Published in full with the expressed permission of the author
Raf Robertson (pictured) left us abruptly and unexpectedly one year ago. One conversation that has stayed with me is his take on the positioning of our creative industries as a new growth pole for our economic development.
He used to lament that in a world already transitioning from oil and gas to 'clean energy solutions' we are still holding on for dear life to what is fast becoming an obsolete and redundant fossil fuel industry.
At the same time in the steelband, with our music traditions, in fashion, in sport and in other visual and performing arts, we have so much that we could share with the world and make a handsome profit out of it too.
Without proper planning and structures we have given the world community - Brian Lara , Penny Commissiong, Peter Minshall, Boogsie Sharpe, Vidia Naipaul, Hasely Crawford, Keshorn Walcott, Wendy Fitzwilliam, Dwight Yorke, Sparrow and Kitchener, George Padmore, Kwame Ture, Tony Williams, Ellie Mannette and Bertie Marshall; just to name a few of our sons and daughters who have captivated a global audience. Just imagine what we will be able to accomplish with proper planning and functional structures?
No one is saying that we should abandon our energy industry which is still earning invaluable foreign exchange and subsidising so many areas of our daily existence. But just as West Indies cricket floundered because of its neglect to prepare for the era after Sobers, Richards and Lloyd, so too will we flounder and pay a price if we neglect to plan for the post oil and gas era.
Raf used to point out that the contribution of the creative industries to world GDP has been growing exponentially and is fast supplanting the more traditional manufacturing and extractive industries as a major source of global employment and income generation.
While our traditional historical and trading ties encourage us to look to the developed metropolitan centres to our north, we also have a lucrative opportunity to explore trading and employment options, south of the equator, in South America and also in Central America and in Cuba which is poised to take off economically with the opening up of its trade with the west.
Again, we know that we have inherited the system of a five-year Westminster political syndrome but we have to 'walk and chew gum at the same time' - that is to say we have to elevate the conversation away from exclusively day-to-day expediency and also take a longer view of our path forward. And let us not sell ourselves short by characterising ourselves as selfish, greedy and fickle.
Raf Robertson was not an aberration, Bunji, Machel Montano and David Rudder are not aberrations, Anya Ayoung Chee is not an aberration; neither are Joevin Jones, Kevin Molino, Ato Boldon or Liam Teague figments of our imagination. They are real people who are the personification and representation of dreams that can be transformed into realities.
So many examples - so many shining lights to inspire and illuminate our pathway and remind us about what can be. Learie Constantine did it, Beryl McBurnie (pictured at right) did it, CLR James did it and Khalifa St. Fort and Keisha Codrington are doing it now; so too are countless numbers of unheralded citizens quietly making a difference in their respective communities. Which small nation state has given the world Dwayne Bravo, Sunil Narine and Kieron Pollard...??? Just fill in the blank.
Could it be that while we are seeking to revitalise old remedies in dated medicine bottles, we are not seeing possibilities of new approaches and new solutions. Surely INDEPENDENCE cannot be about the IMF or mobilising foreign capital to buttress old ideas and outdated solutions.
Surely INDEPENDENCE has to be about searching, within our inner essence, inside of the depths of our being, to discover what gifts our small twin island state can share with the world. Surely INDEPENDENCE will not allow a nation pregnant with so much talent and promise to define itself as a circular subculture of violence and dark inevitability.
And surely it is in times like these that we need tap into the optimism, foresight and selflessness of patriots like our dearly departed brother to strengthen and nourish our resolve going forward. Let’s change the conversation away from 'what we are not doing' to 'what we can do'. Let's BALANCE THE PICTURE by sharing our success stories. Let’s keep that Raf Robertson spirit going!
Andre Moses is an educator and prominent cultural activist;
former president of the Pan in Schools Co-ordinating Council (PSCC)
Replies
They don't know their WORTH
Like they haven't a sense of VALUE
They don't know their RIGHTS
Even that they cannot ARGUE
Three quarters of a million people
Cannot get up and do something 'bout the struggle
But could plan for the next holiday
To fete their lives away
Bro. Valentino – ‘Dis Place Nice’
The creative industry will never be valued until and unless we begin to value ourselves.
and by ourselves I mean each other.
We are not a nation of supporters, we are a nation of criticizers and of down-criers.
We do not value each other until someone else acknowledges that value.
You can never make it big in your own country you have to go outside.
As far as the creative industry is concerned it is an industry of individuals.
There is no structure to it because we can't stand structure. Everybody wants to lead, no one wants to be led.
Jealousy rears its ugly head.
Everything stops.
Unless we build strong organizations with defined structure, so that everyone is one the same page reading from the same book it will remain the same case of individuals doing their own thing and succeeding or failing on their own.
Jamaica is years ahead in their understanding and appreciation of the cultural industries and of course their sporting tradition.
They pack their stadia when they play at home, not so we.
All inputs to the creative industries is duty and tax free. We find the only way to monetize the creative industries is to tax it. So instruments and equipment; the tools of the trade are taxed enough to put the industry at a disadvantage before it even gets off the ground.
Jamaica made sure that the brand Usain Bolt was of utmost benefit to Jamaica and they push it to its limits. We on the other hand guff ourselves and dismiss coaches, sportspersons, musicians, pan players, costume designers, anybody or anything creative, just because we have the power to do so.
If we don't think we are any good, how can anyone else be? Aren't we all the same? You're a Trini just like me so you can't be any good... unless you have more money than me.
The measure of a man in good old TnT is how much money he has. You are only as good as your bank account.
If you are creative and you make money, fine, but otherwise if you are simply creative, even extremely so, you are still a nobody.
Jamaicans don't care how much money Bolt makes, just how good he is. They are all Bolt. When he wins, they win. After the Olympics, he just slips back home. Nobody gave him a house. The reward was winning. It would have been the same had he lost.
We will boo you off the field if you come second. Olympic finalists, the top eight in the world is not good enough. "What he gone there for to come forth? He could'a stay home".
Before Walcott won his Olympic gold medal nobody in Trinidad outside a two mile radius of Toco knew who he was.
How do we expect the world to acknowledge us if we do not appreciate ourselves?
When the Jamaica bauxite industry collapsed, the creative industries begin to flourish. They had to turn inward. The problem with foreign exchange we are only now beginning to experience is old news to Jamaica and when you can no longer afford to look outside, you have to turn inward.
And inside is the soul of the country. The creative industries.
Cuba has survived the worst of what anyone would want to suffer after the fall of the soviet Union and they were left to make it on their own. With a US imposed embargo they had to do everything for themselves. Everything they needed they had to create.
It brought out the best in its people and it is responsible for the advances they have made in education, health, sports and the creative industries.
What will we do when the oil runs out? We can't just sit on our thumbs and wonder.
We have to do something now, before its too late. And we have to do it for ourselves. We can't wait for someone to do it for us anymore.
Drastic action has to be taken to make up for lost time.
The time for talking is over.
It's time for action.
Good one Wayne C....
We are not VISIONARIES.
But you have to have TALENT!!!
Many thanks Andre. I feel SO edified.