THE assignment was clear. It was the day after the second day of carnival and the Editor called on me to: “Get some reaction to the carnival festivities.”
I do not follow carnival festivities in the least, given my beliefs, so at first the task seemed a tricky one.
How was I going to write about the aftermath of carnival when I didn’t know up-from-down about it?
Fortunately, I remembered that the Police Commissioner had spoken last week at a press conference about the security measures to be put in place for the upcoming carnival activities.
I thought I had found a solution to my little conundrum: an update from the police regarding how their duties at carnival had been.
However, it would seem the strain of their responsibilities during the two days of carnival might have had a third-day hangover from possible overwork.
Not only was I unable to secure an authoritative police account on how the event went down from their perspective, but I bumped into the same experience at the Culture Ministry, where neither the Minister nor the Permanent Secretary were available.
The Ministry referred me to Events St. Lucia, where (I was told) I would have been able to get a comment (or two) from persons there who were able to speak authoritatively on the matter. But alas, here too I was told there was “no one available” to comment on how Carnival 2018 went down.
It was the same trying to secure the results of the various carnival competitions: as they do every year, the organisers delayed and delayed and delayed… until press time and we could wait no more.
I returned to the office exasperated and disappointed at being unable – on the first working day after carnival ended — to give an official account of how Saint Lucia Carnival 2018 went down.
I thought I had no story, until it occurred to me that although I didn’t get the story I wanted, I still had one.
I wrote my report and duly submitted it – with an added suggestion that given the visible impact of Carnival Monday and Tuesday on workers’ and officials’ ability to work on the day after, an official ‘After-Carnival Day-Off’ can possibly be considered by the authorities.
But I was advised later by friendly sources in the trade unions and at the Chamber of Commerce and Employers Federation, not to hang my hopes too high, lest they be left to dry!
