Tuesday, December 7 2010
Mere days after Government tries to uplift TT’s collective spirits by holding its first successful anti-crime Pan Relay concerts, the newly appointed Mayor of Port-of-Spain Louis Lee Sing has brought a sour note to the ears of pan players, the Woodbrook community and the country by seeking to uproot five time Panorama champions, Phase II.
At the end of last month, the PP, in an effort to stem the rising violence and take back communities under siege, provided Desperadoes Steel Orchestra with the security to return to the Laventille hill after crime forced the band down to Belmont earlier this year. By all reports, the steelband played to a hugely appreciative crowd and the concert was a success. Yet instead of taking a leaf out of Government’s music book, Mr Lee Sing announces he is going his own philosophical way much as he has done with the removal from Port-of-Spain of the homeless and will uproot from its moorings another of the nation’s big bands.
Phase II, which has been at its Hamilton Holder Street base ever since 1972, is seeking legal title to land which it claims it has a legitimate right. It is rejecting relocation to the Audrey Jeffers Highway hanger constructed for it, which it claims unsuitable. Why not grant Phase II title? Mr Lee Sing’s attitude and actions coming as they do on the heels of the Pan Relay concert are counterproductive and his timing, if not questionable, is abundantly ironic.
This fight between Woodbrook’s Phase II and the PoS Corporation has been going on since the construction of the self-contained housing complex; One Woodbrook Place was in the planning stages. Many surrounding properties sold to contractors HCL, which tried unsuccessfully to persuade Phase II to move. Are we right then to ask whether the PoS City Corporation has been acting on behalf of HCL and not the people of Woodbrook? We must also inquire, what is the reason for relocation now? One Woodbrook Place is complete and occupied. In whose way stands Phase II’s panyard? Have residents complained about the noise? Perhaps at the heart of the issue is that Woodbrook once a residential area is becoming an ideal location for business.
Local Government Minister Chandresh Sharma who rushed to the defence of the Woodbrook steel orchestra had this to say, “The panyard has a place and we must do everything in our power to encourage it, to accommodate it. What pan players do for us, very few people do.”
Mr Sharma could not have put it more eloquently. A panyard’s place is in the community, from which it evolved. The people of Laventille have been robbed by the bandits of their life, liberty and material possessions and lately of their steelband and pride of community because pan was born on their hills, of their struggles and creativity and magic.
Should we now steal Phase II from those who still reside in Woodbrook and its surrounding communities? Further, who is prepared to practice and perform for hours on end virtually unpaid as TT’s pan players do? Is Mr Lee Sing disposed to such annual self-sacrifice and unrewarded duty?
Mr Sharma’s assurances that his Government understands the importance and role of pan in TT’s development were also welcome.
“Pan is going to be one of the Government’s revenue earning agencies,” he told understandably upset Phase II players and supporters, adding, “The most important thing is that you have legal possession.”
We have been long talking about copyright and the steelband and how TT can make money from pan and for pan players and can simultaneously generate a host of downstream industries. If Phase II, which claims it enjoys free title and seeks paper title to its panyard, is discouraged by the local authorities then our talk is cheap. These are desperate times when the people of TT need hope and to reclaim their communities and their country.
This is not the moment for undermining morale, for breaking hearts, for the eviction of a beloved steelband. We urge new kid on the political block Mr Lee Sing to rethink his relocation plan and we ask the PoS body to give the Woodbrook band the title it is requesting. Phase II has more than earned it. www.panapparels.com
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