Today I want to focus on the positives. It is easy to get distracted by the negatives even when the positives dominate. We routinely do this at Carnival time when we train our cameras and direct our talk and our writings on the negatives associated with the occasional acts of violence or drunkenness or extreme lewdness that may accompany the celebration of the joyous human spirit of togetherness. And so, we often fail to see the unifying and therapeutic power of Carnival. For tens of thousands of masqueraders and spectators, Carnival is a fun time, a time to feel good about T&T, a time to put aside the petty squabbles and worries of our daily lives and a time to go out and meet and greet the people of T&T and the world. For me, this year's Carnival celebrations brought to the fore most of what is positive about the people of T&T and I have captured it in the faces of masqueraders and spectators as I walked the streets of Port-of-Spain on Carnival Tuesday. I photographed well over 1,000 faces at random and amazingly I did not come across a single angry face nor did I see much drunkenness. Over 95 per cent of what I captured were faces of joy and elation. People demonstrated tre-mendous self-discipline as they self-regulated and self-policed themselves.
The only people who seemed to expect violence were the senior officers of the T&T Police Service who felt so unsafe that they had to walk around with heavily armed and highly visible security details, in sharp contrast to the peace-loving masqueraders and spectators. Was this always so, or is this a new development? If it was, someone in authority seems to be grossly misreading the spiritual nature of our Carnival celebrations. I have, for a long time thought that the heavy weaponry of the protective services should best be kept out of sight during the Carnival celebrations. Someone expects war when all what the people expect is peace. On display in the facial expressions of the people were a preponderance of love, jollity, caring, cheerfulness and togetherness. On Ash Wednesday I met an elderly British couple who came in for Carnival and they said to me that the thing they will most remember about the Carnival celebrations is how well-disciplined and kind the people were despite the huge crowds. This is in sharp contrast to what we so often think of ourselves.
About ten years ago, my late South African friend visited Trinidad for Carnival and I took him into a J'Ouvert band early on Carnival Monday morning. I still remember how terrified he was as he expected violence at any moment. I assured him that he was safe and he later remarked to me: "This could never happen in my country." As human beings we have the ability to be self-disciplined and when the motivation is strong enough we do so quite easily. Carnival is a powerful motivator. The question then becomes: How can we motivate the people of T&T to demonstrate a higher level of personal responsibility outside of the Carnival season?
People seem to experience a sustained emotional high during the Carnival season that positively drives, not just the masqueraders and spectators, but also brings out the creative and productive spirit of musicians, composers, calypsonians, soca artists and chutney singers, costume designers and builders and the many technicians behind the music and the costuming. I believe that with leadership that focuses on bringing out the positives of the people we can transform T&T to become a model nation for the world. We spend far too much time beating up on ourselves that we become our own bobolies, forever mired in a world of negativity which blinds us to the tremendous potential that lies within ourselves. We need leadership that will bring out the greatness with which we are all en- dowed.
We can be more confident, more responsible, more creative and more productive if we really want to be. If we can do it at Carnival time, then the potential is there to do it all the time. I believe that we need to constantly remind ourselves that we can do better as individuals, as organisations, as communities and as a society. One of the things that we need to learn out of our cumulative Carnival experiences is that Carnival is a celebration that comes out of the spirit of the people and that it is not driven by government policies. Carnival will still take place whether or not the government is involved. It is truly a people's festival. In the same way, the people of the country must recognise that there is a lot that they can do to help make T&T a better place regardless of the politics of the day. In that sense we are all challenged to pay more attention to our own individual behaviours, thus becoming better role models for those around us. Let us use the positive lesson of Carnival to remind us that we can do better and that we can truly transform T&T into becoming a joyous place for all.