Supposing there's no Carnival next year. "Now we only supposing," as the calypsonian Composer once sang in what the old Dave Elcock would have described as a "delightful ditty", that what Lloyd Best once called "the central rite of the civilisation" does not take place in 2007 - at least in the form to which we have become accustomed.
Already, the Minister in the Ministry of Culture, Eddie Hart, has reaffirmed the Government's, which is to say Prime Minister Patrick Manning's determination that no Carnival feet will set foot in the Savannah, Mr Manning fed up with the old "horse shed" and persuaded, for all I know, by Benny Hinn that the place is crawling with demons, Hinn expostulating in his ear:
"I see dragons, imps and devils - my word, they are blue rather than black - and I see women gyrating in a most sinful way and men staggering in their cups - Good Lord, devils and devils by the dozens!"
Seriously, though, the Savannah is out and nobody knows what is in. Well, if Mr Kenny de Silva and the rest of his NCC colleagues know they are not telling, which I find difficult to believe, men of their experience knowing full well that Carnival is upon us, dragons breathing down our necks and minstrels crooning in our ears, to say nothing of the fiery likes of panmen like "Boogsie" Sharpe and "Wire" Austin hot on the Panorama trail.
I hear tell that Mr Hart has said that mas is for the road but I don't know if, like Archimedes or whomever, this is to be taken as a "eureka!" moment, meaning that next year's mas will now go not into but around the Savannah as the old John Humphrey has long suggested, the "world's biggest roundabout" (Humphrey again) ringed with bleachers, the crowds (hopefully) cheering, steupsing or maybe just sleeping as MacFarlane, Trini Revellers and the rest make their way unimpeded (again hopefully) around the Savannah circle.
Is either that, I suppose, or mas along the foreshore on the way to the Stadium, a move that would move me almost to tears since it would mean carrying the mas even further west but here, if the truth be told, I may very well be guilty of cultural bias, mas for me from boyhood incorporating the colourful steaminess of Nelson and George and Piccadilly streets, now allegedly "high risk areas" and leaving the door open for those who don't understand, as the Bajans do, that Carnival is of the people, men, women and children packed in the yards and the "galleries" and on the sidewalks, waving and shouting and serving drinks as they watch their costumed "friends" pass by.
All of this speculation on my (our?) part would have been avoided if the new state-of-the-art Carnival centre had been delivered on time as promised but not a boom has been raised or heard, for that matter (and this being seemingly the new style in Trinidad and Tobago, nobody has taken the responsibility of telling us what's the matter) so I guess Carnival next year will have to catch as catch can, which may not necessarily be such a bad thing, necessity having to power the imagination and what, pray tell, is the Trinidad Carnival but imagination taken to the nth power.
Again if the truth be told, I am not the least bothered simply because, for me, Carnival has never been the official infrastructure and certainly not the competitions. I am not knocking either but, maybe - just maybe - there may be something sane about reverting to a pared down festival. Take all the pending Panorama prize money and split it among the steelbands in accordance with a ranking system and let them play pan up and down and all around, let the calypsonians and soca artistes sing in their tents and the fetes even as we hear their CDs on radio or along lines of bar-owning DJs on the streets or play them (legally purchased!) from our entertainment centres ("entertainment centres" - what a development from the days of black and white TV and "Blaupunkt radiograms" before that!), all melding into the making of merry mayhem, free of rules and regulations and points and judges at this point and that point.
I say to you - what unregulated fun! Not that it will ever happen, of course just as, regrettably, in this KFC town, we will never get back to black pudding sizzling pungently on Park Street, Carnival now having its own built-in establishment, all those people who have to be paid, all those interest groups for whom Carnival is an annual raison d'etre, all those thousands of folk for whom Carnival is a structured event and not a spontaneous general wine-down, the mas made personal - you or the two or three of you with a bad, which is to say good, head in a street crowd, dancing in the old-time spirit of gay (ooops!) abandon, time standing still and the lime laughing in the sun, rain or wind.
