a900: Pierre Jean on Carnival (follow-up to White and St Vil) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Pierre Jean <pierrejean01@yahoo.com>

I was not present at the Champ-de-Mars during the
event (watched on TV instead) so take my comments with
a grain of salt:

>From the meringues I heard on the radio prior to and
during Carnival (keep in mind that over 200 groups
prepared a meringue this year), the themes were:
+ the official theme of the organizing committee, "Je
Klere Sou Chimin 2004". The committee sponsored some
groups, most notably Tokay, to sing about the literacy
campaign and other good deeds performed by the
government. Tokay actually did a pretty good job. I am
not sure about the other bands.
+ criticism of the government, with Michel Martelly
(the "diri" song) and Boukman Eksperyans. In my
opinion, Boukman has been the most consistent group
through the years in voicing social issues. This year
was no exception. However, since they were
cricticizing the corrupt politicians within the
government, they were basically ignored by the
organizing committee. It also seems like they didn't
have too many sponsors and had to settle for a
mediocre "char" and sound system, so their impact this
year was much less than what it had been in the past.
I will never forget their "call to arms" during the
coup with "Ke'm Pa Sote", which ranks in my mind as
one of the best meringues ever.
+ the usual "polemique" stuff between younger bands,
which I find quite boring
+ Mizik Mizik, which rose above the fray and produced
an innovative meringue that blended many styles apart
from the usual (zouk, dance hall, a bit or Dominican
merengue.) They also called up Black Alex from King
Posse who stole the show this year, from what I
understand.

Interesting note on the music side: many small bands
basically plagiarized the huge Magic System hit
"Premier Gaou", which is a case of us going back to
Africa for inspiration. (Magic System is a band from
Cote d'Ivoire, and their "zouglou" tune has been #1 on
the charts in many African countries for a few months
now. They sold about 1.5 million copies of the album)

However, something much more significant happened this
year which probably most people did not perceive. The
traditional sponsors of Carnival: local businesses,
some banks, government entities, were elbowed aside by
the "Cooperatives", in particular "Coeurs Unis". [I
wrote about the latter previously in an earlier post.]
This change of the guard was nothing short of
spectacular. The cooperatives, with their clean and
dirty monies, basically showed that they had as much
if not more financial muscle than the traditional
business sector. It also showed, from what I was told,
in the fact that they built better and more colorful
stands than in years past, with much more powerful
sound systems. To the extent that those "funny"
cooperatives stick around, Carnival will probably take
a different look in coming years.

Finally, Kesner Pharel, an economist for Groupe
Crossance, wrote an article in "Le Nouvelliste"
calling for the government to rethink its approach to
Carnival. He believes that the government should stop
laying out cash to prepare this event, and instead
move aggressively to put in place a much better
structured sponsorship system by the private sector
and set up a licensing scheme. This would allow the
government to retain its organizing role and make
money at the same time, instead of spending the
millions of gourdes it does every year (20 million
gourdes total this year.) That's not a bad idea at
all.

Pierre Jean.



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