Today, I would like to talk about the London carnival 2022 and its meanings, if there are any real meanings behind it at all.
I needed to take the time to say some important words about this Notting Hill thing. Because, to me it is just a thing that has no sense, no substance and most importantly, it does not give any power to the Caribbean communities. Engaging with a group of people who have only 3 things in mind for 3 days is useless.
So what are the 3 important things that the London carnival attendees have in mind ? the first one is dancing, unfortunately, it is not about being creative whilst having fun but more an opportunity for males to freely act as if they are in the middle of a sex act with who ever is available. So, it is not dancing but being promiscuous and being able to participate in an orgy.
The second thing is drinking alcohol, of course, gives inhibition and a false sense of being relaxed and invincible. A state that may not bring the best in everyone though as we have seen in this year’s event. So chaos, violence, assaults and deaths were freely available.
Finally, the thirs element on the list is having fun by bringing people together whilst listening to some type of music. For this last point, I must admit that it could be an event that actually helps people engage with each other peacefully BUT this is not because of the previously mentioned elements.
Bear in mind that there are children experiencing the event LIVE!
Although, everyone makes mistakes and I would not like to judge the attendees harshly without at least giving the benefit of the doubt to their attempt to integrate some sort of community development into this yearly event.
This type of “celebration and cultural identity in the face of racist intimidation in Britain” Ferris, L. (2010) is meant to constructively engage communities which are in desperate need for more empathy, visibility and opportunities to thrive here in the UK.
This is why I do not endorse the Carnival. Indeed, it does not help to voice any type of opinion on important social barriers faced by the Caribbean diaspora. For example, the Covid-19 pandemic has been disproportionately affecting the UK’s BAME communities according to ITV news (- www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Why is Covid-19 disproportionately affecting the UK’s BAME communities? | ITV News).
Plus the current cost of living crisis makes it hard for people to plan ahead as well as put food on the table. I made a short video about this subject called The cost of living crisis in the UK in 2022, so feel free to check it out later.
To go back to our topic , the pandemic and the cost of living crisis are not confined to the UK . Back home, if I may say! And I am referring to the Caribbean region, things are very difficult too.
The rate of violence and the lack of economic leverage means that for example in Haiti, Jamaica or Guadeloupe and many other islands, social issues intensify bones of contention in the area.
This includes but not limited to, social inequalities, social injustices, the struggle of indigenous communities, tensions in gender relations, the influence of religion, a wide array of social movements such as the union water company mismanagement which Martinique faces, the anti-vaccine protests, antimonarchy protest, and social ecology discontent (Harris, R.L. and Nef, J. (2008); www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Roger LANOIX ; www.youtube.com. (n.d.). LIBRE ANTENNE – 26 OCTOBRE 2021, – www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Protests in Jamaica over royal visit ).
On top of this, health wise, the region is not doing better than in the UK. As per my video called (The Conference of heads of government in Belize), I translated from English to French a speech made by Mia Amor Mottley about the worrying effects of malnutrition that the Caribbean population has to face.
Of course, all of those issues are the products of 400 years of slavery cumulated by a period of colonialism. So rather than exploring the carnival history, I strongly believe that we should zoom into the social and economic problems that Caribbean people must face.
Many music artists create videos that reflect on how a thug life is actually necessary to survive in the social, economic and health conditions in which they are born.
In fact, Notting Hill carnival promotes those artists who also advocate for sex misconduct and chaos. The artists are either male or female, no gender discrimination here!
Rihanna is one of them of course, please note that I took her as an example because she is internationally known and that I do not criticize her character but the behaviour.
If we take a good look at carnivals such as the one from Brazil, we can notice the way in which women are overly sexualised.
Although there are other art aspects that are worth creating such events such as the chariots and costumes as well as the messages that are conveyed through each chariots’ theme.
My point is that the carnival could be a platform for voicing opinions in a healthy way.
We could perhaps encourage businesses and artists to come together in order to promote their crafts and products. Like the Pride, it should have a deeper meaning than bringing people together to dance!!
My view is that the Notting Hill carnival is very shallow and full of nonsense. To me it depicts black people as uneducated, violent and problematic.
That is all for me today, I hope you did enjoy this video and let me know what you think of the carnival in the comment section. Thanks for listening and see you in the next video!
