Guyana to Host Carifesta X 2008: What are the implications of such an undertaking?
April 27, 2008
Guyana has confirmed hosting of the 2008 Carifesta celebrations after Bahamas declined the initial offering. According to the Guyana Chronicle, Bharrat Jagdeo duly noted that Guyana is ready - ready to stage “the finest showcase of Caribbean talent. ” But is that the actual case? Minister of Culture, Frank Anthony noted for all to “Come to Carifesta; we are ready to host you; are you ready to come?” The President explained that the government is sparing “no effort” to make the event a success, and pledged a “safe and secure” Guyana in extending an invitation to overseas participants and visitors. So far, according to the Chronicle, Venezuela, Brazil, China, Morocco and Austria has accepted.
While I comprehend the efforts of the Guyanese Government to accept such an under taking, I am concerned about the current physical infrastructure of Guyana and its ability the offer the necessary amenities to host the celebrations. Does Guyana have enough hotels to welcome the large influx of people if that will be the case? I am also concerned about Jagdeo’s large personal invest in the Buddy’s hotel which is being marketed as the main stay hotel for the celebrations. The buddy’s hotel has not seen much traffic since the recent hosting of the Cricket World Cup, hence, the lack of income. Could this undertaking be of personal interest to Bharrat Jagdeo to drive international traffic to secure personal revenue? I wonder…
Clearly Guyana is in no shape or form to host the celebrations. Guyana does not have the medical infrastructure to deal with large cases of medical emergencies. Additionally, safety concerns are in question considering the recent massacres at Lusignan and Bartica. Moreover, the instability of the political system and motivations of political constituents go at all lengths to create and induce scare tactics makes forces me to think about the well-being of the patrons that are thinking of attending. According to a statement from the CARICOM Secretariat in Georgetown, the Minister also told the Meeting that already, Guyana had embarked on infrastructure development and upgrading of requisite facilities to host CARIFESTA and according to Bharrat Jagdeo, Guyana will spend $30M towards the development of the steel pan music and a waiver of all duties on musical instruments to ensure that when CARIFESTA X closes, the legacy will be left of Guyana having world class entertainment facilities, the lack of which has in the past stymied the hosting of international events. (Guyana Chronicle, April 24)
Well, I must say that steel pan music does not equate to world-class entertainment and where is this additional money coming from? When schools need up grading and poverty is at an all-time high, money is nowhere to be found. Is the Guyanese government doing the right thing by the Guyanese people in hosting this event? When basic health services and quality of life improvements like proper sewage and waste disposal facilities infringe upon quality of life, I am forced to question the leadership abilities of the people in power and the priorities they hold at heart for improvement of a country that is broken.
My recommendation which comes from three recent visits to Guyana from June to December 2007, is do not attend the celebrations if you are concerned about your personal well-being/safety, chronically ill and is at risk of a medical event, do not have family members to stay with or have limited funds to travel and are concerned about emergency exiting of the country at any given time.
Andrew
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30 Responses to “Guyana to Host Carifesta X 2008: What are the implications of such an undertaking?”
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[...] Jack Blacksmith wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptMinister of Culture, Frank Anthony noted for all to “Come to Carifesta; we are ready to host you; are you ready to come?” The President explained that the government is sparing “no effort” to make the event a success, and pledged a … [...]
correction. bahamas declined to host carifesta after a change in govts there…and we believe in boycotting carifesta…and we came to this conclusion long before cn sharma got his licence taken away..the govt and police are not solving the social ills of the society, they are knee deep in corruption and chicanery, the lines at the crucible [passport office for those not in the know] the lines never end daily. you can go see people line up and wait from 4am daily to get a passport to get the you know what out of Guyana. one way ticket in hand…this is no time to be celebrating and trying to put up a good face for Caricom and the world while under the covers your society is in total decay and rotten to the bone…another youth was shot in the back and killed by a security firm a couple days ago…and for what? someone said he stole a chain…not shot in the back running away…shot in the back while they were holding him and roughing him up…they can have carifesta
Thanks Kim..error in nomenclature,, Could you elaborate a bit more on why the change of heart as a result in change of government,,..
