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2015 Crop Over and Rihanna

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Crop Over 2015 is about to slide off the calendar and by the measurement of many it was a success. BU will reserve judgment until a more respectful  time but we offer this: is Crop Over […]a big party [carnival] or is it meant to be an outlet for vigorous cultural exprehttps://barbadosunderground.net/wp-admin/post.php?post=47590&action=editssion.

Thanks to international recording artist Rihanna Crop Over 2015 has been given its fair share of international exposure. The management at the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. must be grinning like the proverbial Cheshire cat.

Rihanna sightings!

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198 responses to “2015 Crop Over and Rihanna”

  1. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    David,

    Exactly where is the costume hiding? I can’t see any costume.

  2. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @ David,

    That is not “culture”. That is a very well designed carnival / masquerade costume as seen in any “carnival”.

    Cropover/Kadooment, T&T Carnival, Rio, Toronto,Notting Hill and on and on. Same ting.

  3. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Lord knows I used to love Crop Over and would wish to be able to involve my son. But I can’t introduce him to this. What kind of mother would I be? So we have to stand marginalized away from a vital part of our culture. It just isn’t fair.

  4. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    The costume is not the thing these days. It is the body that is on display. Same old bodies every year. Nothing new.

  5. Alvin Cummins Avatar
    Alvin Cummins

    @Donna, Hants, etc,

    Can you define “our culture”? What would you like to see different? Specifically.

  6. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    We cannot avoid modernisation unless we become like North Korea.

    What can we say is uniquely Barbadian ?

    While some of us old fellas had wonderful childhoods and the materials and opportunity to live off the land for free, it all changed as we progressed.

    I will never forget leaving home in the morning, spending the whole day at the beach sustained by coconut water, dry coconuts,roast breadfruit and roast fish and fruit in season.
    mangoes,sea grapes,golden apples and goose berries.

    Now we have progressed to “Chefette” and Gas Station/mini Marts.

  7. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @ Alvin,

    I will let you and other Bajan intellectuals define what is Bajan culture.

    I am thankful that I grew up in Barbados in simpler times.

  8. ac Avatar
    ac

    Why are people so afraid if the naked body. Who was it first to consider the naked body as one of vulgarity and sinfulness. I have seen pictures of other black or mixed cultures who seem to have found the naked body as one of ordination v

  9. de Ingrunt Word Avatar
    de Ingrunt Word

    Pieces and David, interesting commentary as always when the question of ‘Culture’ is debated.

    So, David this extravaganza definitely has our unique Bajan characteristics to make it part of our culture. Our Barbados Crop Over is a ‘grand extravaganza & partee’ held of course to celebrate the end to the hard labor and toil of the sugar-crop…remember the old mantra: Burn Mr. Hardin, Burn!

    Kadooment dancing is cultural if it’s an artistic demonstration that is part and parcel of the extravaganza. Otherwise the wukking up on the street is to incite pleasure to oneself or some partner so that is purely hedonistic, nothing cultural bout dat.

    And we Kadooment party also means the same thing as Carnival in T&T or Brazil or as Mardi Gras in New Orleans. For all ah we it’s tourism revenue and revenue from the additional consumption of various goods and services.

    So we can break out we calypsos, we food and all we Bajan behaviours to distinguish we culture from others!

    But the lewdness, crude talk, semi and fully naked painted bodies and the other brazen sexual behaviour is just as ‘cultural’ to Brazil, New Orleans, T&T, Aruba, DR and everywhere else they have one of these similar local celebrations.

    So help me understand how Rhianna is a cultural icon for CropOver or otherwise. She loves to come home to enjoy the Kadooment partee and that’s great, but wha culture what?

    By the way Pieces, how is it dat we ‘culture’ is only 50 years old…it start wid Independence, fah real!

  10. David Avatar
    David

    @Hants

    Are you saying the costume does not depict or represent a Bajan cultural expression? The skimpy costume is all about adornment?

