In defence of Carnival arts

February 11, 2004

Every year at Carnival time, the question of how much of taxpayers' money is expended on the art forms of calypso, mas and pan is raised, and what is bothering is not the questioning itself - that's quite in order - but the fact that those who answer in defence of these art forms seem to do so apologetically and never do so in proper context.

Dealing with this back in 1999 in a column titled "Stop the bloody begging," the following was outlined:

...Who will see to the future development of the art forms? What is to be put in place as insurance and assurance? Would the mindset of those responsible for the management of the art form continue to be one of mendicancy, begging cap in hand for alms from the State, so much so that calypsonians and pannists could be chastised publicly by all kinds of amorphous claimants for spending taxpayers' money, and Government is criticised for having extended such funds with the added innuendo of this being tantamount to some kind of racial betrayal? Indeed, one needs mountains of patience to exist here.

As long as these artists retain such a mindset, however, such insipid and imbecilic criticisms will be commonplace here. What these artists create are "culture products," "works of art" and "works of mas" that are second to none internationally and must be valued and paid for accordingly in the marketplace.

Every roti and plate of pelau made and sold here leads to revenue and income to the maker who in turn extends his connection to the survival and generation process. So too must it be with the "works of art."

More than three years now the research was done in a study commissioned by Tidco titled "The Entertainment Sector of T&T: Implementing an Export Strategy" by Dr Ralph Henry and Dr Keith Nurse. There is evidence that the entertainment industry of T&T in 1995 grossed earnings of approximately $253 million in foreign exchange, of which some 75 per cent or $180 million was directly attributed to the handmaidens of calypso, pan and Carnival.

There is virtually no tourist industry here outside of Tobago, calypso, pan and Carnival. Tourists come to these shores for the peace, tranquillity, sun and sea of Tobago throughout the year; recently yachties have begun to come for the safe haven of hurricane-free inlets, but by far the great influx that really makes the difference is between January and March each year for the festivities of calypso, pan and Carnival.

Government taxes on the tourist dollar from airport to hotel and back are yet to be quantified for these three months but it can be easily done to show the contribution of calypso, pan and Carnival to the State coffers, and if that is ever extrapolated over a ten-year period one can very well imagine the sums. In addition, the export of Carnival and its main ingredients, mas, calypso and pan, has been extensive in the last decade.

There are reputed to be some 60 carnivals around the world that are direct outgrowths of T&T's. The biggest events are as follows according to the Henry/Nurse study: Toronto/Caribana, attendance of one million people, with tourist expenditure accruing to the city of some Can$200 million; New York/Labour Day, attendance of two million, accruing some US$70 million; London/Notting Hill, attendance of two million, accruing some 20-30 million pounds. According to our estimates, in TT dollars that is a grand total of some 3.7 billion. Add the other carnivals in the Western Hemisphere and we may very well end up with a figure of some TT$4 billion annually.

How can TUCO, Pan Trinbago and the mas associations organise themselves to tap into these revenues that now accrue to foreign cities, hoteliers and privateers, State exchequers and others as a result of our culture products and works of art? But as they say, charity begins at home!

If the artists drop their begging approach and negotiate with the State to have each year for the three key months a small specialised tax that will accrue to the accounts of the various organisations, then that will be a start in the right direction.

Every bottle of rum, beer, soft drink, etc sold at Carnival fetes, every paid patron to the fetes, to the shows, to the calypso tents, to Panorama, every tourist entering the country, every hotel reservation or actual occupancy in those months of festivity, etc, to be taxed at a small percentage, say between one and two per cent to be collected by the relevant agencies and be extracted, after deducting administrative costs, for the coffers of the various organisations, then by God, TUCO and Pan Trinbago et al will not have to beseech and beg for a mere $3 million.

In the past, sponsors of the art such as Sa Gomes, Christopher and Roodal, not only invested and made money off the art but in a very real way they contributed to the actual day-to-day welfare and upkeep of the artists who fell within their camp.

No one individual has made more money off pan, or contributed more to its worldwide exposure than Amral Khan, a travel agent who took splintered groups of Guinness Cavaliers players all over the Far East, Australia and New Zealand, and today has retired as a spiritual guru.

Nothing is wrong with that. In all business transactions there is give and take and no one invests time, energy and money unless profits can be had. It is up to the artists concerned to negotiate with private investors accordingly. The same applies to Munroe and Eddie Grant.

Foremost in mind in the course of these negotiations must be the enriching of the exponents themselves and the instituting of social infrastructure essential to the future development of the said art forms. Once calypsonians, pannists and mas people are so organised to negotiate on the local front, then similarly we can envisage a new approach internationally in tandem with interdependent brother organisations out there.

That will undoubtedly gross massive sums. But what is also of importance is that this approach will provide the formula for all groups intending to extract funds from the State agencies. Each group will be able to negotiate funding in direct correlation and proportion to what it creates and contributes. No one will then be able to accuse government of bias and/ or unequal distribution of taxpayers' monies.

There will always be people here who, for whatever reason, consistently oppose calypso, pan and mas. There is nothing one can do to rectify this. They must be made to understand, however, that calypso, pan and mas have earned for T&T an international identity, has created a "space" for us in the world and true to say are, indeed, hard acts to match.

No puerile, childish criticisms will diminish their importance, nor minimise their influence on our national psyche. It is always amusing for us to see the very detractors, when they engage in their lofty religious and/or historical commemorative parades, dividing up sections according to colour scheme just like Carnival bands and their leaders at the rear directing movement, a la George Bailey and Peter Minshall, dressed in wide-brimmed straw hats and shirts with excessively big sleeves. Posture, stance, psyche, no different at all. But what else is to be expected? Aren't we all one nation?...