On Monday I attended the Luton carnival in the capacity of helping out a friend on one of the mini-stages. You can see photos at http://www.flickr.com/drsavi. The event was advertised as one of the biggest in the UK.

Apart from the fact that it rained all day it was good to see the crowds line the streets to support the parade.

My DJ spot was for an hour and on departing I managed to get a glimpse of the very long parade that ran in parallel to the main park where both a fairground and music stages had been set-up.

The parade consisted of varied floats: Romans, Salsa, Hari-Rama Hari-Krishna chanters and stilts walkers. Despite the cold and rain both revelers and participants of the parade smiled and danced away. This I thought was a good example of a multi-cultural celebration. A time when people can be unite forgetting their differences from an ego perspective and instead recognizing that music and dance crosses boundaries.

I also wondered about the inspiration for the carnival. I was surprised to learn about its religious connection. Interestingly it is suggested that its origins link to the fact that during Lent, traditionally no parties may be held and many foods are forbidden. Lent serves to commemorate the ‘Passion of Jesus’. Maybe people want to have a celebration before their fasting.
Parts of the carnival traditions, however, likely reach back to pre-Christian times. The ancient Roman festival of the Saturnalia a probable origin of the Italian Carnival. The Saturnalia, in turn, may be based on the Greek and Oriental festivals. Many local carnival customs are also based on local pre-Christian rituals.

The origin of the name “carnival” is disputed. According to one theory, it comes from the Latin carrus navalis (”ship cart”), referring to a cart in a religious parade

Most of the islands in the Caribbean celebrate Carnival.

Until attending the one in Luton my only experience of knowing rather than attending a carnival was the famous Notting Hill one. Years ago the latter had been infamous for confrontation with the police. However, now it is a time for celebration for all communities and relations with the police are good – Every year without fail the media shows police officers joining in with the partying.

Although some of the original religious elements may now not be visible and for many it is a year long mission to practice and prepare their floats.

Carnivals aim is certainly interesting, probably morphing into a celebration of life.

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I’ve recently put together the following based on an Interview with Harinder Singh of the Sikh Research Institute (http://www.sikhri.org).

I welcome feedback…

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It has been an interesting week.

On Monday 3rd March I was asked to attend a workshop at the House of Lords, re: ideas for projects to help youth appreciate and respect each other, i.e: our religious differences. The Trust was established to promote the education of children and young people about the religions of the world and funds projects that bring together young people of different faiths to improve collaboration and understanding.

On Tuesday 4th March I was back to Westminster to attend a meeting to see if selective Members of parliament and a minister would support the development of a sports arena in West London, again for youth.

With regard to the Inter faith meeting it was great to see so many people come together in a hope that projects could be developed to help form a foundation of respect. I suggested more multimedia.

In terms of the sports facility that may take time but the intentions are good - an aim to bring people together in an area that has seen issues such as crime, drugs and underinvestment.

The concept of unifying oneself towards a common aim is a good one. Not only for moral support and increased understanding but in a hope that a positive outcome can result.

Interestingly, on Friday of the same week (7th March) the BBC commenced their series entitled, ‘White season’. The commissioning of this potentially dangerous line of thought (you only have to see the advert to spot the alarm and complaints already lodged) could be described as being negative.

There currently seems to be a debate to define the differences between multi-culturalism, ethnic origins and religion.

The French have clearly become confused with their disrespect, hidden inside their thoughts on Secularism.

Back to the Interfaith meeting…

What I found was encouraging was the way that all the faith representatives who attended suggesting lots of projects and potential ways of countering concerns. For example:

• Meeting people from different faiths and backgrounds can strengthen your own beliefs
• The need for co-ordination between different groups
• Encouraging dialogue between youth from different UK regions and religions
• Developing interfaith projects driven by the youth

With regard to the latter, there was an excellent Sikh speaker from Scotland. She spoken about how each year people from different faiths would meet, camp, share ideas and develop a booklet on common themes - For example, the environment. She gave hope to us all that the youth had the power to lead us to better understanding and as adults we also had a part to play.

The annual Birmingham to London Cycle ride is another charity that attempts to bring communities together - raising funds for children’s charities. In July 2008 it will be held between 19th-20th July - More information and a new website coming soon at http://www.charitybikeride.com

A few weeks back I wrote an article on the need for more positive media. Developing projects that celebrate what people from different backgrounds can do is certainly good news to communicate.

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I was in a Mc Donalds fast food outlet positioned in a squashed corner of their seating arrangement. The table for four behind me was empty. Luckily we were standing up to leave and as all well mannered folks positioning our chairs under the table to leave the basic set-up in some form of order.

At the same time a white girl approached our table at speed. With a milkshake in one hand and two straws in the other the look in her eye was one of penetrating contempt. I wondered how a girl of probably no more than 14 or 15 years old could have formed an attitude of such hate. She uttered the following words with venom, ‘Excuse me can we have some space here please’.

She pushed or more like shoved past us, obstructing my opportunity to exit, twisting to get into the empty corner. I slide past but I wanted to make her realize that her behaviour was unacceptable. Therefore, I simply and in the most polite manner possible said, ‘Well we were just leaving and you can have all the space in the world.’ Her friend followed closely behind her grabbed a seat and shared a facial expression of, Wow! These people speak English and are not being perturbed or affected by our bully girl tactics.

I left the outlet feeling that they both had been dealt with accordingly. Was my approach good or bad? In one sense it was good in that it did not wish to stand for nonsense. In another way it may have been bad as I too admittedly was showing an element of attitude.

A few hours later I debated why after almost 50years (plus if you include early UK settlers) and a few hundreds of years of the British being involved in India, some elements of the white British community still had both a superiority complex and an attitude of hate?

The truth is that our society is still segregated today. The episode I have just documented is trivial compared to daily bully tactics that happen in school or even in the work place.

The cause has to be combination of a lack of education but also the way that society has evolved - It is a fact that for certain situations invisible boundaries are present.

The following factors drive this segregation:

1. PR & Media – Ignoring contributions from all communities
2. School – Poor world education
3. Education – Lack of world politics or peace strategies
4. Workplace politics – Poor Human Resource Management strategies

What we really need is to unite under common global issues:

* Doing some charity work together – finding a common cause for our energies
* Harmonising town centres in terms of wealthy and poor areas
* Bringing people together to discuss the reasons for acting in a prejudice manner

I wonder if I met the same girls in McDonalds again in say a year’s time, whether their attitudes will have changed? Probably not without any investment in fresh initiatives…

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