[...] Guyana to Host Carifesta X 2008: What are the implications of such …Guyana has confirmed hosting of the 2008 Carifesta celebrations after Barbados declined the initial offering. According to the Guyana Chronicle, Bharrat Jagdeo duly noted that Guyana is ready - ready to stage “the finest showcase of … [...]
[...] Guyana to Host Carifesta X 2008: What are the implications of such …Guyana has confirmed hosting of the 2008 Carifesta celebrations after Barbados declined the initial offering. According to the Guyana Chronicle, Bharrat Jagdeo duly noted that Guyana is ready - ready to stage “the finest showcase of … [...]
don’t remember the name of the minister but upon winning the elections he basically said Carifesta was a socialist enterprise and a waste of money so they wanted nothing to do with it
and also the Bahamas is a member of Caricom for the most part in name only…they see themselves as little Americans given their proximity to Floridaland, celebrities and cruise ships
According to The Nassau Guardian Bahamas will be hosting Carifesta IX.
“Culture Minister Charles Maynard said last year that the PLP had not made the arrangements for the country to meet the deadline for the 2008 festival. He slammed the PLP when he announced that the festival would have to be postponed. Maynard said at the time: “Had they done something then, we wouldn’t be where we are today. We are endeavoring to host over 30 nations and we needed stages for everything, from theatrical stages to town stages for big bands.”
However, the PLP claimed that the FNM government canceled the event because it lacked the political will to honor the PLP’s commitment to host the event. The PLP said that it had allocated $2 million for preparations for the festival.”
http://www.thenassauguardian.com/national_local/291184780068908.php
Why be concerned about our well being in Guyana only during Carifesta? We should be worried all the time, no?
So we boycott Carifesta X, what then?
Carifesta, Mashramani, GuyExpo, Guyana Night, Main Big Lime etc etc are all events used by the govt of Guyana as distractions for the people so they dont have to deal with real issues in the meantime they keep lining their pockets
I say boycott them all and take organised civil disobedient actions against the govt…a man who used taxpayers money to build a hotel and got sweet heart land, tax & import deals just sold it for a $13million US profit and am talkin about buddys hotel in Guyana…if people weren’t distracted and misled they’d be taking actions against banditry like this when they wont even reconsider the 16% value added tax
I agree - take actions, but who is? Who is taking actions?
Kim,
You are on point! Pacify the people.. This type of tactic historically worked well other parts of the world, Mexico and Cuba for example in the early days. The issue of the said hotel (Buddy’s Hotel) is an issue that needs further investigation but that will never happen. kim, If you are ready we are but we will only do so not for the sake of boycotting but with the purpose of having injustices addressed by the appropriate authorities. Hence, as bloggers we must come together with a common goal that we have agreed on which is ultimatly for a politically correct Guyana. To accomplish this initative each of us has to do our part which goes beyond keyboarding and get into the communities and motivate our cohorts to join us in adding to the shared voice that is needed.
Roger,
To take action, you can start by voicing yourself in what you feel. I invite you to post an article of choice on this blog. To do so, you can type it and paste it in the contact form and send it to the Admin. It will be posted within 2 hrs.
Roger, we have started to do our part by voicing ourselves and if you believe in the the power of the pen then you are welcome to join us.
andrew well for years we’ve been preaching that Guyanese in New York and elsewhere must not cuddle and love up and give our so.called leaders in Guyana red carpet when the show up saying how great things are…some of the biggest supporters of the govt of Guyana do not live in Guyana…how is that for irony?
i’ll be blogging more on propaganda press soon live from the ground in Guyana…but people like us have to be careful in Guyana as people do get killed for speaking out and making noise…that’s real
You might be preaching upon deaf ears. If you’ve done something over and over and over that generated similar results, what do you think you would more likely than not get if done again. Blogging is great kim, but every one does not read. Careful! The content on you site might be more than enough already! Your content does generate alot of noise, in what direction, i cannot say.
we will keep experimenting but we think we are already seeing some minor positive results from our efforts in exposing some of the frauds and inconsistencies of this govt and we’ve not even scratched the surface…we say Guyanese abroad have to come to their senses and stop believing all the non.sense the govt preaches about how great they are doing and stop treating them with kid gloves when they travel abroad because common sense will tell you that if the passport office has lines starting at 4am daily things can’t be all that great.
can’t get into too much details as we know that our blogs are monitored and people are always probing but i can report that the small guyana blogging scene is having effects. google ‘Michael Francis Brassington’
Kim,
Do not make blanket statements about Guyanese abroad. You might be surprised that to find that many influential Guyanese feel very different than you may assume. Can you please share some of those positive results with the team here. Well, over 50% of countries have lines at the .U.S embassy at 4.am. That is just reality around the globe. Believe me, Guyana is in many ways in a better state of affairs as compared to many countries in africa and the middle east.