Reference (Please note that my references are not done as Harvard guide)
– Ferris, L. (2010) ‘Incremental art: negotiating the route of London’s Notting Hill Carnival’, Social identities, 16(4), pp. 519–536. doi:10.1080/13504630.2010.498185.
– Harris, R.L. and Nef, J. (2008) Capital, power, and inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean. Edited by R.L. (Richard L. Harris and J. Nef. Lanham, Maryland ; Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
LONDON CARNIVAL 2022
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sBpfoX2-XE&ab_channel=IVisible
Transcript of video below:
Hi this is Fred from IVisible
Today, I would like to talk about the London carnival 2022 and its meanings, if there are any real meanings behind it at all.
I needed to take the time to say some important words about this Notting Hill thing. Because, to me it is just a thing that has no sense, no substance and most importantly, it does not give any power to the Caribbean communities. Engaging with a group of people who have only 3 things in mind for 3 days is useless.
So what are the 3 important things that the London carnival attendees have in mind ?
the first one is dancing, unfortunately, it is not about being creative whilst having fun but more an opportunity for males to freely act as if they are in the middle of a sex act with who ever is available.
So, it is not dancing but being promiscuous and being able to participate in an orgy.
The second thing is drinking alcohol, of course, gives inhibition and a false sense of being relaxed and invincible.
A state that may not bring the best in everyone though as we have seen in this year’s event. So chaos, violence, assaults and deaths were freely available.
Finally, the thirs element on the list is having fun by bringing people together whilst listening to some type of music.
For this last point, I must admit that it could be an event that actually helps people engage with each other peacefully BUT this is not because of the previously mentioned elements.
Bear in mind that there are children experiencing the event LIVE!
Although, everyone makes mistakes and I would not like to judge the attendees harshly without at least giving the benefit of the doubt to their attempt to integrate some sort of community development into this yearly event.
This type of “celebration and cultural identity in the face of racist intimidation in Britain” Ferris, L. (2010) is meant to constructively engage communities which are in desperate need for more empathy, visibility and opportunities to thrive here in the UK.
This is why I do not endorse the Carnival. Indeed, it does not help to voice any type of opinion on important social barriers faced by the Caribbean diaspora.
For example, the Covid-19 pandemic has been disproportionately affecting the UK’s BAME communities according to ITV news (- www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Why is Covid-19 disproportionately affecting the UK’s BAME communities? | ITV News).
Plus the current cost of living crisis makes it hard for people to plan ahead as well as put food on the table. I made a short video about this subject called The cost of living crisis in the UK in 2022, so feel free to check it out later.
To go back to our topic , the pandemic and the cost of living crisis are not confined to the UK . Back home, if I may say! And I am referring to the Caribbean region, things are very difficult too.
The rate of violence and the lack of economic leverage means that for example in Haiti, Jamaica or Guadeloupe and many other islands, social issues intensify bones of contention in the area.
This includes but not limited to, social inequalities, social injustices, the struggle of indigenous communities, tensions in gender relations, the influence of religion, a wide array of social movements such as the union water company mismanagement which Martinique faces, the anti-vaccine protests, antimonarchy protest, and social ecology discontent (Harris, R.L. and Nef, J. (2008); www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Roger LANOIX ; www.youtube.com. (n.d.). LIBRE ANTENNE – 26 OCTOBRE 2021, – www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Protests in Jamaica over royal visit ).
On top of this, health wise, the region is not doing better than in the UK. As per my video called (The Conference of heads of government in Belize), I translated from English to French a speech made by Mia Amor Mottley about the worrying effects of malnutrition that the Caribbean population has to face.
Of course, all of those issues are the products of 400 years of slavery cumulated by a period of colonialism. So rather than exploring the carnival history, I strongly believe that we should zoom into the social and economic problems that Caribbean people must face.
Many music artists create videos that reflect on how a thug life is actually necessary to survive in the social, economic and health conditions in which they are born.
In fact, Notting Hill carnival promotes those artists who also advocate for sex misconduct and chaos. The artists are either male or female, no gender discrimination here!
Rihanna is one of them of course, please note that I took her as an example because she is internationally known and that I do not criticize her character but the behaviour.
If we take a good look at carnivals such as the one from Brazil, we can notice the way in which women are overly sexualised.
Although there are other art aspects that are worth creating such events such as the chariots and costumes as well as the messages that are conveyed through each chariots’ theme.
