Minister of Culture Stephen Lashley took about 3 hours to introduce the Cultural Industries Development Bill 2013 to parliament today (15/10/2013). BU is happy the government recognizes the opportunity which the cultural industries sector offers. What we are not happy about is that key concerns which were highlighted by the Concerned Creative Citizens Group (CCCG) have not been included in the bill introduced. At the top of the list is the Idi Amin authority which any Minister of culture will have under the proposed bill. What was downright egregious was the minister’s unwillingness to acknowledge the significant work done by the CCCG providing feedback on the draft bill in his three hour introduction.
Hope springs eternal and we are hopeful that it is not too late to incorporate constructive suggestions. BU takes this opportunity to congratulate Andrea King who has been appointed to the position of Film Commissioner.
The following is a press release from The Concerned Creative Citizens Group (CCCG)
John Roett, veteran musician leads the CCCG
The Concerned Creative Citizens Group (CCCG) wishes to inform the public that despite a very one sided debate, the current Cultural Industries Development Bill (CIDB) is of great concern to many of the creatives of this country. Our Group comprising of 1251 members, along with many experts (both here on island and overseas) plus lauded artists in Barbados feel that the Bill in its current form is not worthy of passage in our Parliament.
Despite repeated attempts to present ways in which to make the Bill better, numerous requests to the Ministry and Minister of Culture, Public Objections to this Bill in many of the Public Town Halls and Forums, we continue to be rebuffed and ignored. We have submitted documents to the Attorney General listing our objections with the bill, carefully and meticulously pointing out the ways in which it will fail to develop the Cultural Industries in any manner whatsoever, and in an effort to maintain absolute transparency, these documents have also been discussed with the Leader of the Opposition and the Shadow Minister of Culture
We of the Concerned Creative Citizens Group, of which there are one thousand two hundred and forty eight members, have noticed recently that is has been made public that the much touted Cultural Industries Bill, now renamed the Cultural Industries Development Bill, has been approved by Cabinet and is ready to be passed as soon as possible.
We would at this point like to make it very clear that there are still many aspects of this bill with much that we are not in agreement with, and that we reject completely the inference that all creatives have been consulted on the contents on this Bill, resulting in an outcome which all parties involved have agreed upon.
Creatives by nature are NOT politically driven, and as such, we care not which party wins the election as it pertains to the future of culture and the arts in Barbados.
It is no secret that BU is very interested in Sports and Culture as a means to express their most unique talents and the economic benefit likely to accrue to individuals and country. The Sports and Cultural communities have been kicked about like the proverbial football for years by successive governments. It is time for it to stop.
We are a group of creative Barbadians called the Concerned Creative Citizens Group. This group, made up of key members from various disciplines of our cultural community, was formed out of immense concern over the contents of the Cultural Industries Bill, which was being circulated by the Ministry of Culture a few months ago, with the intention of having it passed as a legal document. Our members are well versed in all aspects of culture and we went over the proposed Bill with a fine toothed comb, our efforts culminating with our recommendations being formally presented to the Ministry and addressed to Minister Stephen Lashley on April 30th 2012, via a hand delivered letter which outlined both the good points contained in the Bill as well as the serious flaws it possessed which we felt needed to be addressed.
Personal correspondence was then communicated between Minister Lashley and the group on several occasions, with one such letter assuring us that all submissions were being considered regarding proposed amendments to the Bill. A meeting was set up to discuss these proposed amendments between consultant representative of the Ministry of Culture Ms Andrea King and members of our group, which was also attended by UNESCO consultant Andrew Senior, who was purportedly hired by the Ministry of Culture to help with the Culture Industries Bill. At this meeting we were informed categorically by Mr. Senior that he was not involved in amendments to the Bill but was hired to advise government on ‘entrepreneurship’ in the culture industry of the island. We were, however, made more aware of the real purpose of the Bill, which we found appeared to have a high level of the principles of entrepreneurship at its core, and in our view was more focused on turning the cultural industries into a revenue earner for Government, and very much less on the inherent gains which should be derived from the Bill to the benefit of all creative practitioners in our country.
