Saint Lucia will see a ‘moral responsibility’ campaign for this year’s carnival amid concerns that the annual event has become heavily sexualised.
The campaign announcement came from Dr. Ernest Hilaire, the Minister for Tourism, Investment, Creative Industries, Culture, and Information.
Hilaire told reporters on Monday that the Saint Lucia Christian Council met him after last year’s festival.
“We had a frank dialogue,” the Minister recalled.
Hilaire said the result was an agreement to work with the church.
“Hopefully, we will be seeing that reflected in this year’s carnival where we will have a moral responsibility campaign to say to persons because it is carnival, it doesn’t mean you have to be lewd and behave in appropriate ways,” he stated.
“You can enjoy yourself without crossing the boundaries, and we will work with the church and they (will) provide spiritual guidance to reinforce that message,” the Minister said.
Archbishop Gabriel Malzaire had penned a review of last year’s carnival expressing shock at the ‘absolute vulgarity’ on display in many street bands and a feature dubbed the ‘bam bam wall’.
Citing the scriptures, he declared that anything demeaning to the dignity of the human person is unworthy of public display.
According to the clergyman, carnival, or any human celebration should not be an excuse for any form of licentiousness.
“As a people, therefore, we need to be concerned about what we present to the present generation of youth to prepare for the next. Whatever is accepted as moral norms, or the lack thereof in this generation, will spill over to the next with its increasing decadence,” the Archbishop wrote.