  11. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    I’m not afraid of the human body.I have no problem watching documentaries or allowing my son to watch the naked tribes roam. It means nothing to them and hence it means nothing to me. But the innocence of those other cultures has long left these shores. It cannot return. Have you noticed the behavior of the people who ‘wear those costumes?’ It is all about sex for them . Numerous men jucking their posteriors and from what I’ve seen here sucking as well in the open. It’s just an orgy. Nothing more. Or do you consider mindless sex to be desirable as well?

  12. David Avatar
    David

    Here is what the costumes of the two winning bands look like, Betty West and Trevor Chase.

    http://www.ooutraje.com/sections.html

    http://www.funbarbados.com/crop_over/kadooment_bands/betty_west.cfm

  13. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Yes David. There is noting uniquely Bajan about it that I can see.

  14. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @David the costume designers in Barbados are very “creative” but their designs are typical of the carnival costumes every where else.

  15. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Trinidad.

    http://www.hartscarnival.com/vogue/costumes/

  16. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    Donna

    I hope you’re cognizant of the fact that Christianity took much from Paganism and sanctified it? Also, a strong argument can be made and probably sustained, regarding Solomon’s relationships to his Pagan wives which resulted in the contamination of the Christian religion.

  17. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Crop Over used to be an exciting time for me being an artistic and creative person. It was not about bringing in tourists for me and for most other people I know. It truly was an expression of our culture in all its forms. But now it is just an excuse for people to engage in mindless sex in the open. And this we do in the interest of the tourist dollar. We are empty souls it seems. Empty souls drifting into nothingness. We are truly uncultured.

  18. de Ingrunt Word Avatar
    de Ingrunt Word

    Donna, you have again surprised me with your BU comments. I say surprise because this most recent comment linked to you a more blinkered view than I would have previously expected.

    You said: “Lord knows I used to love Crop Over and would wish to be able to involve my son. But I can’t introduce him to this. What kind of mother would I be?…”

    I have no idea how old your son is but I fear for him (and you) if you willfully curb his introduction to this event and expect that you are saving him from the world’s evils.

    No long palaver here because fundamentally I don’t believe you could really be that myopic about helping him manage the rampant sexuality that is around every corner, inside every school classroom and hiding behind one wrong click of the mouse.

    Let me frame it simply this way. I was watching an interview on TV with the madam and both of us were startled when the actor/former ‘The View’ talk show host ,Star Jones joked that after her nine year old son saw Beyonce perform once on TV he said to her ‘mommy, my thing is tingling’.

    We both reacted as ‘wow, nine years’.

    Long story short, surely we don’t want to expose our children to too much overt sexuality too soon but also as surely we better get into their heads and try to explain as practically and innocently as possible what’s going on because whether we like it or not they are being exposed!

    Of course, on the humorous side of that revelation is the fact that the kid is definitely not homosexual; but gee that is an early interest in the opposite sex!

  19. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Forgive my ignorance but didn’t the tribal men wear loin clothes at some point in time. I don’t recall them being so clothed while the women were so naked. In these costumes the men show a few chest hairs whilst the women have to shave their pubic hair or it would be showing.

  20. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @de Ingrunt Word,

    Leave Donna alone nuh!

    She is raising her son in a way that she thinks is best. We must all wish her well.

  21. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    Donna

    You’re quite correct Donna… Cropover has evolved throughout the years from its meager inception in 1979, I think it was. And at that time, it was all about the end of the harvest celebration and the burning of Mr. Harding at the National Stadium, to its present day commercialization and hedonistic tendencies.

  22. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @Donna,

    Where is the costume with the pubic hairs. For a Christian your detailed examinations are astounding.

    It musse my old age and transition lenses that preventing me from seeing the “details”

  23. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Any a wunna feel this?

    http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/70801/quakes-barbados-afternoon

  24. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    My son just turned twelve and his not so little thingy has been rising and tingling for several years. I already explained to him why it was rising whenever he saw couples on television kiss. We talk about sex and how good it is in the right context. We talk about women and men and relationships and the correct way to view a woman. I have introduced these things to him in an age appropriate manner. He is not ready to witness the lewdness of Crop Over. He still is only interested in Star Wars and other such movies. But we have discussed on many occasions the perversions of mankind and will do so more explicitly as he becomes older.

