So everybody knows I am the original Carnival popo, that I have been known to cry on Carnival Mondays when I'm not in Trinidad wining on someting, that if you chook me I will bleed royal blue like a Paramin devil.
But there was something different about this year, I just wasn't feeling the vibe. So I rode out of the city on Fantastic Friday and head for the green green bush and Iere blue sea. It was a best move, because I get to really think about how I about this Carnival thing. I regretfully returned to town for Jouvay and while it was sweet, I find it was like eating an overripe julie mango that's been partially eaten by a kiskidee. That make sense? I doh know, but is how I feel. Too much pohleece, too much tief, too much national security helicopter and blimp hovering over my head.
For a moment on Tuesday as I watched the lovely Island People chip past, I wonder if I should just embrace the shininess of the matrix, you know, give up and embrace that deep shallowness that would prompt me to put on a sparkly bikini.
But when the band pass and the shh shh shh of the beads fade out I know for sure that that is not of me. The truth is, I don't want to be no spectator. I find it unacceptable and unsustainable.
So what I/we going to do to rescue the Carnival? Even a little piece of it. From the government and the uptown top rankers who want to turn it into some kind of 19th century float parade? I'm calling on all my latent jammette bredrin and sistren to join me in Operation Take Back D Carnival 2008. If is a band or a show. A jersey or a song. I know the most talentedest people and I feel that all of us who know that Carnival is more than beads and all inclusives, that we need to stop standing on the pavement skinning up our face and do something about it. What you say?
Love and jumbie beads,
tw