"The powers-that-be are so hell bent on keeping the status quo that they have hoodwinked all the other greedy bands, panists, what have you, to accept the rubbish of a November Single Pan competition, a half-December-half-January Small Band competition, which was setup to support the Tobago Medium and the ultimate Large Band (Real Panorama) competition.
Given that the Single Pan and Small competitions have become so unwieldily and instead of finding another solution to the messy debacle of mercenaries playing for the highest bidder, the powers that be have said..."Ok fellas...let's just play for as many bands as you damn well can". They know full well that it is happening in any case and the bands that have more corn will continue to feed more fowl...It's just the way it is. This stupidness of playing "with one band in each category" is just a smoke screen because the powers that be already know that because too many bands exist, there could never be enough players to satisfy the various competitions' ceilings.
The powers-that-be don't fool me one bit. They are just giving unsuspecting greedy people what they want to the eventual detriment of the majority of Single and Small bands. In case you don't as yet know ALL Single and Small bands ketch arse for players…ALL… hence the reason the ceiling of 40 players for the prelims was reduced to twenty-five. The Single Pan category is the area of the biggest fraud (if yuh want to call it that). Talented players are hired by as many bands as could afford them, so playing for “one band in each category” dead before it start. The powers-that-be know that, just as they know that people want to play for as many bands as they want anyway. One crack-shot told me a few years ago that he and others “provide a service to bands who don’t have enough players”… and when I call Panorama prostitution, people does vex! Since one would expect all competitions to be governed by RULES one would image that there is a penalty for playing with “more than four bands”…No?...Well so far I haven’t heard of a penalty.
As we go deeper into the Panorama mire annually, more bands die, simply because they no longer have players that they can depend on. Many bands no longer have “membership”. The very act of allowing panists to play for “one band in each category” have struck the final nail in the coffins of many bands. The only way any steelband now can guarantee even a minimal squad of players for Panorama is to hire players. Venturing down that road signals the end of your band because hired hands will never be “members” of any Steelband. As yet and as I have said here on more than one occasion, Pans do not tune themselves, purchase themselves, pay light bills, buy food, paint drive maxi taxis etc. People do. Pans do not MANAGE themselves. People do. Without people learning more than how to hustle, you have no steelband. The powers-that-be know that too…Well at least, they ought to by now because “people” voted them in office."
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