Moruga/Tableland MP Michelle Benjamin has criticised the government’s handling of Carnival 2023, saying rather than the mother of all Carnivals, it was the mother of all flops.
Speaking at the UNC’s mid-week conference at the Office of the Opposition Leader, Charles Street, Port of Spain, on Thursday, Benjamin attributed Carnival problems to poor management and poor planning.
“Despite the millions allocated to the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts, and the National Carnival Commission, we had poor management. Many stakeholders and communities were left in the dark, and given little to no support.
"Carnival 2023 was a missed opportunity. The mother of all Carnivals did not showcase the greatest show on earth. Instead it exposed PNM incompetence and disregard for our culture."
She said evidence of the "mismanagement" of Carnival 2023 was "glaring, it was in our face, on the news, and visible on visits to areas throughout the country."
This led to many failures, she said, and "what we would like to describe as an abuse of power by the government.”
She said people depend on Carnival for a living, even if it is seasonal.
“What about the small man who depends on Carnival? What about the vendors who didn’t make a profit, paid $800 to rent a booth and did not make back their deposit? To vendors, it may mean sales for their children to go to school.
"For small bandleaders across the nation, it means making income to pay bills. For the family selling craft, sometimes Carnival is the only time of the year they make enough to balance their budget.
"For the pensioners with that spare room, that vacant room may mean medical bills would be unpaid."
Carnival matters most to the small man, she argued, and "means more than a party to the citizens of TT.”
She criticised NCC chairman Winston “Gypsy” Peters’ "glib acceptance" that a lack of planning and “last-minute ting” were normal.
“How could $80 million be spent vie-ki-vie and be considered normal? How could we as practitioners be waiting for funding and it’s a last-minute thing? The government is known for its lack of planning.
"We’re fed up of them playing with their culture and identity. Everybody was complaining – spectators, vendors, participants – they weren’t feeling the Carnival product.”
Benjamin said even when the final allocation was made to the NCC on Carnival Friday, regional bodies were still affected, especially those in UNC regions. She said this led to many entities scaling down and/or cancelling events.
The reasons for low turnout of spectators, she said, included the lack of funds and the crime situation.
Benjamin said the tongue-lashing given to the NCC by Legacy bandleader Mike “Big Mike” Antoine had been aired internationally, and she shuddered to think what investors might be saying.
She said government had failed to place any importance on culture for national development, with culture and the arts being treated as an appendage to tourism.
The post UNC: Carnival 2023 'mother of all flops' appeared first on Trinid
