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There were recent reports in Trinidad and
Tobago’s
Newsday and
Trinidad Express emanating from a press conference called by
Pan Trinbago to highlight the organization’s customary financial
tussles
with the Trinidad and Tobago government. Tabled as
major concerns to the governing body on behalf of the
country’s pan community, were
outstanding appearance fees due to bands for the
long-concluded 2008 Panorama season, and no apparent plans
in motion for the upcoming year 2009. The latter
malady stems from the disbanding of the board of the
National Carnival Commission (NCC), through which Pan
Trinbago interacts with the government. According to
Arnold, this was not always the case, as in the past, the
governing body related directly to the Ministry of Culture.
Things have changed though, and with the NCC as the
designated conduit and without a board, forward movement is
not presently possible.
This is far
from the first time that there has been public posturing on
the part of Pan Trinbago as they chide the country’s
government, on how apparently low on the totem pole are some
issues relevant to the national instrument - but not always the case when spearheaded by the
government as its own initiative.
In light of this ongoing travail of Pan
Trinbago to obtain past due and future funding, for
respective projects from the government of Trinidad and
Tobago, not least of all the annual panorama competition -
When Steel
Talks followed up with the organization’s
president Patrick Arnold. A brief consideration of the
situation, and the two protagonists, appeared timely.
Being mindful that the steelpan is touted by the country’s
government as the national instrument, the almost
ritualistic saga would seem to challenge this assertion.
Perhaps what the government actually thinks of Pan Trinbago
was a fair lead off question?
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audio
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WST:
“Do you think that the government is trying to do
away permanently with the institution of Pan
Trinbago, if so, for what purpose, and if you don’t
think like that, why are they not working with you
[Pan Trinbago], with every year seeming to get
progressively worse?”
Arnold:
“Well, ah, I
don’t think that they really, um, very serious about
culture... Can’t see that, because, you know,
we [Pan Trinbago] operate all year round - there’s
no subvention for Pan Trinbago - we exist.”
WST:
“Don’t you find this odd in a country where, the
national instrument is supposed to be pan?”
Arnold:
“Yes, it is.
They say it, but they don’t respect it.
They just repeat those words, but their [the
government] action isn’t there.”
_______________________________
Without actually touching the question of
the government’s regard, or none, for the governing body,
Arnold preferred to address what might be the larger picture
of their general apathy towards culture. With no
‘subvention’ for Pan Trinbago from the government, related
to the country’s national instrument, on behalf of the pan
community, was it not time that perhaps Pan Trinbago should
try a different tack? Arnold proceeded to point out
the measures being adopted by the organization to address
these issues, at least outside of the panorama season:
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audio
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Arnold:
“We have - we
have three companies that we have set up now to deal
with it, things like that [funding of steelband
projects/events outside of carnival time].
They would be managed by professional people, and I
am sure in the future, we won’t have to be really be
in this type of a situation. That is why we
moved really - we got - a company to come in and
look at Pan Trinbago, and they have come up with the
way that we should move, move forward. We already
have Panvesco - which is our investment company.
And we are not going to sit around no more and wait
on them [the government].”
Arnold also
expanded on the company charged with advising Pan Trinbago
on becoming a self-sufficient and perhaps even lucrative
business entity. That task now lies in the hands of an individual who has his set up his own company, but hails
from the same local firm that functions as the governing
body’s auditor. But whatever good financial windfalls
may result from the three companies, Pan Trinbago sees
those as resources for projects/events outside of the
carnival season. With panorama being within the
carnival framework, Arnold believes it is still the
responsibility of the government to fulfill this financial
role.
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Arnold:
“The government
- they have their role to play, especially with
carnival, but outside of carnival, we would be able
to move on from now on.”
WST:
“Well it seems as though that you incur your largest
costs when it comes around carnival time, because if
you are looking at payment of prize monies and
you’re looking at payment of band appearance fees,
and of course for players, and other things
throughout the season - ”
Arnold:
“Well that’s
their [the government’s] role. The country
generates over six hundred million, [TT dollars] or
more at carnival time.”
WST:
“You [Pan
Trinbago] seem to be running around in circles and
facing a lot of challenges on a yearly basis.
Apparently, apparently, the generation of the income
of carnival time isn’t filtering down to pan.
It doesn’t make a difference to pan, if they [the
government, with carnival] generate five billion -
Pan Trinbago [and by default, the pan community] is
having an issue. So you can’t, I think,
continue to look at what they are generating and
that it’s their responsibility. So we are back
to the original case: that this is pan.”
With Pan Trinbago’s three business
ventures in train, and also looking at the current climate
and treatment being meted out to the steelpan community and
the governing body, Arnold was not adverse to ‘thinking
outside the box.’ He alluded that they were open to
taking Panorama out of the carnival time frame, but
acknowledged they would have to obtain funding outside of
the government, and seek to identify private financing in
such a scenario.
On a related note,
When Steel
Talks delved into the reported return of the Panorama
finals to the Queen’s Park Savannah in Port-of-Spain for
2009. According to Arnold, they [respective
government/Ministry focal points] promised the South
[Skinner Park in San Fernando, the venue in 2007 and 2008]
two years. “By now we should have had the
facilities in the Savannah, because when they broke down the
Grand Stand and things like that, we were told that the
[new] facilities would be ready in 2009, around there - it’s
not even started. But we are still going to come
[back] to Port-of-Spain and make do with what we have.”
For the past two years, though the Panorama finals for the
medium and large conventional steel orchestras have been
staged in San Fernando, South Trinidad - the Semi finals - a
much larger undertaking still called the Savannah ‘home,’
though with more limited seating capacity.
It remains to be seen how soon this
latest tango between Pan Trinbago and the country’s
government will be over. But when it comes to the pan
community, many of the bands and their people are out of
pocket whenever there is a delay in payment of any monies
due - be it appearance fees, stipends to panists, prizes, or
subsidies and
reimbursements of any kind. While many bands have
so-called sponsors, not all costs are met by them. The
slack is generally taken up by pan people - and this is true
of any activity. It is not restricted to the steelpan
culture.
And with 2008 panorama-related funding
still being a thorny issue, no one has even left the gate
with reference to the 2009 panorama season. This is
a practical juncture to note that Patrick Arnold explained
that the World Steelband Music Festival originally planned
for Miami, then relocated to Trinidad, will not come off
later this year after all. Arnold said that the event
needed ‘more planning.’ And probably money to...
“We’re not going to deal with the WSMF this year.
We’re going to give ourselves two or three years.” He
said further that when Pan Trinbago’s companies were formed
and viable business entities, that they “would deal with the
WSMF.” For the immediate future, the
organization looks forward Instead to Pan Is Beautiful
XI, which, Arnold insists, is in the works for October or
November 2008. It goes without saying, that financial
costs for this venture are going to be a talking point.
Without being privy to the innards as to
why there is always a grievance when it comes to finances
for the steelband movement and the national instrument as it
exists, and which factors are in play, whether the fault
lies in communication - or none at all, or whether or not the
country’s government gives a damn - the implacable fact is
that this is the twenty-first century, and the rest of the
business world will move on, with or without Trinidad and
Tobago’s steelband
community, and Pan Trinbago.
In an effort to obtain the government’s
position on these steelpan issues as tabled by Pan Trinbago,
When Steel
Talks contacted the office of the Minister of Culture
- Marlene McDonald - in Trinidad and Tobago, on the afternoon of July 3 but instead reached
Ms. Webster who advised that Minister McDonald was in
Parliament and unavailable for comment.
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