    N.B Believe it or not he has not seen any rampant sexuality at his school nor has he been shown any inappropriate material. His classmates are still quite childish.

    De, I taught three year olds and had to explain to them about inappropriate touch re sexual molestation. No problem. I teach teenagers and young adults at Sunday School and we discuss sex openly and realistically including pornography. No problem. I can stand up and discuss sex in any forum without shame. And you think I have a problem discussing sex with my son? Steupse.

    So…. I am not at all myopic and my son will be well equipped to face life. Don’t you ever fear for either of us. Not ever.

  25. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Hants,

    That is the problem. You keep trying to put me in the Christian box. Mistake. I’m not your airy fairy Christian, you see. You should hear how we talk in my Sunday School class. I’ve got young men and women in there. Gotta keep it real!

    The pubic hair has been shaved off. That is why you cannot see it. The point is the costume is so skimpy I know that they have shaved.

  26. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @Donna,

    It is interesting that you pay attention to those “details”.

    You are a fascinating lady.

  27. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    I am indeed an enigma to most men.

  28. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    Donna

    Your son will be better equipped if you allow him to gradually exercise his individual-conscience and right to his private judgment, as he progress through life, but under your tutelage of course.

  29. David Avatar
    David

    Sapientiam tuam non est numerus!

  30. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Donna,

    So what did you think is happening Mr. Dompey? I guide him as is my job as a parent. I tell him he must learn to make his own choices. I gradually give him age appropriate choices I have already told him that he must stop and consider what I tell him, learn to reason since he will need to make all his own choices in the not too distant future. He will make his mistakes but I will have given him a way to return to base.

    Train up a child in the way he must go…..

    Really, you men can’t seem to understand that you have nothing on me. I am not in need of your advice.

    My son, dear Dompey will be better equipped than you are.

  31. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ Donna
    My son, dear Dompey will be better equipped than you are
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    You REALLY need to set higher goals for the young chap though..
    Shiite man… Julian Glyne Williams’ donkey is better equipped than that Dompey….AND smarter too.

  32. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Bushie,

    Maybe I should have said waaaaay better cause that’s what I meant.

  33. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @David,

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2015/08/07/rihanna-and-the-liberation-of-carnival/

  34. pieceuhderockyeahright Avatar
    pieceuhderockyeahright

    @ Donna

    I noticed that while you were speaking you made a mistake and said “whilst the women have to shave their pubic hair …..”

    I do hope that you know that that is wrong..?

    According to Ronald WeJonesing, our Minister of Edukashun (as in Shunning education) the correct statement with spelling is and You would do well to repeat the Minister’s words “whilst the women have to shave their public hair …”

    And we wonder why our education system is so poor!!!

  35. balance Avatar
    balance

    @David the costume designers in Barbados are very “creative” but their designs are typical of the carnival costumes every where else
    Sounds a bit oxymoronish to me

  36. balance Avatar
    balance

    “My son, dear Dompey will be better equipped than you are.”

    Interesting response and so not to leave much to the imagination; could I be allowed to ask in the context of the discussion if better equipped up there or down there.

  37. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    Donna

    I hope your son is better equipped than I was because for sometime I had allowed the dictates of my parents, religion, and society to influenced the manner in which I thought entirely.
    But a decade or two ago this philosophy teacher who happened to be Jamaican of British descent, challenged myself and those she taught at the time to examination with a strict scutiny what was inculcated by parents, society and religion, by employing the tools of common-sense, the laws of nature and logic to arrived at our particular determination.
    And here I am today a product of a liberal education which enables me through the process of critical analysis to examine those unproven claims and to challenge those bogus beliefs with a meticulous scrutiny.
    And finally Donna, in such a time as we are living in today, parents ought, must and should encourage their offsprings to think as though their are scientists, leaving nothing to chance and refusing to accept what is being impressed upon them at face-value.