In the very first place what was your objective for creating propaganda press..to address pertinent issues no?
Andrew: they’re always dissenting voices. i know that not everyone treat our politicos with kid gloves, but too many do when they travel abroad…all the best to those of you who see beyond the fog…i cant get into details as you never know when someone might be exposed, but the people in Guyana who are up to know good are watching us as much as we are watching them [am serious when i say people threaten us regularly via emails. so we don't take chances but i know we've always spoken the truth, mixed in with humour and satire of course]
wasnt talkin about the US embassy…Guyana passport office on camp st is full from 4am til past 6pm daily…UN predicts Guyana population to fall to about 450K in 30 yrs i think they said with current migration trends
propaganda press will begin running a series of hard hitting stories about crime and corruption in Guyana so people can get a better picture of what we’re dealing with in Guyana. stay tuned
i don’t concern myself whether we are better off than the people in Haiti…my heart goes out to them, but that’s a ploy of the leaders as well…hey at least you not starving like the Haitians…don’t fall for that line, our society is falling apart and we have to stop it and stop these mis.leaders in and out of govt before it’s too late…poor people suffering cause of their daily mis.calculations & crookishess
propaganda press is all about liberating the down trodden masses and creating a place for alternative voices. we wont save them all but if all goes well we’ll change a couple at a time & see what happens from there
Kim,
It seems like you are quite concerned about your identity, but I am puzzled about the pic of the female on your site. To my inderstanding, that is you, no!. Well, if it is not…great decoy. If it is you, then i need not say more. i am still questioning what you are trying to accomplish by simply bloging in a country that needs indivduals like you to physically take action and motivate others like yourself to take action.
they’re groups of people taking action in Guyana on many fronts in small ways. we’re up against a lot of clowns and old ways of doing things but there is progress being made slowly but surely.
we don’t have any illusions that we’re going to change Guyana blogging, and it was initially started by a group of us just to ramble…now it just serves as an info clearing house we suppose you can say, 85% of our readers are not in Guyana
true everyone in Guyana is concerned about their personal safety
no comment on the picture :-)
Kim,
If you are trying motivate and enlist help in Guyana, should you not focus on the people there. Why no comment on the pic. You’ve put it out there and expect no questions..come on,.you need to be consistent here. It seems like you are not sure as to what to say. Kim, What type of war are you fighting?
Andrew: propaganda press is about letting people outside know what’s going on in Guyana. we have a lot of non.Guyanese writers and issues dealing with whatever’s on their agendas but am from Guyana and focus on that
don’t worry about the foto that’s secondary
Kim
No Comment! You seem quite confused.
ok if u think so
this is the latest outrage in Guyana:
“A father of four was brutally chopped and gunned down early yesterday morning after he was taken from his bed by a villager and a man who said he was a policeman dressed in civilian clothing.”
“In the end, Da Silva lay dead after the man who claimed to be a policeman police discharged three bullets into his body.
The fisherman was shot in the head, chest and foot and was later dragged by ranks to the Public Road Ruimveldt where a trail of dried blood was evident yesterday.”
Thsre has to be more to this story. There has to be a history that led to the noted outcome.
you don’t know guyana well mi amigo
the man with the police accuse him of stealing went to his house attacked him and he’s now dead leaving a wife and four kids
Rebelucion (Kim),
The info is well appreciated.
we’re fellow travellers not the same person ;-)
you can read the police lies here
http://myguyanachronicle.com/2008/05/28/wife-alleges-murder-of-man-police-shot-dead/
if these weren’t poor people they would’ve NEVER even tried this type of madess
Where are you guys going? Try having a black man shot in the US with 50 bullets and having the cops get away scott free? Its not always about social status.
well carifesta was entended to inliken the trousim industry and i would say that i was a good try but i don,t think that guyana was ready to take on that kind of responsibility