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Football / World Cup a stage for all of T&T
« on: November 20, 2005, 04:15:32 PM »
World Cup a stage for all of T&T
Trinidad Express
We expect that the movers and shakers who will shape Trinidad and Tobago's cultural contribution to World Cup 2006 are as aware as anybody else that there is more to Trinidad and Tobago's culture than mas. It is not that we wish to underestimate the visual colour and vocal power of the carnival arts which have been exported to various parts of the world including, already in some small measure, Germany. But Trinidad and Tobago is a multicultural country and, whatever Carnival's impact on the national consciousness, the World Cup Finals provide us with a priceless opportunity to showcase various aspects of the national identity.
It is true also that the modern Carnival continues to see growing involvement of all of this country's constituent groups but to limit our appearance on the World Cup stage just to costuming, calypso, rhythm section, tassa, chutney, steelband and calypso-notwithstanding the inevitability of all of these being major factors-is to limit the range of this country's amazing cultural expression.
Certainly in the area of cuisine alone we would have to showcase not only the Indian-derived and African-derived foods but those that have their ancestral base in China and the Middle East-a visitor to Trinidad and Tobago's food booth at the World Cup sure to be awe-struck not only by the eclectic range of dishes but by the mixing and matching that have emerged over the years.
And what about this country's literary output. Should we not have on show the works of Nobel Laureates Vidia Naipaul and Derek Walcott, the latter with the permission of our sister Caribbean country, St Lucia, the argument, of course, being that Walcott for so long let down his bucket here. Surely, too, we would boast to the world the likes of CLR James, Sam Selvon and all our literary rest, perhaps even finding space on the shelf for the late and tragic Eric Roach and equally late and tragic Harold "Sonny" Ladoo.
What, too, of our, well finer artists? Will the Carnival clamour completely drown out the more subtle voices of Carlisle Chang, Noel Vaucrosson, Nina Squires, Sybil Atteck, MP Aladdin, Pat Bishop and Leroy Clarke-if anything about Clarke's work can be described as subtle? Actually, we are wedded not so much to the names we have called but to the overall concept, which is to show the world as much as we can of what Trinidad and Tobago is about.
The question is whether or not we have the organisation to put any or all this into place in the short seven months that we have. We do not have a history of staging exhibitions well-particularly when they are sited on foreign soil. But, given the huge window of opportunity our footballers have now won for us, should as many representative organisations as possible not be taking night to make day to, well, represent us to the world?
Germany: The perfect Expo for Trinidad
After the draw is made on Dec. 9th and we find out the city we play at and the dates, the T&T government, the business sector and the Carnival Committee should come together and rent a Convention Centre to sell T&T to the World. People from all over the world would want to know more about Trinidad and Tobago.
A stage should be set up at this Centre to have nightly concerts featuring our local artistes and thereby exposing our Soca music to the fullest. We should also have steel orchestras performing carnival and classical music, showing the diversity of the pan as a musical instrument There should also be carnival costumes from the King and Queen competitions on display. Large tv screens should be set up to run the parade of carnival bands on a 24 hour basis. During the day, the business sector would be there to market our exports from our manufacturing and energy industries. We have to sell everthing that is red, white and black that is unique to Trinidad and Tobago because people would want to know.
This is going to cost a lot of money to accomplish, but it is going to be worth every cent spent. This is just the basic idea.......
Watch de Ride!!!
Trinidad Express
We expect that the movers and shakers who will shape Trinidad and Tobago's cultural contribution to World Cup 2006 are as aware as anybody else that there is more to Trinidad and Tobago's culture than mas. It is not that we wish to underestimate the visual colour and vocal power of the carnival arts which have been exported to various parts of the world including, already in some small measure, Germany. But Trinidad and Tobago is a multicultural country and, whatever Carnival's impact on the national consciousness, the World Cup Finals provide us with a priceless opportunity to showcase various aspects of the national identity.
It is true also that the modern Carnival continues to see growing involvement of all of this country's constituent groups but to limit our appearance on the World Cup stage just to costuming, calypso, rhythm section, tassa, chutney, steelband and calypso-notwithstanding the inevitability of all of these being major factors-is to limit the range of this country's amazing cultural expression.
Certainly in the area of cuisine alone we would have to showcase not only the Indian-derived and African-derived foods but those that have their ancestral base in China and the Middle East-a visitor to Trinidad and Tobago's food booth at the World Cup sure to be awe-struck not only by the eclectic range of dishes but by the mixing and matching that have emerged over the years.
And what about this country's literary output. Should we not have on show the works of Nobel Laureates Vidia Naipaul and Derek Walcott, the latter with the permission of our sister Caribbean country, St Lucia, the argument, of course, being that Walcott for so long let down his bucket here. Surely, too, we would boast to the world the likes of CLR James, Sam Selvon and all our literary rest, perhaps even finding space on the shelf for the late and tragic Eric Roach and equally late and tragic Harold "Sonny" Ladoo.
What, too, of our, well finer artists? Will the Carnival clamour completely drown out the more subtle voices of Carlisle Chang, Noel Vaucrosson, Nina Squires, Sybil Atteck, MP Aladdin, Pat Bishop and Leroy Clarke-if anything about Clarke's work can be described as subtle? Actually, we are wedded not so much to the names we have called but to the overall concept, which is to show the world as much as we can of what Trinidad and Tobago is about.
The question is whether or not we have the organisation to put any or all this into place in the short seven months that we have. We do not have a history of staging exhibitions well-particularly when they are sited on foreign soil. But, given the huge window of opportunity our footballers have now won for us, should as many representative organisations as possible not be taking night to make day to, well, represent us to the world?
Germany: The perfect Expo for Trinidad
After the draw is made on Dec. 9th and we find out the city we play at and the dates, the T&T government, the business sector and the Carnival Committee should come together and rent a Convention Centre to sell T&T to the World. People from all over the world would want to know more about Trinidad and Tobago.
A stage should be set up at this Centre to have nightly concerts featuring our local artistes and thereby exposing our Soca music to the fullest. We should also have steel orchestras performing carnival and classical music, showing the diversity of the pan as a musical instrument There should also be carnival costumes from the King and Queen competitions on display. Large tv screens should be set up to run the parade of carnival bands on a 24 hour basis. During the day, the business sector would be there to market our exports from our manufacturing and energy industries. We have to sell everthing that is red, white and black that is unique to Trinidad and Tobago because people would want to know.
This is going to cost a lot of money to accomplish, but it is going to be worth every cent spent. This is just the basic idea.......
Watch de Ride!!!