NDP: Enjoy SVG Carnival and please come again

03.JULY.09

Editor: The New Democratic Party of St. Vincent and the Grenadines believes that the road to a kinder, gentler society can be laid by a concerted positive effort by people and government to make everyone truly live our culture.{{more}} At the same time, our people must be allowed to understand and appreciate the national characteristics of our cultural heritage when compared to corresponding forms that are recognized internationally.

The New Democratic Party (NDP) has supported and encouraged active participation in all national festivals. We will continue to encourage successful Vincentian artistes from the Diaspora to return to their homeland for performances not only for Carnival but for Independence, Christmas and other periods throughout the year.

The New Democratic Party (NDP) believes that apart from training workshops, financial assistance, sponsorship and regional exposure, the most important quest for calypsonians is to allow them to deliver their social messages free from interference by the Carnival Development Corporation (CDC) and the Government. In other words, banning calypsos, by government, radio station and other state control media, is a backward step which is totally condemned by the New Democratic Party (NDP). The NDP has never banned a calypso in its seventeen (17) years in office and wishes to assure all calypsonians that it is our policy to allow them to sing about anything affecting the life and times of the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. We will do everything within our power to help calypsonians bring crowds back to the tents and to award them financially for their efforts in relation and comparison to the other components of Carnival.

The NDP administration was responsible for the expansion of pan in schools, through a UNESCO project which was presented to the organisation in Sophia, Bulgaria in 1985. It was only the St. Vincent Boys’ Grammar School that was Pan friendly before. We will encourage businesses such as LIME, NCB, VINLEC, NIS, DIGICEL and others to sponsor community steel orchestra as their counterparts are doing in all the other islands in the Caribbean. The thrust of the government, through the Social Investment Fund (SIF), to purchase Pans for various selected communities, groups and individuals in the name of Pan Against Crime is commendable. Having the pan is good, but interference in who should play, who should lead Youlou Pan Movement, who should receive Pans, who should not, who should tune and who should arrange because of political colours is defeating the cultural art form and Pan expression for which SVG is known. The NDP is supporting Pan in SVG for all communities and all players who are interested, committed and willing to participate. We want to see Panorama back.

Finally, the Party would like to congratulate the makers of Carnival, Pan, Calypso, Mass, Beauty Shows Committees, Musicians, DJ’s and the corporate sector for the production of Carnival in 2009. We are encouraging participants, revelers, spectators, local, regional and international to be in line for 2009. Enjoy SVG Carnival and please come again.

The New Democratic Party