"So its the day after Pan Semis or the Semi final round of the Panorama competition and my facebook news feed is buzzing with posts and pictures from the event. Its no surprise that the posts about the lime and how much alcohol was consumed and how much pretty women were there, grossly outnumbers the amount of posts about the actual competition. Let’s face it… a huge part of that crowd, which unfortunately makes up a great majority of my facebook friend list, did not go there to hear pan.
I was fortunate enough to be down on the drag on Saturday and was able to get some video footage as well as pictures of some of the medium sized bands. It was a very visual reminder of what I already knew; this national instrument of ours, this past time of playing pan for panorama, something deep seated within our heritage and identity with participants that span age barriers, gender barriers, ethnic barriers and socioeconomic barriers was something important, something essential to a social cohesiveness that survives within this tradition.
Seeing this and knowing fully well that it was up against a monster that would rear its ugly head on the Greens the following day made me angry. I could overcome the anger I felt when I thought about the fact that the effort and dedication that these people put into perfecting the rendition of the song they chose to play would be ignored by the Greens monster. I could overcome the anger I felt when I thought about how cavalier and callous the Greens monster is toward itself. But the anger I could not overcome is the fact that there are a multitude of events for the carnival period that cater to the needs of the Greens monster… why did the monster need to come and feed here? Here in this place where people spent months dedicated to doing something of cultural significance that in itself is defiance against subversive forces in this land. That is the anger I could not overcome. That is the insatiable appetite for debauchery that I could not comprehend.
As the Saber song goes… maybe “i’m too decent to understand” the nature of the Greens monster."
The original blogpost is at: The Monster that ate culture
