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Carnival Sunday 2025 is upon us. It falls within a period so violent that it compels me to begin this column with a prayer that, in keeping with the Carnival season so far, our two days of artistry and celebration in the streets will take place without violent disruption attributable to the conduct of our citizens.
The absence of any major disruption attributable to conduct on the streets is Trinidad and Tobago’s proud track record even in the midst of the customary madness. But note must be taken that some parts of, or adjacent to, the main Port of Spain Carnival parade route are now in the hotspot category after dark.
Photo: NCCTT.
It is also traditional that, whatever is hurting us, Carnival is a time and space where “we doh business”.
This year the hurting background to Carnival is heavy. Nevertheless, the creativity of our performing arts has endured and demonstrated its quality.
In addition: “perhaps in direct proportion to our frustrations, anxieties and insecurities, this year’s festival has so far seen noticeably massive gatherings in fetes, concerts and pan competitions”. (See the Trinidad Express editorial last Tuesday.)
Given the expectation that the rhythms of resistance and revelry will rule the streets for the next two days, despite the grim circumstances of so many others, when the madness passes we need to ponder on the way we live a life of joy/ grief paradox, and how some sections of society are able to layer the joy of having a good Carnival time over the grief attendant on the everyday lives of citizens.
Photo: TTPS.
Carnival joy notwithstanding, a broad spectrum of commentators understand the depths to which our quality of life has sunk. This spectrum includes those singing calypso in the social commentary vein, some of whom have been selected for the finals of the Calypso Monarch tonight.
To the rhythms of resistance and revelry have been added a rhythm of hope by Yung Bredda in a performance that makes him the stand-out kaiso social commentator of this season.
His lyrics resonated deeply at the Skinner Park semi-finals as he delivered We Rise, which is premised on the hope of reversing the current situation of “so many dreams gone out like light”.
However, we will need a lot more than bare hope for the change that is preached by Yung Bredda to overthrow the cruel indifference of the politicians and the elites to the negative socio-economic conditions destroying extensive parts of our society and producing near unbearable backlash nationwide.
For example, the recent demolition of twelve squatters’ homes in Ramjattan Trace, Arima, threw yet another spotlight on the lack of objective justice and accountability in our governance.
What determines whether squatters’ homes are demolished in one area but not in another? While massive Carnival gatherings have been taking place, there are families on edge wondering whether their homes too will be arbitrarily selected for demolition.
How are the reputedly 60,000 squatting families to hope for peace without a clearly defined policy on squatting?
Photo: NCCTT.
Rushton Paray, Opposition MP for Mayaro, through the medium of the Trinidad Express newspaper, promptly and forcefully decried the lack of structured policies to address the squatting crisis against the background of the Ramjattan Trace home demolition.
In another commentary on that demolition in Newsday last Sunday, Professor Emeritus Dr Ramesh Deosaran declared that “squatting and poverty are obviously heading for a special place alongside crime on political platforms”.
He concluded with an exhortation for policy making as follows: “Finally, given all the political grand charge and ambivalence over the years on this haunting squatting issue, it is in the public interest for all political parties to announce their relevant policies during the election campaign. And let the voters judge.”
I also have a serious problem with the approach of any member of parliament whose constituency includes squatters under threat but who directs inquiries to the Housing Development Corporation (the HDC).
That is a statutory corporation expressly subject to policy directions of the minister to whom responsibility for it is assigned. That minister is accountable to Parliament.
Any attempt to deflect accountability to the HDC for what appears to be selective squatter home demolition makes an out of timing masquerade of good governance.
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Martin G Daly SC is a prominent attorney-at-law. He is a former Independent Senator and past president of the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago.
He is chairman of the Pat Bishop Foundation and a steelpan music enthusiast.
