Descent into indecency

DINESH RAMBALLY

A DISTURBING video clip purporting to be of the Pierre Road (Felicity) Ramleela re-enactment was posted on social media a few days ago. In the clip, an inebriated individual wearing a sari is attempting to seduce Lakshman, the brother of Lord Rama. The clip shows the woman gyrating, but far worse is the commentary from the narrator (via loudspeaker). It was inappropriate, to say the least, talking about men liking “channa in their bara” and similar moronic statements.

The video has since been taken down, but it is not the only example of disturbingly inappropriate behaviour at what are supposed to be solemn events or significant religious events.

I recall recently the funeral of a chutney singer being made into a spectacle by a media organisation, complete with music trucks, singing and bacchanal. I have seen and heard that some funerals descend into cocktail hours, where drinks are broken out at the banks of the cremation sites.

The distinction between a party and a funeral, it seems, is disappearing in TT. This emerged a few years ago when we were treated to the spectacles of “gangsta funerals.”

But it’s not just the celebrants that are transforming social rituals into pappyshows. Other types of distasteful behaviour include the “invasion” of funerals by politicians seeking to make speeches and ingratiate themselves with families.

I don’t think it is an overstatement to describe this as another step toward the loss of common decency. But it is more than that. By turning every occasion into a party, we lose the ability to distinguish between tragedy and joy. By not understanding emotions, and appropriate responses, we lack the ability to control and regulate ourselves.

There is a time for everything under the sun, the Christian Bible says, a time for laughter, and a time for grief. The wisdom of these words might be lost in their simplicity. We need to cry as much as we need to laugh. These are the psychologically healthy responses of normal people. Grief teaches us to sort out our feelings and make sense of the experience of loss. It makes us more resilient.

If at every occasion for grief the opportunity to experience it is destroyed by noise and chaos, we would never have the chance to come to terms, to explain, to allow the experience to affect us. This is part of the maturing process. It allows us to become complete human beings.

Regrettably, even though we have our own local idiosyncrasies that encourage us to make everything a fete, it’s not a local problem. The desire to make everything into a spectacle or performance is helped and intensified by social media, where everything is “filtered,” clipped and set to music. Every experience then becomes one of a stream of images and sound which rushes by, leaving no emotional resonance.

This is the reason so many young people globally and locally are suffering from depression and lack resilience. Which brings us back to TT. We are attacked on all sides by endless streams of information, entertainment and otherwise. We look to the national theatre, the Parliament, the media, we see politics as bullying and ridicule.

Festivities ought not to be relegated to occasions which only facilitate a combination of noise, food and bacchanal, whether on the road or by the riverside. Whether it be Carnival or Divali, wedding or funeral, it’s all becoming the same. We are witnessing significant deviations from accepted decent norms.

This is a dangerous state of affairs. TT is descending into a state where its citizens are psychologically battered by crime and hardship, mental and physical. Rather than trying to deal with them, they seek endless distractions in noise, alcohol and an atmosphere of fete.

All religions have injunctions to their adherents that they set aside moments to reflect on their lives. We in Trinidad and Tobago, no matter what religion we belong to, seem to have thrown that injunction out the proverbial window. This would explain why a politician would see the need to walk with a herd of drunks to disrupt a religious ceremony because his name was not placed on the institution where the ceremony was being held.

It hardly seems worth it to suggest remedies, given what we see and hear every day. But the solutions to our problems begin with lowering the noise everywhere. Encouraging moments of silence, meditation, mindfulness in schools, in places of work and worship.

The government and civil society could devote resources to educating people on the value of introspection, rather than extroversion, which we have become convinced is our “culture” of endless fete. It is as much the responsibility of parents, schools, religious leaders and government. But it is a responsibility no one seems to want.

Dinesh Rambally is the MP for Chaguanas West

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