'Festival is not a Carnival' - Donald E. De Castro
De Castro has penned a letter to Minister for Education and Culture Hon Myron V. Walwyn with a number of proposals.
“I want to improve it. I want it to be a festival and not a carnival,” said De Castro in a comment to Virgin Islands News Online today July 2, 2014.
He said that Festival should be about history and culture, “and it has gotten completely out of hand and our children are not understanding what we are celebrating so we need to get it into the schools so that the children can understand the culture and history of the Territory.”
“Every time a parade passes, children should be able to look at a troupe and see some kind of culture from the past,” he said.
Among the changes he suggested is the replacing of the Chairman of the VI Festival and Fairs Committee Marvin ‘MB’ Blyden.
Below is the full text of the letter:
Hon. Myron Walwyn
Minister of Education & Culture
Government of the Virgin Islands
Central Administration Complex
Road Town, Tortola
Virgin Islands, VG1110
Dear Minister,
I write to you as a concerned Citizen and a Virgin Islander and also on behalf of all other Virgin Islanders, Belongers, Citizens, Residents, Visitors and all other concerned persons, residing inside and outside of this Territory that care about its History and its Culture. The topic of concern is our Annual Emancipation Celebration which is presently called the Virgin Islands Festival.
In the early years the people of this Territory were celebrating the first Monday of August, and as a matter of fact while Monday was the holiday, there were other activities all of the week throughout the islands, as especially in different villages throughout Tortola. Later on government gave their employees Tuesday afternoon off and now we have three full days of celebration.
During the early years the vast majority of Virgin Islanders had no clear understanding of what we were celebrating. However, today in the Twenty First Century we do know what we are celebrating and its time our annual festivities clearly demonstrate that. I would like to submit a number of observations and proposals to improve our celebrations. I ask that you take a careful look with an open mind and if you would like to have one on one discussion with me, I would be more than happy to meet with you.
For the record, I was chairman of the Festival Committee for a few months in 1965 before I resigned and my sister Esme became chairperson.
Since I returned home in 1986, I found out that there was and still is a segment of our community that whenever a Virgin Islander comes home on vacation, he or she gets all kinds of encouragement to return home. However, when we do, it is a completely different story unless you are willing and prepared to go along with the norm. This of course is very difficult for some of us to do, as our experience living and working abroad tell us that changes are important but improvement is necessary as one move forward in life. Therefore no matter what proposals or suggestions we put forward, they are normally ignored and when the same proposals or suggestions are put forward by outsiders they are embraced with wide open arms.
Over the past years a large percentage of the people of this Territory including many expats have been complaining about how our Festival has turned into a Carnival, the vulgar dancing and the almost nude dressing of so many participants including children. How our Festival was changed to a Carnival and why locals do not want to participate, I do understand very well. Locals may give the impression that they do not want to participate but until a drastic end is put to the Carnival atmosphere, most Virgin Islanders and other concern persons will continue to boycott the celebration.
Then there are so many members of the news media that have no respect for our name and culture, as they continue to refer to our Rise and Shine Tramp, as J’ouvert, our Festival as a Carnival and the Virgin Islands Festival & Fairs Committee as the (B) VI Festival & Fairs Committee.
Having said all that, I want to submit a number of proposals and suggestions that can and will improve our Festival, but first of all, I must say that reducing the number of days this year was a very smart and intelligent move. I also want to recognize and appreciate your effort to promote our History and Culture.
Our Emancipation Celebration is about “OUR” History and Culture. It is not about competition, making money or foreign entertainment. It is an opportunity annually for us to present our History and Culture in a manner that can be enjoyed and respected by all, including our visitors. It is a time when the entire family should be able to attend any activity without fair of any offensive scene or lyrics of a song.
Here are my suggestion and proposals.
1. The name should indicate what we are celebrating. Therefore, a name change from Virgin Islands Festival to Virgin Islands Emancipation Festival would be more appropriate.
2. We need to have a Festival Queen who will eventually replace the Miss (B) VI. The Festival Queen should be selected based on their knowledge of our History and Culture. This person would be chosen from among the senior students of our high schools throughout the Territory. While the Festival Queen will be selected from one of the high schools, those schools should have students representing each village on Tortola, North Sound, the Valley, Virgin Gorda, the islands of Jost Van Dyke and Anegada. While the queen would head the parade the other contestants would lead the troupes of the remaining villages, which will include the schools and other persons of that village.
3. In those villages where there is no school the Festival Committee will do all that is required to get school age children and others to put a troupe together to represent such a village. Each village has a unique history of its own.
