Friday, January 19, 2018

Carnival 2018: Behave nah chirren


They say that empty vessels make the most noise. And there is no vessel emptier than Trinidad and Tobago’s Carnival. This is why fete promoters Red Ants are warning the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) that attempts to curb   noise levels of fetes during the Carnival season could spell the end of Carnival itself. After the EMA took issue with the decibel levels of Red Ants’s fete this week the promoters issued a statement saying “The strict application of decibel levels can effectively kill Trinidad and Tobago Carnival and the culture.” After all the greatest show on earth doesn’t have much to offer spectators these days, its only saving grace is that it can at least still rupture your eardrums.

The public largely applauded the EMA’s tough stance. Mostly because in T&T it’s always shocking when organizations in charge of enforcing laws actually enforce those laws. There is sure to be some push back by promoters though. During his performance at Red Ant’s fete, Soca Star Machel Montano complained that he “couldn’t hear himself” on the monitors, after the EMA insisted the music be lowered.  The residents in the area, trying to sleep at 2am might have responded with “lucky you Machel”. But citing these technical issues maybe the way in which promoters may get the EMA to raise their decibel limits. Or maybe just by leaving some cash outside and looking the other way. Because some types of culture will never stop no matter how low the music is.
And speaking of jamming. This year the Police have outlawed wining without consent. Revelers caught ‘thiefing a wine’, will face the full brunt of the law.  Which in T&T means you won’t get caught to begin with. But if you do, you’ll get to escape from remand yard a few days later. It’s no clear how the police intend to apprehend wining thieves. Especially as they seem to have enough trouble apprehending actual thieves. Japanese tourist Asami  Nagakiya who was strangled to death in the Queens Park Savanah during carnival in 2016 has yet to receive the dignity of her killer being brought to justice. Though I suppose if the Police ever manage to track down the men who took a wine on her crossing the stage, they can give themselves a medal.
This isn’t to say the idea that men needing consent before wining on a lady is wrong. Indeed it really says something about carnival that the issue of not rubbing up your genitals against someone without their permission has generated as much debate as it has.  
For some people ‘theifing a wine’ is as proudly Trinbagonian as ‘theifing a million barrels of oil from Petrotrin. For others it’s another example of the entitlement men feel they have to female bodies. For me personally it’s a bit of both. I don’t think anyone should be touched without consent. But I do think if you are in the middle of hundreds of thousands of semi naked people, getting drunk and listening to “grind on it, grind on it” over and over. Expect some of those people to not respect your personal boundaries.
But the most startling crackdown this carnival isn’t on sound systems and illegal winers; its crude song lyrics. The Telecommunications Authority (TATT) has deputized themselves as the morality police and warned broadcasters about airing music what they deem as “disrespectful to women”. Consequently thousands of people rushed onto You Tube to listen to the songs TATT intended to unofficially ban.  One such song has been “Rowlee Mudda Count” by chutney soca artist Massive Gosein. Which according to one interpretation is a song about a poor lady who suffers from thieves stealing her vegetables. And another interpretation, as just a cheap excuse to cuss Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley. It seems TATT believe it’s the latter.  
This is the inherent problem with censorship. What gives TATT the right to assume its interpretation of song lyrics is the only valid one? And why should they project their moral values onto the rest of us? In T&T the morality police always hold themselves outside the law and above question. Kind of just like the real police.
Clearly the lesson this Carnival is that we are infants. We can’t be trusted to turn down the music for overselves. To not touch people without permission. Or to only listen to respectable government approved songs. The Government‘s theme for Carnival 2018 should be: “behave nah chirren”.



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