With BBC gone, who goin' take over town?

As the troops pull out, the triumphant shot of ownership, according to The Mighty Sparrow, was heard by the locals .....set against the lament when the BBC pull out ... revisiting this insightful exploration of post colonial mentality ....

The hue and cry from online and others readers, citizen journalists and media and other practitioners in the region over the BBC’s announcement of the forthcoming closure of its Caribbean radio news service is puzzling, and admittedly too, a wee bit amusing.   
Read More. Go to this link

Making local government work

Towards meaningful local government reform

Talk of proportional representation in the local government system has so far focussed on the political party system, a means of really entrenching the ills of a system that already places too much emphasis on the political party system. There are alternatives for more effective local government reform that would allow local communities ways of more actively getting involved in the running of localised affairs which it might be useful to consider as we talk of local government reform rather than the continued centralisation modes we have been drifting into over the last few decades. The issues touch on financing and resourcing development at local level; management issues that promote nonpartisan local government system, rationalising overlaps in jurisdiction among others which have not even made it into the election campaign.  As we move full gear into local government elections it may be useful to consider some of the recommendations for local government reform that allows for decentralisation which is a commitment successive governments have made at various Summits of the Americas, Commonwealth Heads of Government meetings, UN General Assemblies etc but which remain sitting on shelves like this report I prepared for through the Active Democracy Network of the Organisation of American States ...  on  enhancing participation in Local Government and decentralising to allow for more meaningful    Visit Demokrissy's New Home: The GloCal Knowledge Pot  Related links:  New Presidential Picong Tours & Workshop Specials Sounds of a Party - a political party Old Casked Rum: The Emperor's New Tools#1 - Towards Constitutional Reform in T&T  Making Local Government Work

Diversity and culture of Ministries

Diversity & the Culture of Ministeries

by Dr KRis Rampersad 

(Part II)

Whereas we can learn a thing or two from the structures and systems the developed world has evolved for arts infrastructure, education, support and patronage, when it comes to culture, and indeed multiculturalism, few, if any, can hold a candle to us. Our confidence in this fact that usually only surfaces through chest-thumping pierrot grenades or robber-type talk have not found full expression because of justifiable dissatisfaction with the state of the arts, and the unholy alignment of arts and culture in our governance system.

Just as growth and development of our arts and recognition of their universality have been overshadowed in the jostle for ethnic and cultural space, our appreciation and confidence in the diversity and multiculturalism we have evolved since we joined the indigenous peoples in this land have been curtailed from full independent flight.

The former Minister of Arts and Multiculturalism, during our sitting at the international heritage meeting in Bali last December, asked my opinion on the place of legislation in culture, reflecting the doubts all his predecessors have shown on this subject—similar to the question posed from the global floor to the now erstwhile T&T UN ambassador, oblivious to the new international awakening and probing on this subject.

This unease that has plagued culture ministries of yore stem from nervousness about legislation and policy pronouncements on our culture. In general definition, culture is “our way of life” that includes, but is not contained in, just the arts of music, dance, performance, painting etc to include elements as cuisine, fashion, walk, talk, religious practices—any number of traits that identify a people who have evolved in a particular environment. I have presented extensively abroad (Sans Humanite Sans Policy in relation to the Carnival Creative Arts (Turkey); Trini Lime Time: Attitudes to Cultural Policy in Rebel Cultures (France) among them—on the rebel nature of our cultural heritage and beliefs held, even by some judges, that the law has no place in culture.

The roots and raison d’etre of our cultural evolution—defying explorers, buccaneers, slave masters, police, schoolmasters, privateers, any authority figure—as the also erstwhile Commissioner Dwayne Gibbs would have oh too painfully, shockingly, recently discovered—inhibits surrender to any (even just perceived) impositions of structure, rules/codes.

The inability of our governance to date to grasp this; its significance; the need to fully appreciate and understand it, is couched in the last regime’s “situational analysis” on culture on the Vision 2020 Committee Report:
• Attitudes of selfishness, lawlessness, greed, dishonesty, indifference to others.
• Violent manifestations in the home, community, workplace, language of leadership, music.
• Tendency to describe ourselves through notorious deeds.
• Negative “languaging” of our space.

The visionaries therein seemed oblivious to their own negative imaging of what is essentially our sense of freedom and the inherent liberating effect this has had on our culture that is quintessential to who and what we are. Furthermore, the drive to urbanise our cultures and make them “economically viable” (duh?), through instruments like the European Union-Cariforum Economic Partnership Agreement, for instance, loses its sense of direction about the nature of culture in a society in mad-hatter pursuit of the almighty dollar.