My point is that the carnival could be a platform for voicing opinions in a healthy way.
We could perhaps encourage businesses and artists to come together in order to promote their crafts and products. Like the Pride, it should have a deeper meaning than bringing people together to dance!!
My view is that the Notting Hill carnival is very shallow and full of nonsense. To me it depicts black people as uneducated, violent and problematic.
That is all for me today, I hope you did enjoy this video and let me know what you think of the carnival in the comment section.
Thanks for listening and see you in the next video!
Reference (Please note that my references are not done as Harvard guide)
– www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Why is Covid-19 disproportionately affecting the UK’s BAME communities? | ITV News. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G7F0LALJtw&list=TLPQMzEwODIwMjLoxSLSzBwZ-Q&index=11 [Accessed 31 Aug. 2022].
– www.youtube.com. (n.d.). [4K HDR] Aug 2022 ,Notting Hill Carnival Costumes & colour & crowds London. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvJ6qI-RO28&list=TLPQMzEwODIwMjLoxSLSzBwZ-Q&index=2 [Accessed 31 Aug. 2022]. In-text citation: (www.youtube.com, n.d.)
– Ferris, L. (2010) ‘Incremental art: negotiating the route of London’s Notting Hill Carnival’, Social identities, 16(4), pp. 519–536. doi:10.1080/13504630.2010.498185.
– Harris, R.L. and Nef, J. (2008) Capital, power, and inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean. Edited by R.L. (Richard L. Harris and J. Nef. Lanham, Maryland ; Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
– www.youtube.com. (n.d.). The cost of living crisis in the UK in 2022. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZqNf8yFg2s&t=2s [Accessed 1 Sep. 2022].
– www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Guadeloupe (travel-documentary from the season ‘Caribbean Moments’). [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDxOyf-LLhw&list=TLPQMzEwODIwMjLoxSLSzBwZ-Q&index=4 [Accessed 31 Aug. 2022].
– www.youtube.com. (n.d.). The lovely British Virgin Islands. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqNdgXm82OA&list=TLPQMzEwODIwMjLoxSLSzBwZ-Q&index=5 [Accessed 31 Aug. 2022].
– Snoop Dogg. (n.d.). Home. [online] Available at: https://snoopdogg.com/. – www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Carnaval mars 2022 partie 1/3, Fort-de-France, Martinique. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t1nccre_2A&list=TLPQMzEwODIwMjLoxSLSzBwZ-Q&index=6 [Accessed 31 Aug. 2022].
-www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Carnaval mars 2022 partie 2/3, Fort-de-France, Martinique. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kk_1j36Rekk&list=TLPQMzEwODIwMjLoxSLSzBwZ-Q&index=7 [Accessed 31 Aug. 2022].
– www.youtube.com. (n.d.). How This Year’s Notting Hill Carnival Turned DEADLY. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N94Nii5BOjQ&list=TLPQMzEwODIwMjLoxSLSzBwZ-Q&index=10 [Accessed 31 Aug. 2022].
– www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Top 50 Rio Carnival Floats [HD] | Brazilian Carnival | The Samba Schools Parade. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsNoHinDidU&list=TLPQMzEwODIwMjLoxSLSzBwZ-Q&index=14 [Accessed 31 Aug. 2022].
– www.youtube.com. (n.d.). RIO DE JANEIRO CARNIVAL 2022 BRAZIL [FULL TOUR]. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-jwMGm_7QU&list=TLPQMzEwODIwMjLoxSLSzBwZ-Q&index=8 [Accessed 31 Aug. 2022].
– www.youtube.com. (n.d.). What’s Love – – Shaggy feat Akon (Official Music Video). [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m14Zpx1sQY [Accessed 7 Sep. 2022].
– www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Snoop Dogg – Beautiful (Official Music Video) ft. Pharrell Williams. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FE194VN6c4 [Accessed 7 Sep. 2022].
-www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Daddy Yankee – Problema (Video Oficial). [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qrlCLbGigc [Accessed 14 Oct. 2022].
– www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Spice, Sean Paul, Shaggy – Go Down Deh | Official Music Video. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZizLbWxr_E [Accessed 14 Oct. 2022].
– Rihanna. (n.d.). Home. [online] Available at: http://www.rihannanow.com/.