For those of you wishing to voice your complaints and displeasure about the Savannah situation and wish to make a petition to have a Savannah "Langniappe" for 2007 Carnival, here is a list of the relevant media and Government bodies to whom you can address written complaints by email or fax:
NEWSDAY: newsday@newsday.co.tt
Fax#: 868-625-8362
GAYELLE: feedback@gayelletv.com
GUARDIAN: bloodline@ttol.co.tt, lise@ttol.co.tt
868-625-7211
TT NEWS CENTRE: ttnews@tstt.net.tt
EXPRESS - djohn@trinidadexpress.com, express@trinidadexpress.com
868-625-8897
ISLAND EVENTS: editors@islandevents.com
104FM: ebony104@tstt.net.tt
HOTT 93: hott93@tstt.net.tt
SOCA BASHMENT: info@soca919.com, jforrester@soca919.com, jmendoza@soca919.com
RADIO TRINBGO: radiotrinbago@tstt.net.tt
I95.5: webmaster@i955fm.com
NCC
Mr. Terry Joseph
Public Relations Officer
NCC
Queens Park Savannah
Port-of-Spain
Trinidad
868-627-1350
FAX: 868-623-1391
NCBA
David Cameron
Public Relations Officer
Queen's Park Savannah
Port-of-Spain
868-627-1422
FAX- 868-625-9772
TIDCO
Ms. Candace Ali
Communications Coordinator
Tourisim Development Company
Level 1, Maritime Centre
Barataris, Trinidad
868-675-7034
Fax: 868-638-7962
NCDF
Mr. Donald Little
Chairman
NCDF
143 Belmont Circular Road
Belmont
Port-of-Spain
Trinidad
868-621-3405
FAX: 868-621-3405
MINISTRY OF TOURISIM
Ms. Sherma Mitchell
Communications Specialist
Ministry of Tourism
Clarence House
125-127 Duke Street
Port-of-Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
868-625-0963 / 623-9604
FAX: 868-625-0437
MINISTRY OF CULTURE
Roslyn Khan Cummings - Deputy Permanent Secretary
Finbar Ryan - Director of Culture
Joan Yuille Williams - Honourable Minister of Culture
Ministry of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs
#8 Jernigham Avenue,
Belmont
Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
PHONE: 868-624-0119,627-8669 FAX 868-627-5954,623-1650
7 comments:
Good one Keitos.
Even though he's a KFC man if ever there was one.
wow!Another Airport Scandal...geez!
Saucy there is also an article on the trinidadexpress about Panorama exec saying he doh know wah dem talking bout it will take place in South!
It's like nobody knows what is going on...they should just let people play mas in the savanah and deal with this re-construction in March.
Saucy gyul, I can sense that this is going to be a big debacle for Carnival. You ever hear something as insane as that? They took away the Savannah and substituted nothing. I agree with bagogyul. In lieu of there not being a good idea on the table, use the Savannah for 2k7 and worry about the new venue after Carnival 2k7.
Mani like is only we have sense, the people who getting the money ent get it through their heads as yet...the grandstand is STILL there, I see it every single day!
I agree, if the Savannah is still in tact USE IT! What's the big deal, they've waited this long and done NOTHING why not just use the Big Stage for one more year.
Allyuh fooling allyuh self oui. Like yuh forget is only bobol in this sweet island? Money pass already and construction, although delayed, have to start whether we like it or not. The contractors don't give a rats ass who want to wine dong Monday and Tuesday.
I agree that seeing the delay they might as well hold off a 3 months again. But on the other hand look how long allyuh complaining about the stands/stage to begin with! Now when they doing something you complaining still.
The problem is not whether or not they start construction, the problem is why none of them geniuses in power did not PLAN where to relocate everything since last year. Why these questions NOW being asked? So wha' they eh know when Panorama was? If they had PLAN they would have been able to CONSTRUCT a secondary structure wherever necessary.
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