Dear Editor,

Of all the possible forms that national thanksgiving may take, the powers that were at the time reached into their cultural repertoire and pulled out the idea of a celebration that would culminate in the carnival like parade. Jollification reduced to this most primal, or animal, of forms. But it may have been intended as good clean fun for the masses. And filtered through the vulgar consciousness of the masses it will take life in the streets.

That the children are inducted into this the vulgar lyrics so demeaning to women, the incitement to abandon, the perceptible rise in the birth rate nine months afterwards is scandalous. But this is only the sins of the fathers falling on the third and fourth generations.

Many see nothing wrong with all that and even consider it good for the masses. As always, most members of parliament, playing their "mass" all year round, wouldn't be caught dead disguised as devils with a pitchfork "working up" in a band. But they will go on record as having wished the masses a good fete.

An international festival of arts, well organised, may be a better idea for the country. The man who wants to dance to vulgar music suffers no want of opportunity in Guyana or anywhere else.