4. All entries in the parade must represent Virgin Islands History & Culture. By knowing our past it helps to determine the future. We don’t want to live in the past, just bring the good forward.
5. The Festival Village need to be more Family friendly and not just for adults only and it does not need to be 14 days.
6. Persons should not have to pay to enter the Village to celebrate the freedom that our forefathers paid for a long time ago. This entrance fee is totally unacceptable.
7. The Rise and Shine Tram should be moved to Saturday morning. This will make it possible to start the parade early on Monday morning.
8. At the end of the parade in the Village, the people can then be entertained by History, Cultural Display and Story-telling.
9. The display of excessive vulgarity and in appropriate dress at some events discourages many Virgin Islands parents and others from bringing along their young children to what should be family friendly events. In addition because of the religious aspects that have been eliminated and all the anti-Christ and anti-God people in this God fearing Territory have also contributed to its people not participating or wanting their children to participate.
10. During the two weeks before Festival Monday, events of History and Culture should take place on Anegada, Jost Van Dyke, North Sound and the Valley, Virgin Gorda. This will give the people of the other islands an opportunity to visit and enjoy what others have to contribute.
11. Similar events should also take place in Villages around Tortola.
12. All competition for financial gains should be eliminated because such activities send the wrong message to the young people that our festival is all about money.
13. Eventually, once the Festival Queen becomes a reality she will replace the Miss (B) VI as she would qualify culturally and historically to represent the Virgin Islands.
14. And all the money now being spent on outside entertainment and competition can be spent on our schools, villages and local entertainers. The vast majority of Virgin Islanders love our local entertainers, they just need more support so that they can continue to improve themselves.
15. During the two weeks of activities I mentioned earlier all music should be furnished by our Fungi bands. It is important that our music is given more relevance. FUNGI & CALYPSO have always been part of our culture. Therefore having a reggae night in our festival should be discontinued.
WE MUST ALL REMEMBER, this is a Virgin Island Festival and not a Tortola or Road Town Festival. Therefore, every Virgin Islander must have the opportunity to participate and/or contribute, Therefore those that are unable to come to Road Town or Tortola; every possible arrangement must be made in order to get them involved. Many people say that Virgin Islanders do not want to participate. However, I do not believe that that is so, the problem is what has happened to our festival over the years; it was allowed to be turned into a carnival. Hence it is time we return it to what is should be: A Festival. Unfortunately too many people do not know the difference between a Festival and a Carnival.
It is time we take a serious look at how we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars each year: where the money is going and who are benefitting. Much of this money can be spent on an improved study program of History and Culture. Example, the vast majority of principals and teachers, Belongers and Non-belongers to this date do not know the name of this Territory, that alone tell you that there is lot that have to be done, starting in the Primary Schools.
The first thing that would need to be done is to replace the present chairman of the VI Festival & Fairs Committee.
Our Festival is that time of the year when we take time to celebrate our physical freedom and is not a money making event. However, I have no problem with people making money at the time but it should not be geared towards that.
I am sending a copy of this letter to the media so that others can read and hopefully add some comments or additional suggestions that can help to improve our annual Celebration. I want you to note that I am concerned about improvements and not just changes, as sometimes changes are made but can remain the same or get worse.
Mr. Minister, I do pray and hope that you would give this matter some serious consideration.
REMEMBER IT’S A FESTIVAL, NOT A CARNIVAL.
Sincerely,
Donald E. de Castro
Cc. News Media
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19 Responses to “'Festival is not a Carnival' - Donald E. De Castro”
I wish it was that simple to get you and others like yourself to settle in your own country and leave us on peace and harmonytoenjoy and mdaintsin our dear country and unique culture.
Mr. DeCastro, your points are on target - couldn't agree with you more. If a visitor were to experience our major parade on Monday and asked to relate it to emancipation they would not be able to do so. That means, as you suggests, that the real meaning of the event is lost. If that meaning is lost to visitors sadly it would eventually be lost to our own future generations as well.
Another point I will add is that on August Monday during the parade (which is almost all day), were there to be an emergency in which the ambulance, police or fire equipment needed to get from up town and points beyond to the Hospital or below how would that happen with main street being a one-way? I believe one way to address this is perhaps to place main street in complete control of the police with radio communication on each end of that stretch of roadway who will control the flow of two-way traffic for the duration of the parade. Suggesting the Paul Wattley Highway would be a no decision when lives are at stake.
Signed- Bloodline Scientist
There is a reason why we were never paupers with cannibalistic tendencies.
None Of his business though.