Fiasco

May 31, 2018 Features / Columnists, News, Peeping Tom

Last weekend was a championship weekend. The UEFA Champions League Football Final, the Indian Premier League Final and Guyana 52nd Independence anniversary celebrations were all held.
The two sporting events matched the hype to their build-up. But the annual flag-raising event, usually the marquee celebration of Guyana’s Independence anniversary was a disaster.
It is somewhat surprising that no one as yet has asked about the price tag for the flag-raising ceremony which was held at the Durban Park Drill Square. However, estimates do suggest that with more than 2000 children said to be involved, the cost of feeding them and providing transportation would have run into millions of dollars.
The event, televised nationally, was a disaster. It was a flop. Its timing was bizarre, the show lacked flair and direction and was much too abbreviated. There was also a problem with the main dance sequence.
First, the timing was horrible. It is the first time ever in the history of Guyana that a flag raising ceremony was held in the hot mid-afternoon sunshine. It was unfortunate that this hour was chosen to get the show on the road.
This, no doubt , accounted for the relatively poor turnout. Many of the adults who were in attendance did so because their children were participating and they went to see their performance.
The government must not repeat this timing fiasco. The original midnight flag-raising should be restored and the event should be returned to its original home, the National Park where the first flag-raising was hosted.
The venue should be changed and so too should the format. The annual flag-raising ceremony used to provide a range of entertainment, including comedy, singing, dancing and instrument-playing. The singing was dropped from this year’s edition and there was not much steel pan unless of course this was chopped from the televised version which is doubtful since the event was telecast live.
It was disappointing that with so much talent in Guyana, the 52nd annual flag-raising ceremony, apart from the military parade, was reduced to a children’s dance show. This is not good enough and an explanation is needed for the limited fare on display.
The GDF regiment was resplendent and excellent. But what about the Guyana Police Force who many people actually believe, would stage a better parade than the GDF? What about the other Disciplined Services? Why were these Services not involved? Have we become so militarized that we feel only the GDF can pull off a good parade?
Just what the dances were intended to project was not clear since there was no commentary and the dances themselves were not very expressive of their theme, whatever that was. Was it assimilation that was being promoted by having one large group rather than one group coming on and another leaving? There is need for some clarity since assimilation would be in contradiction to what the Ministry of Social Cohesion, the organizers of the event, are promoting.
D’Urban Park presents too many challenges for such an event. It is too spacious for the type of show, which was organized. The blame must be placed solely at the feet of those who organized the show for the failure of foresight in organizing a cultural programme in such a spacious venue without large props. The organizers in developing the cultural programme clearly failed to take into account the problems, which had been experienced since D’Urban Park became the main venue for the hosting of these types of events.
There was problem with scale. D’Urban Park is huge and without massive props any cultural show was bound to look diminutive in such a large setting.
UEFA organized the opening ceremony for the Champions League Football Final and what they did was to use just a few hundred children but massive props. And this lent itself to a spectacular show. It is hard to understand how the organizers of the cultural show at D’Urban Park planned to overcome the challenges of scale within the venue when the cultural segment were virtually devoid of large props.
And this is not the first time that this mistake has been made. As such, there can be no excuse for the foul-up. Better must come next time!

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