Gordon Robinson | It’s all about community
I’ve just spent another disappointing Emancipendence filled with clear signs of Jamaica’s societal corrosion.
Independence (Festival) is a celebration of a radical change in Jamaica’s history. Since Emancipation Day was re-instated twenty-eight years ago, there’s a full week when we ought to be celebrating Jamaica. Starting in 1966 when Eddie Seaga conceptualized and introduced Festival to a newly independent Jamaica, it was all about celebration, family and community.
That last should be two words spelled C-O-M-E. U-N-I-T-Y!
Families would gather along roadsides to witness annual independence float parades highlighting Jamaican culture. Communities attended street dances dressed in their best fashions. In the float parades, Jamaican identity – the one we brought with us from Africa and fought quietly but fiercely, often secretly, to maintain – was on full display. We thought the annual celebrations would keep that identity at the forefront throughout the year.
Instead, 60 years later, we line sidewalks to watch almost naked people “wine” on each other while a moron on a truck yells “1-2-3-4!” and loud “music” repeats instructions like “Catch the cat” or “attack it from the back!:”
What. Has. Happened. To. Us?
Why have we allowed technology to make us slaves to foreign culture? Carnival has its roots in ancient pagan festivals which, as the religion has done for so many other “traditions” (including Easter) Christianity later sampled carnival like a dancehall cover and made it a pre-lenten “farewell to the flesh”. In Brazil it’s held on Shrove Sunday; Shrove Monday; and Shrove Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. The costumes are lavish and the masks allow individuality to take a vacation.
Mardi Gras, the original carnival, started in southern Louisiana in 1699. It also ends on midnight Shrove Tuesday and features large, elaborate parades (organized by social clubs called “krewes”); magnificent costumes; and masked balls.
Even in Trinidad, from whence we’ve tried to copy carnival, the J’ouvert (pronounced “Jou-vay”) celebrations are more costume and music oriented and end at midnight, Shrove Tuesday.
So carnival is revelry, yes. What it isn’t is a public display of implicit and explicit drunken sexual debauchery conducted after Easter in a context of nothing Jamaican and everything copied loosely (very loosely) from Trinidad. But the Trinidadian context involves revelry with subtlety instead of the display of public vulgarity that passes for carnival here.
So we’ve replaced Festival with our dub version of carnival. Meanwhile actual Festival, the Jamaican celebration of Jamaican identity, has become a discreet, disconnected, disintegration of what it once was. The Festival Song contest has degenerated into a race to see who can most frequently refer to ackee, saltfish, sea and sand (or mention Usain and Shelly-Ann) as lyrics. Festival songs should capture the essence of the celebration:
I need a big heel boots and a bell foot pants
fi go dance this ya festival.
I need a suede bootie and a calico shirt
fi go judge dis ya festival.
Come, let’s all unite.
Stop the fuss and fight.
Do the good you should
to all in your neighborhood!
I need a tourist and all those pretty girls
come swing this ya festival.
I need di natty dreads and all di bald heads
come jump dis ya festival.
Everybody come dance with me….
But, in August that year, Stanley Beckford (and the Turbines) used his unique styling to remind Festival celebrants what the moment was all about:
I’m dreaming of a new Jamaica
A land of peace and love
Some say they cannot see no hope
That’s why they keep us down
I know there is hope somewhere
That’s why I wrote this song
So let me tell you
All who believe in love
I say to sing this song with me
And everybody dem a rock over town
And everybody dem a rock all around
And everybody dem a rock over town
When they hear this song, dem a rock over town
And everybody dem a rock over town
And everybody dem a rock all around
And everybody dem a rock over town
When they hear this song, dem a rock over town
The Festival song winner sounded like a cheap rip-off of Tinga Stewart’s No Weh No Betta Dan Yard (1981) and Eric Donaldson’s Sweet Jamaica (1977). For me, it lacked creativity, context or relevant content (kept touting “jelly wata”; reggae; track and field) BUT, sadly, it was the best of the finalists on offer so deserved the medal. I found myself hankering for Tinga’s 1981 winner, a song I remain steadfast should’ve lost to Festival Jamrock (Sam Carty and the Astronauts). But, like George W. Bush, Tinga’s song now seems like a welcome winner.
All this only highlights the urgent need for fixed election dates accompanied by fixed campaign periods and mechanisms to delay elections for emergencies such as war or natural disasters. It cannot be healthy for our Independence Day to be annexed by politicians and their surrogates calling political opponents nasty names and making wild allegations without evidence or personal knowledge. It doesn’t help when party leaders’ independence messages come across as poorly disguised campaign speeches.
Very sad.
Why are we making a political brouhaha of party leaders’ wealth? One side says the other hides assets overseas. The other says its opposite has become wealthy illicitly despite not having a shred of proof. So what if both are wealthy? So what if it turns out one holds assets abroad and the other’s declared assets have increased markedly over two decades? Isn’t increased wealth the dream of every Jamaican?
Jamaicans are entitled to hold assets anywhere and political leaders are entitled to be rich. So what if declared wealth has increased? Would you prefer a political leader whose wealth increased whilst in politics but failed to declare it? Or would you trust a political leader whose declared assets decreased while in office? Unless some authority can lay charges and prosecute a political leader for any of the insanely imagined crimes being bruited about on social media we should stop carelessly maligning persons who decided to serve in areas that we wouldn’t. This is especially so during independence when we should be celebrating together and as the allegations are based on salacious speculation and groundless gossip.
There should be a political ceasefire declared during Emancipendence. No political bile allowed. When the cease fire ends, can we focus on issues rather than personalities? Can we overcome this nonsensical, envious mindset that suspects persons’ integrity because of personal wealth alone? Can we please (pretty please) presume wealth was achieved by hard work, creativity or entrepreneurship until otherwise proved?
Peace and Love.
Gordon Robinson is an attorney-at-law. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com