15028: Burnham and Kanaval commentary (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: thor burnham <thorald_mb@hotmail.com>

>From Thor Burnham in Kenscoff:

Day two, Monday night, got off with a bang. By the way there were fireworks
at the beginning of the chars. Nice touch, I guess.

Monday closely followed Sunday's formula, albeit with the order of the chars
somewhat changed. I actually liked the dancers and costumes that preceeded
the bands. It gave it more of a party atmosphere in my opinion.  But i
didn't find the floats interspersed between the chars either appealing or
inspiring. Lots of nice dancers, however. Du Tuyau would have been happy
with all the potential VS.
Day one saw a number of bann a pye's. Day two substantially less. I really
liked the wave after wave of Rara's coming through on day one. Maybe I got
there too late? I don't know, but the absence was noticeable. Seemed less
partylike.

Our group decided to change stands and go to Blozay, across from Muncheez,
as our base: good viewing area with lots of space. Although they had a DJ
who was more interested in HIS music, so people had to keep getting his
attention to turn off his music so we could listen to the oncoming char.
And, of course, he had to repeatedly tell us who he was, as DJ's are prone
to do. Actually, it made up part of a comical problem. Muncheez across the
street had a great sound system that tended to dwarf ours. Comcel, further
down and closer to the palace had a great system as well. But it caused me
some sonic confusion being able to hear 3 different songs being played at
the same time.

At about 9 p.m., if memory serves, the ti-telefon float came out playing
Raram's song, which is, anywhich way you slice it, infectious, catchy and
lots of fun to sing and dance to. It was also a big hit in Jacmel. So the
ti-telefon float had maybe a thousand people in front and behind. No
discernible commentary from the float this time.

After that, to be brutally honest, it was kind of dull. There were some
notable highlights, such as Azor, who had a good crowd.

However, a little after 11, this all changed. Djakout Mizik arrived. By this
time, the street was jam packed. When Djakout hit, it was like there was an
explosion. Fights immediately erupted in front of the comcel and Antilles
mizik stand. However, each time the baton wielding police or event security
personnel (1200 i read somewhere) got to work pretty quickly. Although they
didn't catch everything.

In only the injustice that carnival holds, i watched one poor guy get the
worst of it. A fight erupted close to our stand. Three guys gave chase to
one. The one being chased ducked behind some guy who was looking the other
direction. The guy being chased got away and before you can say "yo kale
misye" the three guys had punched the guy minding his own business four or
five times. He was, needless to say, stunned. The three assailants quickly
vanished into the crowd as the police arrived on scene. To add insult to
injury, five baton wielding police began beating the guy minding his own
business despite the fact he had his hands up in the air. Finally they
stopped, and you could see the guy looking around him and asking himself
what the hell just happened. The poor guy took his bloodied nose and head
and got the hell out of dodge.

My impression of this incident is that people are generally unmoved by this
type of thing. It's kind of an oh well, that sucks, hey here comes another
char. I guess the violence is all very banal. I hope i'm wrong.

After Djakout went through there were more flare ups with police and
security staff using the baton liberally on people in front of the chars and
to the sides.

And, for the record, how many damned police forces are there? I counted at
least 5 different uniforms other than the PNH. Heavily armed and dressed to
kill. Which brings up another point. If anyone tells me that the army no
longer exists, I would say they had better define their terms, since it
seems obvious that there are a number of paramilitaries operating under the
rubric of "police".

Once again, the highlight of the evening was T-Vice. They arrived on the
scene like a sonic whirlwhind. Absolute pandemonium. Thousands in front,
thousands in back. Unfortunately, it was one of the few real highlights of
the carnival. I'll never forget it.

Brother's Posse, Konpa Kreyol, Dega, Gracia Delva and a few others put on
good performances as well. I'm sure i'm forgetting some. Several of the
bands paid hommage to band Kriz by stopping and singing several of the lines
of "Kale".

T-Vice's char in contrast to Legends, or to some of the other chars really
demonstrated the disparity and lack of money in Kanaval. It made a real
difference. A number of chars, like the first night, were visibly snubbed
and ignored as they passed by. If anyone thinks the event was non-political,
think again.

It was all over by about 3:30 a.m.
Well, I'm seriously sleep deprived.

best,
Thor Burnham


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