Trinidad & Tobago Carnival 2022
by Rubadiri Victor
Provided by, and published with, the expressed permission of: the Author
© 2022 - All Rights Reserved.
I loathe whenever a Creative Sector 'spend' is revealed and the first national outcry is "dey shoulda spend dat money on Education! Or Health." The fact remains that Arts has the historic lowest government subvention apart from Agruculture- and the figures aren't even close. It used to be Arts $350 million (including public sector salaries) vs $10-$15 billion for Education, Health, and National Security each. Stack up that advantage over the years!
If we were to tunnel into the Arts figures some more we'd see of $350m, $150m used to be spent on Carnival- "a complete waste of money" I'm sure some would shout. But Carnival actually brings in $650 million- $1.1 billion in foreign exchange to this country!!! And employs thousands- especially working class people. And it gives us hundreds of millions in positive international Brand T&T coverage per year. Some of our biggest companies also earn between 50-75% of their profits at Carnival...
That is a phenomenal return on investment.
But let's tunnel into the government's Carnival subvention even more. Again, you hear people cry out that PANTRINBAGO & TUCO wasting taxpayers money, etc. And I'd be the first to admit there have been incompetent and corrupt admins in both. We in the Artists' Coalition of Trinidad and Tobago (ACTT) fought them. But the real truth is the following: the spend on Creatives (the actual talent that makes Carnival happen) is probably only around $25 million. THE MAJOR PART OF THE $150 MILLION FROM GOVERNMENT GOES TO INDIVIDUAL CONTRACTS OF $25- $50 million each for tent and latrine rentals, etc... That's money 'fuh de boys!' Not for Artists! A Traditional Mas practitioner who might spent $20,000 to create a Fancy Indian costume that delights the entire Carnival and is photographed 2000 times might win $2,000 and wait 1year to collect dat cheque!... So who really makes Carnival money?
I'm just showing you where the money goes...
So those figures again: the Creatives who create all the spectacle, noise, and attraction of Carnival and who earn the nation $650 million - $1.1 billion of foreign exchange are only paid $25 million by government. I don't want to hear anybody tell me about Artists wasting taxpayers money EVER again.
Let's ask ourselves then how much of this year's projected $30 million for Carnival is going to practitioners- and how much to 'contractors' and 'infrastructure'? And who needed it more? And who could do more in terms of creating real products with multiplier economic activity in them?
So actually when you subtract Public Sector salaries and suspect contracts from the annual subvention for the Arts you see the real spend on the Creatives of T&T. Probably much less than $40 million. That money has to fund movie, theater, music, fashion, animation, dance, visual arts, artisan, literary industries! Seed fund their Creatives and their programmes. This of course is ridiculous. The subvention for T&T's entire Film Industry is TT $1.1 million!!! AN ENTIRE INDUSTRY!!! Receving less money than the catering budget on a small Hollywood film. What can you possibly do with that?!!!
The tragedy of course is that many times when Trinis complain about spending on the Arts, the Artists agree(!)- because the money being spent is almost never on anything stakeholders have lobbied for, and is instead some ridiculous thing with agendas behind it that has nothing to do with Artists. And tragically during and after the waste- Artists get the national blame and are stereotyped...
Which brings us to 'A Taste of Carnival' 2022. First of all I have to say this: with most Creatives not working for 2 years and with Carnival being central to the local Creative Economy- $30 million is not a lot of money. As Stakeholders however, our problem is in HOW that money is being spent.
The bulk of that money should have been spent on grant monies for practitioners across all mediums to create Kings and Queens, Traditional Mas, Carnival Individuals, and Art. Musicians, Pan Orchestras, Artisans, Stickfighters, Carnival filmmakers, etc should have received merit-based Grant's to create work. Next generation virtual economy and tech businesses should have been harnessed and facilitated. All on Merit. The next bulk of money should have gone into creating the virtual and digital platforms to create telegenic productions, portals, and partnerships for a global Virtual Carnival that would have had multiple points of monetisation- from ticket receipts, merchandise, sponsorships, licensing, global fees, etc.
And just like in ACTT's 2020 Budget Proposal to government the idea should have been that we use the Virtual Carnival as the tip of the spear to leverage T&Ts national entry into the digital and virtual economy (for ALL businesses) going after an audience of at least 60 million.
Unfortunately our political leaders still have a Victorian era 19th century idea of economy and business.
The Creative Industries are the second largest industries on the planet, worth $2.2 trillion annually. There are video game companies bigger than oil and gas companies. The Virtual Creative Industries are booming in a COVID world. Trinidad and Tobago should have used this Carnival to unleash waves of local tech, virtual, and creative innovation and product into the world.
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Do they have enough boxers/fighters fuh dem rings?