  38. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    Donna

    You might or might not be aware of this fact, but prior to 1990, a liberal education in the United States of America was devoid the critical thinking skills. And that is why today we have to frustrate ourselves with characters like Bush Tea and the likes, who haven’t the intellectual-infrastructure to think critically because he and them hadn’t been taught to do so. And this character may I add: ( poor soul) finds it unintelligible when persons like myself and AC employ our sociological- imagination and think above and beyond this character limited box of intellectual artefacts.

  39. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Bird brains of a feather eat scratch grain together.

  40. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Balance,

    From all indications my son will be well equipped in both locations. He’ll have the physical equipment and the knowledge of how and when and with whom to use it. He is a considerate child who listens well. And unlike some of you he actually hears. Heck we were up past two this morning talking and the poor child fought sleep because he thought I needed to be heard. You guys would have been snoring hard.

  41. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Pieces,

    If the hair was public they wouldn’t have shaved it off and Hants would have been able to see it.

  42. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ Donna
    LOL …you getting sweeter and sweeter..

  43. pieceuhderockyeahright Avatar
    pieceuhderockyeahright

    @ Donna

    You do know that I was jes highlighting the illiteracy of Minister of Edukashun WeJonesing right?

    Looka, looka looka Bush Tea, looka looka LOL

  44. pieceuhderockyeahright Avatar
    pieceuhderockyeahright

    De old man teif dis from de internet as I did the earlier definition on CULTURE from Alina Bradford, Live Science Contributor.

    I thought that her comments encapsulated this concept succinctly and addressed the “FLUX” that CULTURE (which some argue does not exist in Barbados) will always experience

    “Constant Culture

    No matter what culture a people are a part of, one thing is for certain, it will change. Culture appears to have become key in our interconnected world, which is made up of so many ethnically diverse societies, but also riddled by conflicts associated with religion, ethnicity, ethical beliefs, and, essentially, the elements which make up culture,” said De Rossi. “But culture is no longer fixed, if it ever was. It is essentially fluid and constantly in motion.” This makes it so that it is difficult to define any culture in only one way.”

  45. David Avatar
    David

    @Piece

    We agree to the definition/explanation you posted about culture. What we need to do is go deeper to explain/understand the tension required to feed the fluidity you mentioned. We can’t go with the flow can we?

  46. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @David,

    Lewis and Rihanna are showing off Barbados as a “fun” destination.

    Lewis getting a lot of attention from the “papparazzi”.

    Can’t show any links because of concern for the health of Piece an Bushie.

  47. David Avatar
    David

    @Hants

    There is no doubt Rihanna and Lewis are given a publicity to Barbados money cannot buy. The discussion about culture which is about the expression of a people is a different conversation.

  48. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Culture in Barbados has changed over the years.

    It might be a good idea to preserve aspects of our culture in a Musem of Bajan Culture with exhibits and live shows.

    Tuk band on Christmas morning could be part of a weekly show including ole time reenactments of minstrels like Shilling and Honey doo doo.

    Lunch at the “Museum” restaurant could be roast breadfruit with the salt beef an butter inside as well as the other traditional food.

    Literature…..Readings from books by Austin Clarke and others.

    Sports….Cricket in its various forms, marble cricket, beach cricket. A demonstration of how we knitted balls and later used bicycle inner tubes to make balls. Show cricket bats made from coconut branches and clammy cherry branches.

    I am sure Piece, Bushie and others can add to “we cultural experiences”

  49. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    There is also Kite flying. Any of you remember making kites using coconut leaf stem or cane trash bones?

    I also remember making our own toys. Tops that were cone shaped with a nail at the tip.

    Pitching marbles 3 holes. The there was my favourite with a ling. I was very good at that.

  50. Colonel Buggy Avatar
    Colonel Buggy

    We have never had any culture which we could clearly called our own. We have been adopting other people’s cultureS as they came in their numbers to Barbados. first it was the Englishman’s culture,and we have gone through the various stages to where were are now…..Trini Culture. We have even embraced the Mormon culture,a sect which believes that God had placed a curse on people and turning them black. Pretty soon we will be going Chinese. Correction we have gone Chinese , judging from the amount of Chinese cultural programmes we see on CBC TV. And of course we are into the Indian and Asia culture via the almost million dollars of Remey hair pieces we import annually.

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