The ethos of carnival

To be sure, Carnival is a time to "free up". People will drink more, eat more, fete more and, according to popular belief, have more sex. Of this last we are not certain. However, the last CSO figures we have for monthly birth rates, in the 1999 Population and Vital Statistics Report, did show a 20 percent spike nine months after Carnival in that year. But, nowadays, the main worry in having unprotected sex is not an unwanted pregnancy but an unwanted disease. The various bodies concerned with this issue have spared no effort in reminding the general public that it’s wise to condomise. Unfortunately, since one of the main activities for Carnival is the consumption of alcohol, even persons who have all good intentions of safe sex may, in their inebriated state, forget to take basic precautions. It is true that drink increaseth the desire but reduceth the performance — unfortunately, it doesn’t always reduce it enough.

But drinking to excess carries with it several other dangers. The most prevalent one is vehicular accidents, and the death toll has already risen in the run-up to Carnival. Clearly, the death last year of singer Onika Bostic left no lessons for the nation’s drivers. And yet the vast majority of car crashes are avoidable. Drivers just have to make sure that they drink little or not at all; every group should have at least one person who doesn’t drink, so he or she can be a designated driver; and people must leave early for their limes so they don’t end up rushing on the roads. Indeed, this last factor may have caused more road deaths than even alcohol.

Drunkenness, however, is also a danger off the road. Many men tend to become aggressive when they drink too much, even though drink makes them less able to defend themselves if their aggression leads to an altercation. More pertinently, a drunk person is inevitably less alert to predators, and men are more likely to be mugged and women more likely to be raped if they drink too much.

Indeed, were there no other motivation, the high crime rate should itself be sufficient reason for revellers to be restrained in their various activities. In this regard, the Police Service must be commended for its work over the past two Carnivals, which have been relatively incident-free. For this year, Police Commissioner Trevor Paul has promised even more vigilant action, so the general public should be assured that they can enjoy the Carnival either as participants or onlookers. However, this does not remove the onus from the individual to take every precaution they can to ensure they have a safe and secure Carnival. After all, it is better to fete in a sensible way so you can live to fete another day.