Rejoice! It’s not Carnival

MANY people are nursing a Carnival tabanca, missing the music and the activities that accompany the annual festival. Carnival would have been on February 15-16.

But for some, having no Carnival 2021 elicits a sigh of relief.

Some Woodbrook residents are among those letting out that sigh.

A Google search on Woodbrook and Carnival would bring up many stories about the problems Woodbrook residents face with masqueraders and loud bands passing through the area each year.

This year, as the covid19 pandemic has halted Carnival, many of them are happy – but still sad, Woodbrook councillor June Durham said.

In an interview with Newsday, Durham said, “I mean, this is our culture. This is what we have grown up with: going to mas camps in their area, helping to make mas. They love it.

"But I will agree with the residents that the destruction of the Woodbrook residence is phenomenal.”

The area faces many problems from Carnival yearly, with one of them being feeling there is an earthquake when a band goes by.

“After Carnival you can see cracks in your wall. If you check the integrity of the structure of your building after a Carnival – and a Carnival comes every year – it is horrible.”

Residents also have had to deal with everything from having paint, mud or urine splashed on freshly-painted walls or even having their walls pulled down.

But Durham believes a solution could be found if residents and Carnival stakeholders work together.

The residents want some changes before Carnival 2022 rolls around, among them a reduction in the bass level of music trucks, and bandleaders and masqueraders picking up their garbage along the route.

Durham also sees this year of no Carnival as an opportunity for organisers to examine ways to reshape it.

“Look at exactly how next year will be and try to fix the ills.”

Some might assume religious bodies would be among those happy to see the back of Carnival. But the chair of the Catholic Commission for Social Justice, Leela Ramdeen, said there are 20 or more verses in the Bible that talk about dance, and that the Lord does not say that people should not dance. Rather it is an issue of modesty, she said.

Ramdeen said she saw nothing wrong with Carnival or dancing and that TT had something to offer the world – but it had to stop offering the “raw, obscene behaviour of some of our people.”

Like Durham, Ramdeen said the break from Carnival this year should be used for debates on where TT as a nation is going as it relates to Carnival.

“They call it the greatest show on earth but to me it is no longer the greatest show on earth.”

She said TT should use the time to reflect on “where we have been initially, how it started, what we have arrived at and to think about the future.

“Where do we want to go? Do we want to go with nakedness?”

Carnival, she said, was "a beautiful part of our culture. But let us use it properly. Like everything else it is misused.

“We are at that stage in our country (where) if we want to talk about crime, violence and getting rid of all of that, we have to look at the bigger picture and address some of the deficiencies in our society, which include the bad behaviour in Carnival.”

Some people are using the time without Carnival to promote positivity.

The Family Focus Broadcasting Network (FBN)/ Isaac 98.1 FM, in collaboration with the full gospel churches of TT, will host a three-day event called Revival 2021 and Beyond from February 14-16. It will feature 24-hour prayer hotline, a prayer mobile motorcade, virtual discussions and conversation sessions on societal issues and food distribution to people affected by the pandemic.

FBN/Isaac 98.1 FM’s general manager Christianne Elcock said normally the church would have been at camp during Carnival, but could not do so this year because of the public health regulations.

Revival 2021 and beyond was a vision given by God to Dr Margaret Elcock, founder, president and CEO of FBN, Elcock said.

She said a lot of horrible things happened in 2020 and the church asked what it could do. Elcock said it believes that 2021 is a year of revival and God was going to restore and renew some of the things lost in the last year.

She said the church was coming together to pray for the nation for healing, restoration and revival: “That God will bring change to this nation. Ending the crime. Ending the violence and bringing hope to people.

“Hopefully, they can get new jobs. New opportunities. That there will be a turnaround in 2021.”

Elcock said the church is not involved in Carnival and Revival is not about Carnival, but rather the church coming together to prayer for the nation’s healing.

“The church is saying, 'Let us focus on something that is positive. Let us focus on something that is good.'

“We are realising that there has been a lot of negativity caused by the pandemic and it is something unprecedented and so the church is saying we are not going to stay silent. We are going to rise up and pray for God to heal this nation, and it starts with the church.”

She said the church’s focus is to spread the gospel to change the hearts of people.

Its prayer mobile motorcade will take place on February 14 from 1 pm and will move along the East-West Corridor. It will start in Diego Martin then to Curepe and back, ending at the Brian Lara Promenade, Port of Spain. Elcock said all covid19 protocols and guidelines will be followed.

The Revival organisers are also distributing food and hope to feed 1,000 families.