Don’t spoil a thing of beauty

10.JULY.09

There is a lot about our Carnival of which we can be justly proud. VINCY MAS 2009, the self-proclaimed “Hottest Carnival in the Caribbean” has borne ample witness to this.{{more}} Yet again, our artisans have demonstrated that they are nobody’s poor relations when it comes to the quality of their presentations. The skill, creativity and wizardry they display show us what deep reserves of talent we still have, largely untapped in our society. If the discipline required to produce such works of art were employed on a day-to day level, who knows what heights we could achieve as a productive people? Hats off to our mas makers for yet another job well done. We can truly hold our heads high.

In other areas of the Festival, we have seen outstanding presentations, continuing the trend over the years, making for a truly enjoyable Carnival package. The Miss Carival show continues to enjoy regional prestige, if one can gauge by the level of participation from year to year, and our Soca Monarch practitioners must be among the best in the entire region. The areas of most concern would seem to be pan and calypso. Pan, because we have crowded it out of the agenda, not just for carnival, and despite the valiant efforts of some, its continued existence as a cultural art form is in serious doubt. We are not even trying to pay lip service to it anymore.

Judging from the calypsoes this year, and the number of “big guns” in the Calypso Monarch finals, one may wonder why is there concern about kaiso. For one, the problems experienced in organizing tents from year to year are frustrating many out of the business. Additionally, after all these years, it is still impossible to make a decent living from singing calypso in St.Vincent and the Grenadines. And we cry out for professionalism? Further, consider the finalists in the Dimanche Gras competition. Check not their ages, but their years in the calypso business – 20, 25, 30 years and counting. What does this tell us about the future of the art form?

There was a time when we considered that the Junior Calypso Monarch competition would provide the successors. We can’t be that sure anymore, for we have tipped the scales heavily in favour of the Soca Monarch route, by the way we promote our soca artistes in the society. A young singer aspiring to professional status in the calypso world will only naturally choose soca or ragga-soca as giving him/her a chance to make a career as against the traditional art form. Who can blame them? For all these reasons we can only admire the courage and dedication of those calypso bards who have kept the culture alive and who continue to make Dimanche Gras a unique experience in the “jump and wave” era.

On this note, special congratulations must go to Calypso Monarch Joy-C Creese for making a remarkable bounce back. Her courage in fighting personal adversity was shared with the rest of us in her powerful exhortation to us all to summon the inner strength to survive and prosper. It is also a triumph for all women in calypso and soca, for the male-dominated DJ crowd needs to pay more attention to the works of our sisters and give them more airplay. In an age when we talk of gender equity and more balanced relationships between men and women, too many compositions continue to denigrate women. Sadly, even some female singers fall into this trap.

The upshot of this is manifested on the streets during Carnival. What ought to be a celebration of culture is fast deteriorating into debauchery. As the costumes and garments get skimpier, the behavior gets more brazen. It is as though our women no longer have any pride in themselves. Worse, we are doing it, not in private parties or adult dance-halls, but in full view of our children. Indeed, some of the worst offenders are mothers themselves. Is that degeneration the direction in which we need to go? What examples are we setting? No wonder David Rudder had to remark: “Dis is not a fete in here, dis is madness.” We do not have to go down that road to enjoy ourselves. We do not have to invoke Sodom and Gomorrah to achieve happiness. We have worked hard to build up the reputation of Vincy Carnival. Let’s not spoil it in the vain search for instant gratification.