Let the people play

THE EDITOR: When I consider how the children of Idlib on the Turkish/Syrian border are frozen cold and dying and our own here are energised by music and dance on the Carnival stage in the warmth of the Caribbean sunshine;

When I consider how some women elsewhere are slaves to ideology and the “system,” forever immobile and inert, clothed in “darkness” and visible only by their eyes, and how our women are the epitome of self-expression in a riot of colour and glitter consistent with the synergy of the music and their dance, their eyes and faces like the mirror of angels;

When I consider how some young men elsewhere in barbed-wire trenches fighting for the cause take pride in their AK 47s as the harbinger of death, and our boys with a different kind of dexterity, bringing life and energy to those within their ambit with the sweet music of pan;

When I see elsewhere the extent of blood and tears, like in the refugee camps of Dunkirk and Syria, or in the aftermath of the Australian fires or the floods in Indonesia, or the recent slaughter of innocents in Germany, and how we as a people at this time seem immersed in a never-ending rapture;

When I consider how the coronavirus has reduced people elsewhere to become fearful and helpless, their way of life under siege and often at a standstill and how our freedom of movement and association seems uninhibited as if we are in different world;

When I see all this pain and suffering and negativity elsewhere, all I can say is “let the people play,” for with our myriad problems to which we will return the day after, this is our moment in time, the likes of which other people long for but can never really have, but like all things which are beautiful but ephemeral such as the rose or the rainbow, will soon disappear.

DR ERROL BENJAMIN

via e-mail