We live in a society where the study of humanities is trivialized when stacked against the sciences. Why would human beings – in this case Barbadians – fail to appreciate the importance of understanding how we interact and integrate with our environment through the many avenues we use to express ourselves? We have so many ways to relate to our environment through art, music, literature, music and other forms of expression.
In any society stakeholders in the private and public sectors combine to nurture and educate individuals how to ‘connect’ with their environment; in the process defining ones existence. In the Barbados context the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) is charged with the responsible. A view of the About the NCF website confirms that the NCF is a statutory body established by an Act of Parliament in 1983. Its mandate is to oversee the cultural landscape of Barbados AND To fuel the development of culture through training, research and the creation of opportunities in cultural industries.
An economy that continues to struggle has forced the government to slash budgets and this has affected planning for the 2014 Crop Over Festival. All reasonable Barbadians understand the implications of cash flow and revenue challenges but in a politically polarized environment it is no surprise decisions taken by government will be testily debated.
The time has come to question government’s role as promoter of the Crop Over Festival. The financial benefit to the economy has become too significant to be managed by a government agency that should be concerned with the development of culture through training, research and the creation of opportunities in cultural industries. The scenario playing out translates to – if the economy continues to decline we will experience more cuts to the NCF budget. Although the impact to the cultural landscape of Barbados cannot be accurately assessed there is a good argument to be made that more cuts will equate to stasis state.
The time has come for the NCF and government to outsource parts of the Crop Over Festival to private enterprise to ensure its development role is not compromised during the economic slowdown. It is a strategy which former Prime Minister Owen Arthur promoted when he assigned the culture ministry to himself. We cannot continue to appoint political pimps to key positions at the NCF. We cannot continue to have unqualified government ministers who are able to use the office to direct a major festival. It is time for professionals to be allowed to get more involved.
BU is not optimistic the proclamation of the Cultural Industries Bill will achieve desired outcomes. Also disturbing has been the lack of partnership between key stakeholders in the creative sector. The importance of cultural expression to a society is too important to be dictated by lilliputian minds. The NCF must be allowed to carryout its mandate.
We wish the minister of culture every success on his junket to China.
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