By Hudson George
The contents of Grenada Carnival is a package of cultural entertainment and those of us who love the activities should have all the rights to participate and enjoy every aspect of it without no apology.
However. those who are not interested in the celebration activities should go and find their own niche and stop complaining. Grenada is supposed to be a secular society, whereby citizens have the right to participate in events and activities that suit their taste and desire.
Nothing is wrong when people and communities come together to have a good time in a carnival atmosphere, once the environment is safe and there is no major threat towards individuals safety and well being. Therefore, there is no need to promote and advocate conservative moral values as an excuse to distract carnival lovers.
We must remember that our carnival package is not only isolated inside Grenada for visitors to enjoy. Our soca artistes and calypsonians have a long history of selling the package in the various Caribbean carnival celebration events in North America and Britain, within the Caribbean Diaspora communities.
In addition, we must always remember that every society contribute to culture because all cultures are tied to the history of society. However, due to the fact that we are living in a global village, we cannot isolate ourselves from the wider world. We are part of the global village family.
The world population census information shows that we are a majority black people whose origins are mostly sub-Saharan African people. Therefore, it is impossible for us to reverse society to the past centuries that set the course for this present era of time.
We are already visible in the modern world of science and technology, where news spread very fast by electronic media, such as Facebook, Instagram, messenger, twitter and telephone calls.
On the other hand, we love to boast and say, “Grenada to the world”. So, if we want to promote Grenada to the world as a place of beauty, peace, harmony and historical sites, we must be able to showcase and sell our natural homegrown talent on the international market.
For example, when visitors come to Grenada they want to see and enjoy things that are unknown to them. They want to experience things that are unique to Grenada. If we cannot create such an attraction, the visitors will not come to Grenada.
We cannot expect to sell Grenada to the world as a place to visit, if we decide to take a conservative approach in almost everything that we are doing. We must focus on creativity to survive. Our creative is our homegrown talent in terms of what we produce locally.
Presently, our soca artiste Mr. Killa song “Pick Up Something” is having a big impact globally, the lyrics in his song makes its way into the NBA finals between Toronto Raptors and Golden State Warriors as well known Canadian rapper Drake upload the song in a video to celebrate the Raptors achievement.