Carnival shows London's unity

Sunday and yesterday saw the 41st Notting Hill Carnival hit the streets
of London, bigger and better than ever. For most people in London, this
3-day weekend at the end of our short summer is a non-stop party
weekend, culminating in the two-day carnival. Personally, I like to
take this Tuesday off work, as it takes me longer than it used to to
recover from days of partying.

Carnival was founded by the West Indian community of Notting Hill, West
London, as a way to bring white people into their new community and
begin the process of integrating the black community that had appeared,
apparently overnight, during the 1950s. The first carnival, based on
the famoud Trinidad carnival, attracted a couple of hundred people.
2005's carnival saw a million people dancing in the streets, in what
has become Europe's biggest street festival. Carnival still shows its
Caribbean roots, with Reggae and Soca still prevalant. But since it
started, it has been embraced by every community, and music varies from
house, to samba, to hip hop, to African styles.

This year's carnival continued the trend of becoming ever more
multi-racial, with mixed couples appearing everywhere - at times it
seemed to me that black/black, white/white or Asian/Asian couples were
on the verge of extinction. Talk of the potential for terrorists to set
off bombs
didn't seem to deter anyone, and the police presence, while maybe
heavier than previous years, was still friendly and low-key. Given that
a million people were crammed into a couple of square miles, that many
were drinking and taking drugs heavily, and that the police were
largely hands-off, there was virtually no trouble: proving that, if
people are given the freedom to act as they want, they'll learn the
responsibility to handle that freedom.

Carnival has often been the ground upon which Londoners have stood
united against extremists, whether far-right racists, racist police or
terrorists. This year, it has been the launching post from which we
carry on our battles, both against terrorism or repressive
"anti-terror" legislation. The terror attacks in July have united us
only further, which will disappoint both the terrorists and our
political leaders, who seek to frighten and divide us.

http://news.google.co.uk/news?q=notting%20hill%20carnival&svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&sa=N&tab=in

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