‘INNOCENT’ PUPILS ARRESTED

After the schoolchildren responded to instructions to “get on bad” given by the soca artistes (whom their schools fully endorse and expose them to) they were arrested, charged and made a public shame. Something has to be absurd and unfair somewhere! For those who truly have eyes to see, ears to hear and brain to think, the school children who were arrested and charged last Friday following a schools’ Carnival affair on the Brian Lara Promenade, deserve to be pitied as victims of a questionable system.

To a considerable degree, not only those students who were charged, but also the scores who were involved in the massive fracas, need our empathy and sympathy. The schools of these poor students expose them to scenes charged with raucous hype of wine-and-jam soca, inciting the vulnerable adolescents to “wine, wail and get on bad.” After the teens eventually responded to these instructions (from artistes whom their schools fully endorse and expose them to) they were arrested, charged and made a public shame. (Perhaps those who organise and endorse this kind of mess, are the ones who really ought to be ashamed.)

The same applies to the Youth Fest scenario where students were involved in a similar type of behaviour, including consuming alcohol at the fete. I say “fete” deliberately, because regardless of how strenuous the effort to sugar-coat these activities with decent-sounding euphemisms, that’s what they remain - sickening (I almost said stinking) fetes! I am not blaming the police for doing their job. They too have found themselves in a very awkward position, which was not of their making. They do not plan these absurd events, and therefore they are not responsible for the despicable repercussions. We all are aware of the hell we are facing with indiscipline and a frightening escalation of illicit sexual activities among our school population, yet we see it fit to endorse, encourage and promote repulsive Carnival activities for these schools. We must admit that this is nothing but blatant character-destroying double standards, which are entirely designed to annihilate the values and virtues that we desperately strive to inculcate in our tots and teens.

What in the world are lewd, obscene soca artistes doing in our schools and at school functions as “special guest artistes” or role models? Is somebody going out of their mind? Who says at this time we need disgusting sex symbols to stimulate our children into repugnant and lawless behaviour? This is nothing short of the absolute scandalous, and should be changed immediately, since today, more than ever, evils are attempting to overrun our schools. On a more general note, I will like to once again ask the question: In the light of the rapidly deteriorating moral state of our nation and the commensurate escalation of crime — murders, drugs, rape, abuse of women and children and rampant indiscipline in our schools and otherwise — can we honestly say that glorifying Carnival, with its overloaded quota of evils, is a plus?

Isn’t Carnival really a school of massive delusion and moral corruption, which forcefully and seductively instils into the minds of our younger citizens the idea that the essence of enjoyment is to cast off sober self-restraint, and stoop to some of the most debasing and dangerous levels of behaviour?  What else is the huge quantity of sexual perversion, looseness, alcohol and drug use and overall vulgarity, AIDS, unwanted babies and abortions which clearly dominate the entire Carnival season? This is what the predominant influences of the spirit of Carnival is all about. What do these pervading influences have to contribute to our youths and younger children in terms of the development of solid character, discipline and moral values? Absolutely nothing! The music, virtually streaking female artistes and masqueraders and the entire atmosphere are set up to stir the emotions and sexual passions of the youth, to a point where the rational mind is overcome.

This results in widespread sexual promiscuity, alcohol and drug use, sexually transmitted diseases, shattered dreams, broken hearts and too-late regrets. The natural consequences are broken lives and homes and the raping of our ever-stressed economy by the burden on the health-care institutions and other systems. The unwanted babies also usually grow up to put further strain in society and the economy, since because of lack of proper parental care and related misfortunes, they turn out to be serious liabilities to society. This is another reason that the idea about Carnival being a tourist-dollar income-generating festival, is such a big joke. The cancerous Carnival mentality contaminates every facet of our culture, work ethic, productivity level and general lifestyle behaviour all year round.

It is quite clear that through Carnival we don’t only lose money but also values, virtues, people and lives that are far more precious than money. The resultant agony from these losses are also far beyond what money can buy or heal. I believe that we have more than reached the stage where we should be mature, honest and responsible enough to admit the fatal fallacies of Carnival and discard this costly evil.