ONE BILLION DOLLARS POORER

Feb 02, 2011 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Carifesta 2008, hosted in Guyana at a staggering price tag estimated at close to one billion dollars, was good while it lasted. There was a buzz about Guyana, the atmosphere was relaxed but energizing; people had a good time; it was enjoyable.
It was a time of freeness for the Guyanese people. Free tickets were distributed by the government to most of the events since the government was fearful of an opposition boycott and did not want this grand spectacle to fail.
It ended up being just that, a grand spectacle. It certainly has done nothing to breathe new life in the arts and culture of the region and Guyana is much poorer, a billion dollars poorer for the experience.
Two years onwards, Guyana is still waiting to reap the rewards of that truly exciting period when everyone felt this was how Guyana should remain. Neither the arts nor the entertainment industry have taken off. The much touted Theatre Guild, into which the government donated so much of hard-earned taxpayers’ money is underutilized, and it will only be a matter of time before more sums will have to be dedicated to its restoration.
What passes for theatre these days is comedy. Popular theatre is now the in-thing. People go to laugh, and laugh even at the serious lines. This is what theatre was reduced to long before Carifesta 2008, and what it has maintained after the hosting of the regional spectacle.
It is not for the want of good playwrights. There are many excellent practitioners, both in Guyana and overseas. It is just that good theatre simply does not sell at the box office any more. The public has become so accustomed to a belly full of laughter whenever they visit the National Cultural Centre, that to produce or even reenact a play that does not fit into that genre that is now called popular theatre would be a flop.
And to think that Carifesta 2008 was to change all that. That it was supposed to help Guyana develop its entertainment industry. The belief that our local musicians were to receive greater recognition and exposure, the work of our visual artists would be more highlighted and our cultural assets preserved, were just false hopes. We have seen none of these things in the two years since those warm nights in Georgetown, when Guyana seemed such a different place, when so much was alive and vibrant about the country.
Guyana resurrected the festival, but since then there has not been another, and given Guyana’s own experience no one is likely to be a taker for some time. There are better things for other governments to do with public funds.
Guyana should however learn from its experience. There is always need for a stimulus package and the local arts industry needed a shot in the arm. President Jagdeo’s hosting of the event was brave and ambitious.
But with hindsight it may have been much better if instead of dedicating all that resources to the event, of giving away so many free tickets just to avoid an embarrassing situation, that the government should have simply injected the same funds directly into local arts and created a national, as opposed to a regional undertaking, that would have allowed Guyana to have a cultural festival, that would bring large numbers of visitors to the country and provided greater incentives for our sculptors, artists, artistes, musicians, dancers and other cultural practitioners.
It is not too late. In fact within the next few weeks, Guyana is going to host its national festival called Mashramani. Mashramani cannot compete with the other regional carnivals. No one is going to skip those festivals to come to Guyana which most often holds its Mashramani celebrations around the same time as the two greatest shows in the world: the Brazilian and Trinidadian carnivals. So there can never be any tourist pull for our main national cultural festival, not as long as it tries to do the same thing as Brazilians, the Trinidadians and the Barbadians do in their carnivals.
Guyana should create something original, something that we can call our own.
It should create and brand a new cultural product, something for which Guyana can be proudly known, rather than one big party in the streets which pales in comparison to what happens in Rio, Bridgetown and Port of Spain.
And while we are at it, perhaps, those responsible can find greater use for the Theatre Guild before it too begins to disintegrate because of underutilization.

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