Almost two years ago, in April 2020, I wrote: “Covid-19 will force us to rebuild our economy. We need to put our live performing arts at the heart of the recovery agenda, not simply with a disproportionate focus on a fleeting carnival season that we may not even have in 2021. Its absence paves the way for reconsideration of diversifying the economy through the creative sector and to do so on a multi-seasonal basis.”
I have always seen the wider perspective of the performing arts. Carnival is a major annual artistic expression of music, dance, theater and design over a six-week period. During these earlier weeks, carnival features artistic expression at least equal to that of the Mardi Gras days that have become Carnival Monday and Tuesday.
The carnival season needs to be re-engineered and re-branded, recognizing that it is a festival of the first quarter of the year. It could usefully be expanded and marketed as a first quarter festival running from January to March, into which 200 events, not necessarily all directly related to the current and now unsatisfactory Carnival product, could be slotted to include a refreshed tourism product.
The creative spirit of Trinidad and Tobago is strong and vibrant. The arts and culture sector is our other oil. Sadly, the sector has been ritualistically glorified but never mainstreamed into our economic life. Marketing has been ineffective. There is only an embryonically defined funding policy and no plan or policy to separate the marketable and traditional cream, which is worth guarding against dilution, although dilutions, such as calypso tents more than the market can bear, some quite mediocre, supported by the state. funds.
Readers will recall that I also have a larger dream of strengthening the foundations of multi-seasonal performing arts with events at their respective cores such as jazz arts, heritage of the African and Indian sub-continents, culinary tours and monthly of fashion, as well as Diwali and Hosay expressions, provided that in the case of religious-based holidays we consult with their leaders so as not to make the sacred profane.
It will not surprise readers to know that almost every word written above is drawn from my previous columns, as are the references to 2018 and 2019 below. I rely on those columns to highlight the failure of the Ministries of Culture and Tourism of successive governments and the complex failure that is now emerging in 2022.
As is painfully obvious, we have a last-minute “Taste of Carnival” pushed for 2022, amply demonstrating that the current administration missed the imposed opportunity for enlightened reconsideration of the Carnival product.
We missed the opportunity even though the current Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts was well aware that despite “the government spending more than $500 million promoting Carnival over the last ten years Trinidad and Tobago failed to get a significant return on as for her investment. “. (Express, September 27, 2018)
The minister, Senator Randall Mitchell, also acknowledged the drop in visitor numbers. However, we see the same old narrow political strategy of mindlessly throwing a few dollars at the performing artists as favored contractors and suppliers make a lot of money.
This was expressed by Mr. Kwasi Robinson, an economic development officer, in a Newsday report in 2019: “When you look at who makes significant money from Carnival, it’s not the entertainers or the people who make it happen. There are people with sound systems, lights, people who rent toilets, tables and chairs. What we need now is to reorganize our spending to make sure that the money is in the hands of the masmen, the pan players, the calypsonians, because they are the (people) who provide the content for the Carnival.”
It is clear, then, that the Ministry and the National Carnival Commission, behind which the ministry tries to hide, did nothing meaningful with the time on hand during the Covid stall. They spearheaded the continued inaction in developing a cultural and entertainment industry that is ready on the ground to meet the challenges of diversification, if responsibly managed and financed.
When will that day come?
