If you all want PAN BACK ON THE ROAD FOR CARNIVAL and STEELBANDS TOURING THE WORLD and a STUDIO dedicated to properly recording PAN MUSIC and STEELBAND EVENTS throughout the year and ONE OR TWO GROOMED AND POLISHED PAN STARS to represent PAN AROUND THE WORLD (like ANDY NARELL) and this and that and the other (and I even want a NATIONAL DAY OF RECOGNITION FOR THE STEELBAND ... I have the WHOLE DAY mapped out) -- then consider the recent initiative proposed by SHAMFA CUDJOE for SPORTS. Because it will work just as effectively for PAN PROGRESS. So I will change her original lines just slightly to apply to PAN PROGRESS.
"We are now at a point where the STEELBAND MOVEMENT should be trying to attract corporate sponsorship once again, and private sector sponsorship. Over the years, we have seen private sector sponsorship FOR STEELBANDS dwindle because PAN TRINBAGO has failed to reach the mark or to be up to scratch as it relates to being open, transparent, fair and professional in managing the BUSINESS OF STEELBAND."
If Shamfa Cudjoe likes PAN and CULTURE as much as GLENROY and ODW and CECIL and BUGS and EARL RICHARDS and BRENDA HOSANG and SALAH WILSON and MERCER RAMDOO and JEN JAGBIR and SIDD and MERRYTONESTOTHEBONE or GREGORY LINDSAY and so many of the other posters on THIS FORUM -- then she should be switched to the MINISTRY OF CULTURE (and whatever) and DOCTOR DOLLY should be moved elsewhere.
If Shamfa is not TOO BIG on the CULTURE THING then we need to find a new MINISTER OF CULTURE to implement THIS PLAN. Somebody who LOVES PAN and has some political ambition and a desire for LEGACY -- not too much obsession with LEGACY like OBAMA, allyuh see how that end up. POLICY FIRST but it still has to be driven to some extent by egotistical ambition.
The first step would be to find a group of WELL PLACED LOCALS with connections to the BUSINESS COMMUNITY who have a PASSION FOR PAN -- no more than five members (I see at least TWO RETIRED BUSINESS MEN on the team) with a very carefully defined mission to refuel the energies of the STEELBAND MOVEMENT. I would still keep SHAMFA close to the team because I think that she sees the BIG PICTURE.
(And SHAMFA: If you are listening, please get a new coach for the National soccer team ASAP if you want us to make WORLD CUP 2022. By 2026 -- in America, where we are pretty much guaranteed a spot -- 99 percent of all the old expat/immigrants on this forum done dead and bury ... so please HURRY UP!)
And as Richard Milhous Nixon loved to say at the start of his speeches: LET ME MAKE ONE THING PERFECTLY CLEAR ....
Let me make one thing PERFECTLY CLEAR: PAN TRINBAGO (meaning Forteau and Sheppard and Joseph and Mendez and the rest of the team) must be kept miles away from this new MARKETING TEAM. The benefits from the efforts of this initiative should go directly to STEELBANDS and STEELBAND PLAYERS. With a BIG EMPHASIS on STEELBAND PLAYERS.
I have broached this topic before on this forum right down to profiling the YOUNG FEMALE MARKETING AGENT who could open corporate doors across the island for the good of the STEELBAND. So to see SHAMFA CUDJOE reading from the same page in the SPORTS WORLD gives me a LITTLE HOPE that one day soon some PAN PROGRESS THINKING MINDS might move off the sidelines and on to the BATTLEFIELD for the good of a MODERN DAY CHARGE at PAN PROGRESS in THE MECCA.
AMERICA is moving too fast and getting too far ahead in the game!!! WE MUST MAKE A MOVE!!!
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Thank you mr. claude.
Plenty food for thought here.
I have to pay my respects to these two TRINIDAD WOMEN. In the middle of all this PAN TRINBAGO MELTDOWN they offered some LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL!!!