To Follow The Crowd Or Not

During the Carnival season many Trinidadians and tourists find joy in indulging in the Soca music fetes, displays, parties and of course the grand parade of the bands. While it seems like the whole country is moving with the crowd there are those who prefer to move in the opposite direction. Some took a quiet getaway to another country or just over to Tobago, others flooded the beaches, went on hikes, took nature tours, hopped on a boat for a Caribbean cruises or spent their long weekend in a church camp. Does doing those things instead of taking part in Carnival mean that these people are not patriotic or don’t support our culture. No, it simply means that everyone is different and choose to enjoy their days off from work or school in another way but I can tell you as soon as a Soca tune comes on the radio those same people can’t help but hum along or tap their fingers to the rhythm of the song.

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Crime During The Carnival Season

Ladies and Gentlemen, as we all know, Carnival is a time where freedom is expressed at it’s best, and the country basically shuts down for a week at least. However, crime continues to be ever so prevalent during this time.

This year the Police reported 46 serious crimes that took place during the carnival weekend. Now if we compare this with the 109 serious crimes reported in the previous year, or even the 122 crimes in 2012, it’s really not that bad.

According to Acting Police Commissioner, Stephen Williams, the help of the public played a major role in this year’s crime reduction. As he spoke to the express in an interview he explained that the police rely heavily on the corporation of law-abiding citizens.  He also explained the police received substantial assistance from the defense force this year as well.

According to some of my family who came in from abroad, they said the presence of police didn’t really make them feel safer in fetes and even on Carnival Monday and Tuesday.

Did you all feel safer this Carnival Season? Or did the police force let us down once again?  

Now You See It, Now You Don't

Now I can sit here and bore you with the history of Carnival, which I’m sure we all heard at one point in time, or I can tell you what’s really on my mind. Some of us who are old enough may remember the creative and vibrant Peter Minshall costumes that crossed the stage as well as the Brian Mac Farlane designs that followed. Sadly they both bowed out of the Carnival arena, both wanting more as the costume bands we knew back then has slowly faded to become a bikini and beads lime on the streets of Port-of-Spain. It’s as if the costumes went from being a competition of art and innovation to seeing how much money a band leader can make using as little material as possible. If you had chance to look at the Kiddies Carnival one can clearly tell that more creativity was put into their costumes than the adult bands. It is sad to say that we call this new ‘Brazil imitation’ parade of costumes our culture. I’m not saying that all changes aren’t good but what are we really leaving for our future generation?

Welcome to The Carnival Diary

 

This blog was created to take a look back at Carnival 2014, discussing all the Carnival highs, the lows, the controversies and the changes to an event we consider to be a big part of our culture. We also welcome your views and opinions on any topic we post. Enjoy!