Open Letter to Keith Diaz, Pan Trinbago’s new President

Mr. Diaz, congratulations to you as Pan Trinbago new president and your administration that were duly elected on October 25, 2009. I want to thank all the steelbands and their representatives who participated in this historical change for Pan Trinbago. I extend to you and your administration my best wishes and swish you success in your tenure for 2009-2012. I also want to wish former president Mr. Patrick Arnold all the best and thank him for his services to the steelband movement over the years. I hope that he continues to contribute to Pan Trinbago and the steelband movement. This vote demonstrates how far steelbands have come when they can change leaderships in a democratic method. Now, comes the hard part for you and the steelbands.

Mr. Diaz, I read your statements to the press on October 28, 2009 and I compliment you for a good start. You said that you saw pan as an important part of Trinbago’s culture and that you wanted to make pan an important product. That is a good mission. It is important that you continue to communicate with the public as it builds respect for Pan Trinbago. It is my desire to see you and Pan Trinbago succeed. As a panologist* with strong steelband roots (City Syncopators, Joyland Synco, All Stars and Boston Symphony) I shall be encouraging and complimenting you and your administration. But, will not remain silent if you stray from the best interests of the steelband movement. I will constructively criticize you when you fail to uphold the objectives of Pan Trinbago and the steelband movement.

Mr. Diaz, you mentioned stakeholders and “the necessity of showcasing pan as a tourism product.” By your count, there are 300 steelbands in Trinbago. Those steelbands should support your list of goals and objectives. The repairing of Pan Trinbago will take time and you only have three years to set your agenda on the road. If you intend to lead Pan Trinbago to a new beginning and deliver a world body organization, here are four items that you must immediately address:

Completion and Naming of the new Carnival Center.
Building Pan Trinbago Headquarters.
Updating Pan Trinbago web site.
Transparency of Pan Trinbago.

Mr. Diaz, it is time to confer the most fitting honor on a past president of Pan Trinbago. I want to recommend the name of Mr. George Goddard for the new carnival center to be called The George Goddard Steelband Performing Arts Center. The steelbands should petition the ministry of culture and other stake holders to make such a proposal come true. This should be done while the new carnival center is still in its building stages. Don’t wait until the horse bolts the barn. It is time that Pan Trinbago and steelbands recognize past presidents who put their time, money, family and friends on the line for the steelband movement. We have to start naming our institutions and awards after contributing pioneers of the steelband movement who have given their blood, sweat and tears to push steelbands forward.

Mr. Diaz, for carnival 2013, Pan Trinbago, steelbands, panjumbies and the nation will be celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Panorama. You have three and a half years to plan this Panorama spectacle. This will be an area for you to get the corporate sector involved. Pan Trinbago can produce this historical 50th Panorama Anniversary of Panorama by opening up the Panorama competition to world steelbands and hold a 50th Anniversary WORLD STEELBAND PANORAMA in 2013. For this, Pan Trinbago should hire a Panorama production manager. Panorama’s 50th anniversary deserves that The World Steelband Panorama be held in The George Goddard Steelband Performing Arts Center. That would certainly grant Pan Trinbago world body status.

Mr. Diaz, after 62 years, the steelband movement still does not have a permanent headquarters, museum or steelband library. Pan Trinbago’s temporary headquarters on Victoria Avenue is a disgrace to an organization that claims ‘world body’ status and to the steelband movement. Pan Trinbago and steelbands should demand the completion of the new headquarters for the nation’s world body representative for steelbands. I ask you: Do steelbands care? Where is the steelbands library? Pan Trinbago should be collecting and supplying panjumbies with pan music from the 1960s. Pan Trinbago should create a steelband project to collect all recorded pan music from the 1960s and Panorama (1963-1980) and put them on Cds to be made available to the public at reasonable prices. Of course, steelbands should share in their respective recording sales. It is a shame that after 62 years, panjumbies cannot depend on Pan Trinbago to provide recordings of Panoramas from 1963-1980.

Mr. Diaz, I urge you to publish on Pan Trinbago’s Web site, all the steelband finalists for Panorama finals from 1963-present. Fortunately, that information is still available. At present, Pan Trinbago only publishes the Panorama results for the first three finalist steelbands. Pan Trinbago must protect steelbands history and publish all the steelband Panorama finalist names, arrangers and tune of choice on their web site. It is very important that Pan Trinbago record Panorama statistics for the history books. The steelband movement has to tell our story for ourselves. It is important that Pan Trinbago update its Web site to provide all pan information to the public. At present, the site lacks relevant steelband information to panjumbies about the steelband movement. You should request that each steelband provide Pan Trinbago with a brief history of the band (founders, place of origin, achievements, etc.) to be posted on Pan Trinbago’s Web site.

Mr. Diaz, it is important that you and your administration be accountable to the objectives of Pan Trinbago, the public and the steelband movement. I hope that steelbands formulated and submitted their agenda to Pan Trinbago taking into consideration Pan Trinbago’s limitations in light of the local restraints that I pointed out in my previous articles. Pan Trinbago should then publish that agenda so that all panjumbies can know what it is that steelbands want from Pan Trinbago. More important, I hope that the steelbands who voted realize that they must continue to participate in the organization for it to be successful in carrying out their agenda. This new administration must revitalize Pan Trinbago if it is to live up to its ‘world body’ status. Pan Trinbago must begin to act as a 21st century steelband organization. I applaud your call for self sufficiency.

