By Jean Hodgkinson

We are no more moved by a past we are busy inventing than by a present we are busy denying -Jeanette Winterson

While composing last week’s article, it should be said, my mind was prone to wander. It was Carnival Tuesday after all, and if I couldn’t be there myself I figured this was as good a chance as any to test a legend I’d once heard.

Apparently people from far and wide have been able to watch live on the internet as Port of Spain celebrates Carnival. Having never before imagined myself needing such a service, it must be admitted my vicarious search last week came up empty. After several attempts it occurred to me so many people were trying to access the server we probably ended up overwhelming and crashing the feed. Oh well.

Since composing last week’s article, it should also be clearly stated, my mind was still wandering apparently. Checking Carnival results on Ash Wednesday, I noticed some complaints posted by people who had paid for online televised coverage but ended up seeing nothing. According to the legend as I remembered it (or wanted to remember it) the internet feed was free. But investigating further had always seemed little more than a waste of time to me, so I never bothered. Last week I just went on presuming inadequate bandwidth was to blame. My reasoning self thus satisfied, a brief conversation with my editor subsequently roused me from, as he aptly called it, my “Carnival tabanca.”

Re-focussing on one’s professionalism should always be a productive experience, whatever the task one engages in to avoid starving. But finding out about the facts on the ground and realizing the magnitude of my negligence to follow up on the story have convinced me that I should have been starved, for at least a day or two. The T&T Guardian clarified the situation:

“State-owned television station, Caribbean New Media Group (CNMG), has defended its decision to threaten Gayelle The Channel with legal action [and] said [it had been] announced long before 2010 that CNMG held the exclusive rights for the broadcasting and on-line Internet streaming of and/or online pay-per-view services for Carnival 2010 events. [It was asserted in a letter to the independent television station that] ‘Neither you [Gayelle] nor Jump TV [www.jumptv.com, which provides the internet feed] is authorised for the online streaming of Parade of the Bands in or outside of T&T.’”

Whoa! Read that again with the knowledge that Gayelle co-owner Errol Fabien “said he did not have the resources to fight the station in court and had no choice but to stop the coverage.” Read it also knowing the report quoted Ingrid Isaac, chief executive officer of CNMG, who said “we did speak about a long-term arrangement” when “asked whether CNMG’s agreement with the Carnival stakeholders would extend for Carnival 2011.” Isaac went on to say “CNMG acted to protect the creative and legal rights of the creators of Carnival—steelbands, calypsonians and mas bands.” Something is seriously wrong here.

My post-Carnival article two years ago began by vociferously denouncing the “stakeholders” for all their clamouring to have Carnival moved to the week after Easter (permanently, if memory serves). They argued “Carnival is now an industry and must be treated as such.”

Logistical problems and reduced fête revenues were cited as obvious reasons to avoid or prevent the dreaded short season, which 2008 was. This reasoning relies on the mistaken belief Carnival “stakeholders” have a more vested interest in the festival than the rest of us, and should therefore be allowed virtually complete control. CNMG is employing this same logic. But it was nonsense then and it’s nonsense now.

Carnival isn’t a corporate creation like Valentine’s Day, an industry invented to create sales where none existed before. Nor does it lend itself easily to the homogenizing bureaucracy of centralized organizing committees. The “stakeholders” forget they are merely hitching a ride. They feed off Carnival’s sense of abandon, they didn’t create it. Its roots and survival, its purpose and force all come from centuries of playing a central role in political dissent, not jump and wave. The government, the “stakeholders” and CNMG want to deny this profound truth. Carnival belongs to everybody even as it belongs to nobody. It requires public streets and private citizens, and plenty of both, after all.

Not being a businessman or legal expert, I can offer no long-term solutions. What I can do is relay an Express report that Fabien is now putting together a team of pro bono lawyers to argue “no one has the exclusive rights to Ariapita Avenue.” We’ll know come March 2011.