Manslaughter, not murder of our culture

EDITOR: Please permit me a space in your paper to express something that has been on my mind for the last few years. St Vincent is a small country with very limited resources, but what we are very rich in is our culture. The two most cultural times in our small country are Carnival and Christmas. However, I think having the House of Assembly meet in June and December is killing our culture.

 The Problem:

Let’s take June 2017, for example. The preliminary judging of the calypso competition started on June 10 in New York. The other tents are judged June 13 to June 17. Some, if not most, of these songs would not have been available for airplay until then. Therefore, on the days between June 10 and the calypso semi-finals on June 30, the radio stations need to be promoting these songs to the public.

Calypsonians work very hard all year to create these beautiful songs. All they ask is for a little respect to get their songs played on the radio. Instead of hearing the music, we are left to listen to Parliament. Visitors come to our shores for Carnival, and they want to hear some of our local music. They turn on the radio and what do they hear? Politicians talking about things that can be addressed at a different time, rather than during the biggest cultural event in the country.

The same is true for Christmas time. Vincentians love Christmas. We love to hear Christmas music on our radio stations. It gets us in the mood for the season. However, during the Christmas season, when we should be hearing all the wonderful Christmas music, we have Parliament on the radio.

Possible Solution:

Move the House of Assembly time to mid-January and mid-July. Maybe there is a reason why the House of Assembly MUST be held at those times. If so, I apologize. I took the time to write this, because I believe the politicians in charge are not intentionally trying to kill our culture. Hence I call it manslaughter, not murder of our culture.

TDVincy