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Steelband Sponsors, is it all about you?

Steelbands and sponsors redefine relationships

Opinion Piece         
by Michael L. Joseph   

Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, WI:  Today, in this age of National Steel Orchestra / National Steel Symphony, Pan in Schools, the E-pan, the G-Pan, the PHI, the National Youth Steel Orchestra etc; one is still left to wonder in the land of the birth of the Steelpan, if we are coming or going.

Could you imagine in today’s world, any man with money taking a woman for a wife, living with her for years, and just because she is no longer a Miss TnT (Trinidad & Tobago) - he could discard her for another beauty queen just so without any proper settlement, and she is not protected by the laws of the land?

Even Solomon of the Bible, having many wives and many concubines, thereby fathering many daughters, sought to protect them by the introduction of law.  It is said that he had introduced legal marriage so that if a man chooses to put out or separate from his spouse of many years, it is not automatic.  Solomon saw service rendered as a major factor entitling her to some part of his estate. Compensation for services rendered.

There is a worrying trend taking place lately within the Steelband fraternity, where corporate sponsors after many years of good relationship with a Steelband, would just drop them, walk out and take up relationship with another Steelband - and life goes on just like pre-Solomon’s time. Something is definitely wrong with that.  To me [Michael L. Joseph] it is unethical and downright disrespectful.

Recently I heard a representative of the family of one blushing bride, - who could not even marry in white – boasting about a marriage made in heaven that he was sure would not end in divorce, forgetting that the groom was a divorcee that had just left one wife and a ‘Steelband’ of children out in the cold.  But then everyone, except the new bride knows that love is blind, deaf and dumb too.  Forgetting that what goes around comes around.

In this age of enlightenment and entitlement, this kind of disrespect and contemptuous treatment for the Panist and his Instrument must not be tolerated and allowed to continue. Pan Trinbago, like Solomon - the good and concerned parent - must rise to the occasion and take what ever steps are necessary to protect its children.

The Public Relations department in cooperation with  Trinbago has full knowledge of the extent of the advertising benefits a company gets from sponsoring a Steelband, especially around the Carnival season.  Long after the season is over they continue to benefit from their Logos on T- Shirts worn by members, friends and families all over the world. And for this, their contribution to the Steelband just does not add up.  You see, the Steelbands today are aware of their contribution as much as the sponsors are of theirs, hence the reason for proper negotiations to the satisfaction of all concern.

I know that these areas are new and can be very challenging given the structure of the organisation.  But today, if the status of Pan Trinbago as the World Governing Body for the Steelpan must be maintained with any meaning, it must start by protecting its membership interest at home thereby, giving those abroad the confidence that the organisation does have the strength and capability to take care of its own at home and abroad.

This must be a part of the new thrust of the present executive under Comrade Bro. Keith Diaz.  Let us take a page out of the books of FIFA (International Federation of Association Football), when it comes to transfer of players from one steelband to another; and the same goes for corporate sponsorship.  As a matter of fact, the expert is right at our doorsteps.  Let us call on the man Bro. Jack Warner as a patriarchic Trinbagonian, to lend us his expertise to assist with making Pan Trinbago truly, the World Governing Body for the Steelpan.

Respectfully Yours in Culture,

Michael L. Joseph
President, Southern Marines Steelband Foundation


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