Cultural Masturbators 2; The Festival Events Bureau
Because we sing about eating “conch” does not mean we are conchs! Government needs to understand that.
I am referring to the proposed formation of the Festival Events Bureau (FEB) which Minister of Culture Owen Arthur presented at the Government/Cultural Industries consultation on August 21st. FEB in reality is another form of the Cultural Masturbation which has become the norm of government.
For those of you who do not know (and there are many), Festival Events is a private public sector company that is to be set up by government to engage in commercial entertainment activities. According to the Government, FEB is to be so good for us in the entertainment industry. “It would be the greatest thing since slice bread and would include cheese” they said, but lets look at this thing closely shall we?
Of course looking at this new FEB is going to be pretty hard because being mere entertainers we have not been included in the process. This Festival Events Bureau is being drafted to be put in place and no one in cultural industries has being consulted about it. Not Batman, not United Artistes, not Krosfyah, not Dance Machine, not Entertainment Network, not Madd, not Malik, Nobody! Do you get my drift?
Here are some questions we need to ask the Government!
Why is the government seeking to develop an events promotion company to compete against the already existing promoters Floyd, Adrian Agard, Chris Harper, Freddie Hill, All Stars and Bacchanal Time? Why is the government not encourging calyponians to diversify and take advantage of the merchandising opportunities they identify (selling T-shirts etc.)
Why is the government looking to release CDS to compete against RPB, Mac Fingall, Lil Rick, Kidsite, Monsta Piece, Alison Hinds, Underground, Mr Dale, Madd,etc.
”But wait” government says “you will be able to buy shares in this FEB”! OK then, that means we would be able to buy shares in the company that would be shutting us down. Well praise the lord! (Put your hands in the air here). The truth is that the only entity that will benefit from FEB is the government; they will be pleasuring them selves at the expense of cultural industries.
That is why they are called Cultural Masturbators, it is a nasty habit and they need to stop it!
If during the reading of this blog there is any thing I might have written which might have incensed or offended you, GET OVER IT! There are many things I read and hear in the media on a daily basis that I don't like either. SO DEAL WITH IT! You are welcome to leave your comments though. Make sure and come back yuh hear !!!...
August 22nd, 2007 at 1:48 pm
So from one f@%k up entity to the next. I’ll pray for u all.
August 22nd, 2007 at 6:52 pm
power rests with the people
power rests with the people
power rests with the people
power rests with the people
the people need to fight back
the people need to fight back
the people need to fight back
the people need to fight back
accept crap you will get crap
accept crap you will get crap
accept crap you will get crap
accept crap you will get crap
August 24th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
I thought you would have been happy with the FEB instead of NCF…
August 27th, 2007 at 12:50 am
Actually I think the FEB is a good thing in principle. I don’t honestly think there is anything wrong in government putting on cultural/entertainment events of their own and wanting them to be actually commercially viable. Their creation of mega cultural events benefits private promoters – after all, it is really only government (or Allen Stanford) that can afford to put on mega-events of the scale of Crop-Over that then create a space/season for private promoters to do their thing.
After all, this is done everywhere. The city of Edinburgh in Scotland decided to put on the Edinburgh International Festival in 1947 – it was an official thing. But uninvited drama groups came along to the party and it eventually evolved into the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which provides opportunities for numerous private cultural entrepreneurs.
What I disagree with is how they are going about it – they starting wrong by excluding cultural entrepreneurs…that’s just stupid.