Almost to the day, 44 years ago, late prime minister George Chambers proclaimed as a post-Carnival instruction to the nation: “Fete over, back to work!”
Since captured as recurring slogan, we have heard it from public officials numerous times over the years - the latest occasion being Ash Wednesday from minister of public utilities, Barry Padarath.
We would recall that back in 1982 dramatically changing economic fortunes at the eclipsing of oil windfalls helped produce biting calypso commentaries from people such as Sugar Aloes, Chalkdust, and others.
It may well have been that, smitten by this, the prime minister was insistent on establishing a clearer dichotomy – fete vs work.
As it is in 2026, public policy in 1982 had been heavily focused on the theme of economic sustainability. So, Chambers was in fact urging a retreat from the revelry (and biting picong) of Carnival that year and a prompt focus on steadying a faltering economic vessel.
Suffice it to say, this op-ed space pounced on the same Ash Wednesday opportunity 10 years ago when I surmised that the idiom ought never to be ignored - especially since it was “sadly destined for assured relapse at the onset of Easter.”
It is, I now confess, an all too easy temptation to which one may fall unwitting prey - that the “fete” being summarily convicted has, as a counter-active feature, a return to “work” and the creation of worth.
We have witnessed attempts over the years by people such as Alfred Aguiton, Keith Nurse, and more recently Gregory McGuire (and numerous others) to quantify net economic gains from the Carnival season in an effort to signal value in excess of annual catharsis, predictable bacchanal, and plain, old-fashioned fun.
In effect, what some have been arguing is that to negatively juxtapose “fete” and “work” is to ignore substantial socio-economic “value.”
I now believe there is a significant basis for clinically revisiting the dynamic. I pay closer attention to Panorama than to any other feature of the Carnival season. (Not that pan is only about Panorama).
I have seen nothing to convince me that there is anything we do better than pan. Any close observer would recognise substantial socio-economic value - not the least being untapped intellectual property returns.
We will tend not to dismiss much of this if we find the time to understand what scholars such as Savitri Rampersad and Justin Koo are proposing as unrecognised economic potential associated with the instrument itself and the music played on it. Look out for more on this.
In effect, there is no “getting back to work” when it comes to pan. It never really stops and starts that way.
We may also, as with the other associated disciplines, disaggregate the main features of Carnival by taking a closer look at the singular component of “labour” and our changing world of work.
This is not as esoteric an association as it may appear. Yes, there is net economic value in Carnival, but there are also implications for productive activity and, consequently, how we evaluate its contribution to work and employment.
It should be that our labour unions and academics pay more detailed attention to this. But is does not appear they are doing so.
For example, Carnival as an exhibition of the contribution of a recognisably growing informal work sector has serious implications for organised labour. It also needs to more consistently be recorded as a major factor when considering national, economic well-being.
Our Central Statistical Office should be more adequately resourced to capture and interpret the hard seasonal micro-statistics. For example, our labour participation rate for the third quarter of 2025 came in at 54.6% (the ILO predicts the global statistic will “decline” to 60.5% in 2027). More needs to be done to give these estimates greater meaning. What is everybody else (45.4%) doing in the meantime?
I know there is much, much more to this. Don’t pounce on me with more informed advice. Just get to work on helping us understand what really happens at this time of year.
Though I fell for the trap of the slogan in 2016, I also did observe then that “in countries such as ours that rely heavily on intuition, guesswork, and tribal favouritism in the framing of public policy and action there is always the tendency to eschew science in favour of popular wisdom.”
Looked at more closely, the fete could actually be providing more work and “value” than we think.
