HANDING OUT FISH - the Peter O'connor column

Well, tonight is Dimanche’ Gras (sic), and tomorrow morning J’ouvert, and on Tuesday is (sic) Parade of the Bands! Three fabulous days for all of us, and I am not being sarcastic here. 

I really love all the joy of Carnival, and as an old macco have picked up beautiful memories over the years. But, time for me and Carnival has passed, so I leave it to most of you all to fete the fetes, push the pans and wine and prance through the streets. 

I never really cared who won what, because the idea of making this whole wonderful break away party into a competition remains a travesty of our misunderstanding ourselves. But that for another time, maybe after we see who protests which results, routes, plagiarisms etc.

But Ash Wednesday coming too. 

It will follow the Mas’, and that day, and the months that will follow, must be faced. And not only faced, but dealt with. Devout Christians will “give up” some worldly pleasure for the forty days that follow Carnival. Most Christians will announce a surrender of something, but that sacrifice will last about as long as the New Year resolutions they made a few weeks ago. 

Non-Christians will join the other “non-devoutees” and seek to continue their lives, in the laissez-faire, law-breaking manner to which we have all become accustomed, and which we embraced all the more fervently during the carnival season. 

Because of the fetes, and the shows, we were late for work, if present at all; we were ineffective on the job, and spent the working day steupsing about the results of the various shows and fetes which captured our attention, our energy, and our money.

Ash Wednesday is “cool down day”, not back to work. And in order to ensure that we are taking Ash Wednesday Cool Down into the future, thousands of schoolchildren will be kept away from school by their parents, so that they too, can adapt to this new “tradition”. 

Adapt and extend, for why not shut down everything for the remaining two days that week! We head hurting, we foot tired, so lehwe rest a few more days (sic). And since rest means we cannot get the children to school, we will train them in their obligations as future citizens, to stay home some more. That way we would not have to threaten and curse the teachers, and neither will our children…. See how it all works out?

Carnival continues to demonstrate that our culture depends upon competitive prizes, in the form of cash, and an ongoing idea that the culture only exists in brief flashes through the year: carnival, of course, and then the events surrounding Phagwa and Divali, where again, the competitive spirit and cash prizes have obliterated the true meanings of these Festivals. 

The massive cash handouts to individuals or orchestras do nothing to develop either the art forms or the sustained appreciation of the arts involved.

Dangle $2,000,000. Before the Soca Fraternity/Sorority and everybody is happy. The government supporting the Culture! The same is true for Steelband, Chutney and Tassa. 

When Ash Wednesday comes, or after Phagwa, there is nothing in any of our hearts to sustain any of the cultural icons or heights we created or celebrated for a couple of fleeting days. 

We paid lip service to that which is ours, and we return to the world of imported music, dance and “costumery” too easily and comfortably. Our culture is briefly embraced and then discarded-- song, pan and costume. Our artistes fought over the various prize monies while we texted our choices as we wine down the place.

And the powers --government and sponsors— finance this brief flirtation we have with our souls—they toss us the fish, looking like money, while the art of fishing is being lost. Creativity is aimed at winning the cash prize, “ah come out for dem dis year”, whether it is Kaiso, Soca, Panorama or Band of the Year.

We have already surrendered the art of costume making to factories in China. But no worry, we are going to fix that. We have apparently invited China to come here and set up their costume-making factory in Trinidad. 

So we will still pay the Chinese, build their factory and give them subsidized electricity as they bring their own people to make our costumes. Long live the art form!

And while we are fighting for the fish, we are teaching the Chinese how to catch fish.