Herein is the national, regional, international contexts for a Ministry of Diversity and Social Inclusion which itself incorporates the multiculturalism mandate—hence my recommendation that this word be dropped and a Ministry of the Arts exist in its own right, just as a Ministry of Multiculturalism/Diversity and Social Inclusion can exist in its own right; as other appendages to the once Ministry of Arts and Culture—Sports, Women/Gender, Community/Social Affairs et al—have evolved identities and mandates of their own towards a more people-centred approach to governance.

In a culture-centred approach to development, there is more than enough for such an infrastructure with a diversity mandate to: harness our substantial experiences of multiculturalism for the benefit of a world reeling from escalating impacts of new migrations; build confidence in this experience and knowledge to benefit us and the international community; reverse the hurts and dissatisfaction of having our cultural selves forcefitted into the corsets of alien governance models and administrations. It seems opportune, then, that in this the jubilee year of self-rule, we begin to redress this so every creed and race can find an equal place in a substantive and pragmatic way.

 For more visit www.krisrampersad.com

From http://www.guardian.co.tt/letters/2012-08-22/diversity-and-culture-ministries

Groups question success of Trinidad summit -

Groups question success of Trinidad summit

Published: Wednesday | April 22, 2009

Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister Patrick Manning signs the final declaration of the fifth Summit of the Americas in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Sunday, April 19. Manning was the sole signatory. The confab of 34 heads of government from within the hemisphere was overshadowed by Cuba, and Hugo Chávez, who grabbed centre stage with the unexpected presentation of a book to United States President Barack Obama that detailed Latin America's beef with the superpower over many decades.

News reports highlighted the erection of a new wall that did not entirely block the urban blight of Port-of-Spain, others wondered where was the beach amid organisational glitches at the fifth Summit of the Americas.

Now civil society groups in the Americas said Tuesday they were still awaiting the promised action and implementation plan that was supposed to have emerged from the Fifth Summit of the Americas and the Port-of-Spain Declaration.

Sole signatory

Trinidad's Patrick Manning was the sole signatory to the declaration.

The Active Democracy Network (ADN), whose membership spans 24 countries said it had expected more of a commitment on a number of issues including poverty alleviation from the western hemispheric leaders.

"In the areas where we expected assigned deadlines and responsibilities, the Summit merely adopts UN deadline of 2015 for the alleviation of poverty and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals at a time when the UN is itself reviewing that deadline - just five years away," said ADN spokesperson Dr Kris Rampersad.

Strategic actions

"The only clauses that assert accountability from governments are Clause 66, which merely 'instructs' governments to meet again in 2010 on the Inter-American Program for Sustainable Development (PIDS); Clause 90, which calls on 'the technical secretariats of all Inter-American Ministerial Meetings to inform their ministers and high level authorities of the mandates arising from this summit and to initiate strategic actions, by the end of 2009, to facilitate the implementation of our commitments."

Clause 99 instructs ministers of finance or pertinent authorities to convene a meeting in 2010 to address regional financial and economic issues.

But: "Will the financial and economic crisis wait until we reach to Clause 99 and 2010?," said Rampersad, reeling off a series of questions on the action plan post summit, Caribbean priorities, and solutions and projects identified for food, energy and environmental crises.

97 new commitments

"These are questions that remain unanswered in the Declaration. In essence, it implies that we seem to have held a Summit to instruct all attending to commit to meet again," said Rampersad.

The Port-of-Spain Declaration, she said, was no different than the some 634 mandates and commitments that governments of the region have signed on to over the last four summits, on which some 60 per cent of the governments have taken no action.

"This Summit, in fact, adds 97 more commitments to the 634 others, while leaving open the questions of who is going to implement them, given the token signing of the declaration by the Chair, Prime Minister Patrick Manning, seemingly on behalf of the meeting," said Rampersad.

- CMC

Jamaica Gleaner News - Groups question success of Trinidad summit - Business - Wednesday | April 22, 2009

Political parties should discuss women issues during campaign

Grow Safeguard Preserve Create A MultiMedia Legacy

With rapidly changing technologies in media, many of our knowledge resources are fast disappearing or becoming inaccessible. We are in the process of digitising our archives representing more than 30 years of contemporary Caribbean development linked to more than 10,000 years of regional pre and post colonial history and heritage. Make contact.

To support, sponsor, collaborate and partners with our digitisation efforts. Or to develop your own legacy initiatives, and safeguard, preserve, multimedia museum, galleries, archives, make contact.

Political parties should discuss women issues during campaign

Victory for ships’ owners

Victory for ships’ owners | The Trinidad Guardian With rapidly changing technologies in media, many of our knowledge resources are fast disappearing or becoming inaccessible. We are in the process of digitising our archives representing more than 30 years of contemporary Caribbean development linked to more than 10,000 years of regional pre and post colonial history and heritage. Make contact. To support, sponsor, collaborate and partners with our digitisation efforts. Or to develop your own legacy initiatives, and safeguard, preserve, multimedia museum, galleries, archives, make contact. Political parties should discuss women issues during campaign