry is by far and large the biggest and most lucrative business in today's world.

Yes, Carnival has always been first and foremost a celebration of ourselves as we define our own "space" in the universe. But out of the process comes various highly marketable products now deemed "works of mas", involving imaging and costuming, musical forms, calypso and pan, etc. These are products which, like any other product, possess both use and exchange value. These are not to be given away freely. Every ounce of potential value of these Carnival products must be realised.

That is the cardinal principle of this capitalist world in which we live, and so it is the principle by which our creators must engage the process. The copyright laws dealing with works of mas has already been established in T&T so the legal framework is in place here to guarantee the creators income derived from any use of their creative constructs. The same must be made to apply in all the Carnivals abroad that may utilise in whatever way T&T manufactured constructs.

We must, therefore, attempt internationally to get all the various legal jurisdictions where mas is played to proclaim similar copyright laws. Secondly, we must get all the Carnival associations abroad to link directly with us here. The link now is informal, we must get such links properly constituted and all the associations must hammer out a concise and concrete vision for the management of Carnivals, making similar demands on the cities around the world that benefit economically from the existence of a T&T-type Carnival.

A 1/2 per cent tax on hotel occupancy, a minimal tax on all sales and business transactions in the city that result directly from Carnival activities to be accrued to the coffers of the various associations, etc, are mere examples of what may be possible and can add up to a sizable lot.

We must forego seeking handouts for Carnival and start at home to get proper value for what we create and for the joy we bring to the hearts and minds of so many.

Once such a vision is established, the possibilities for our Carnival and the 100 others shall become limitless.

Most of all, out of such revenues we should be able to build our own Carnival Centre to house the parade, since begging governments have failed to date to take Carnival away from the Savannah. Stop playing mas for nothing and everything shall be given unto us!