The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

The natural evolutionary course of Bahamian junkanoo was forever altered about 18 years ago, when “cultural icons” Vola Francis and Gus Cooper began to frequent Trinidad’s Carnival.

Seemingly bankrupt of original ideas to further develop junkanoo, they began to infuse elements of Trinidad’s carnival and Mardi Gras into junkanoo with beads, feathers, increasing amounts of cloth, etc.  The term that was used to promote these ideas was junkanoo “tricks”. 

It has been difficult to re-Bahamianise junkanoo ever since.

I say that to say that what we currently experience in junkanoo is Junkanoo Carnival to a greater degree than we might imagine.

What the present government seeks to promote with their “Junkanoo Carnival” agenda is to infuse into our culture a greater level of the debauchery, hedonism and depravity that Trinidad’s Carnival espouses. No amount of “spin” can convince sound thinking Bahamians that this is good for the country at this stage of its development, with all of the societal ills that plague us.

Only perverted minds can call wrong right and by extension also call wrong good.

In my opinion, the nine million dollars could have been better spent on anger management and conflict resolution programmes for primary and high school students.

JB

Nassau,

February 2, 2015.