Mr. Diaz, transparency should be the hallmark of your tenure. You should post on Pan Trinbago’s web site a quarterly account of the receipt and distribution of Pan Trinbago’s funds received from government. After all, the government allotment of such funding comes from Trinbago’s taxpayers. The public funding of Pan Trinbago is a noble gesture to a worthy organization. Certainly, the public has every right to demand accountability for the use of its tax dollars. Pan Trinbago should also post a list of the 300 steelbands that have paid or not paid their membership dues so that steelbands that are not financially eligible will not be able to nominate person to run for office. Introducing transparency will go a long way of getting the corporate sector involved in Pan Trinbago. This will show them that Pan Trinbago is a serious organization on which they can spend their money.

Mr. Diaz, if Pan Trinbago continues to ignore transparency the public will continue to see Pan Trinbago as an indiscipline organization with no accountability for their tax dollars. I am not accusing Pan Trinbago of misusing public funds. But, I am accusing Pan Trinbago of not accounting to the public for the use of public funds. If Pan Trinbago is to be taken seriously it must be held accountable to its stakeholders, the public. Trinbago taxpayers are the stakeholders of Pan Trinbago since it is their money that keeps Pan Trinbago alive.

Mr. Diaz, you mentioned that pan must become a greater part of the education system and you would like to see a full degree in pan music. That is laudable. A world body organization demands world body musicians who can read music. The musical education of young panists is paramount to improve the steelband movement. In today’s entertainment world, every panist should know the tools of his/her trade, music. You mentioned that 75% of players are between the ages of seven and nineteen years old. I might also add that many are female. How many of those panists can read and write music, the language of their art. The steelbands must get serious and implement musical education in their panyards for these young panists.

Mr. Diaz, will you continue to allow the Panorama to be held in the cow-shed that was built in the savannah for Panorama 2008 and 2009? Where is Pan Trinbago pride? The holding of the nation’s grand festival (Panorama) in a cow-shed is a disgrace to the steelband movement. Will the steelbands continue to participate at Panorama in this cow-shed? Don’t steelbands have any sense of pride in their art? Pan Trinbago and the steelbands should demand more respect for their art?

Visit When Steel Talks

Mr. Diaz, we are three months away from 2010 carnival and Pan Trinbago still has not posted the exact date when 2010 semi finals will be held. Does Pan Trinbago have a set date for 2010 semi finals which it can post months ahead on its web site? Certainly, Pan Trinbago can post the semi finals date as early as April so that panjumbies can prepare their schedule for carnival. And, now that you are returning preliminaries to the savannah, for which I thank you, you could also post the exact date of preliminaries on Pan Trinbago Web site.

Mr. Diaz, the claim of Pan Trinbago to be the ‘world body for steelbands’ must be transferred to action. Such a claim comes with the responsibility to pay heed to what is happening in the world of steelband internationally. Pan Trinbago must present a new model for Panorama. One important distinction of Trinbago’s carnival from other carnivals is our Panorama. Pan Trinbago can do better to showcase to the world a more aesthetic display of our national instruments. Steelbands should lose points for dirty pans, rusty pans, tying up pans with strings, etc. It is time steelbands learn how to present themselves to the world for our national festival, Panorama. It is distasteful to be viewing Panorama on a DVD and see how some steelbands look. Panorama is the steelbands national brand. Steelbands are not just playing for Trinbagonians anymore. They are playing for the world and the world is looking at them for leadership. We need a new model for Panorama.

Mr. Diaz, it is time for steelbands to get rid of the canopies for Panorama. While it might have served its purpose to protect steelbands from the burning heat on the road in the past, it has outlived its purpose and has no place in the Panorama. Here is what Jit Samaroo said in 1991: “I prefer to see and hear the orchestra without these canopies. With them, the band looks like a shanty town and spectators cannot see the players’ movements - which is part of the beauty of any band.” It is time to remove the canopies. This is what Terry Joseph said in 2000: “More than 36 years after the first canopies appeared over pan racks, not just the actual construction but the largely useless concept seems extraordinarily difficult to dismantle.” “Today, no self-respecting steel orchestra goes to the annual Panorama competition without these frightfully expensive sheet-metal constructions, even in the absence of any evidence that canopies help their music.” Mr. Joseph concluded: “Perhaps now that scientists have declared them [canopies] irrelevant to most pan applications, we may be spared the sight and cost of canopies which, given the new information, have nothing to do with sound and only hide the players and the truth.” Exodus removed them in 2008 and 2009 and will in 2010.

Finally, Mr. Diaz it is time to bring back all steelbands on the road for carnival. It is a pathetic sight to see the absence of steelbands on the road for carnival. Pan Trinbago must come up with the right mixture to encourage steelbands to return to the road for carnival. Is it money? Is it that steelbands have lost their pantastic pride of playing on the road for carnival? Is it that the young panists (who make up the majority of players) are not concerned with that part of steelband history? If so, then it is time for Pan Trinbago and steelbands to re-educate young panists about steelbands’ role on the road for carnival.

Khalick Hewitt at When Steel Talks studios

 

 

Khalick Hewitt (pictured right) is a panologist.

*Panologist - person who studies the music, history, stories and pioneers of the steelband movement and writes about it.

Click, leave comments on the When Steel Talks Ning forum