Pan Trinbago website a disgrace

Has anyone visited the Pan Trinbago website recently? It is an absolute disgrace. Imagine there isn't even a way to contact the association from their website. Something as simple and as automatic as that should be; an included section where one could post a message or make a comment is completely missing. Under the tab 'Contact us' all you have are phone numbers. What is the use of being on a webpage and then having to go to a phone to contact the administrators?

> Anyway I was on the website looking for information on the SteelFest and would you believe that in spite of having full colour full page ads in the newspapers (seemingly sponsored by the NGCC) there is noting on the website as far as a calendar of events is concerned. The only mention is for the opening ceremony which lists only the date and time, not even the venue.

> I wanted to find out more about the float parade around the savannah but of course there is nothing there about the date, time etc.

> What a waste of space and this is supposed to be the web portal of the defacto information hub to the world for steelband. The Steelfestt website is just as ridiculous only listing the barest of info on the concerts, again without giving details such as time etc. and nothing about the conference except to indicate the start and end dates.

> Are we expected to take them seriously? Thank goodness for WST.

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  • Thanks Wayne, I thought that I was the only one who complained about "The World's Governing Pan Body's" website.            I did complain to the past administration as well as present.  

  • I am beginning to wonder! I have a feeling that part of the problem may have poor (or late) planning as far as Steelfest and the globalization conference is concerned. In fact I was in Pan Trinbago's office in late December and was told that they supported the conference but were not involved in the organizing. Intersetingly there was no mention of Steelfest. I also wonder about Pantrinbago's capacity to move the pan movement forward.  The web site is just the tip of the iceberg. (They should follow WST's!) Case in point is the Pan in Schools Program. There is no way that Pantrinbago (the pan fraternity and the general public in Trinidad and Tobago should allow that program to be closed. Definitely the "multicultural" replacement seriously begs the question about the"national instrument." Where is the national outcry? 

    • Don't even get me started on the Pan in the Classroom subject. Not only Pan Trinbago and the pan fraternity but every single person in TnT (except perhaps whichever short shortsighted individual came up with that idea) should be out in the streets protesting the proposed shutdown of that program.

      It nothing less than appalling that after all these years of building perhaps the only cultural program of any worth in this country that some body could come up with a regressive idea as shutting it down.

      All research has pointed to the fact that pan is the best instrument to teach music to young people and this has been acknowledged by virtually everyone involved in teaching music in schools not just in TnT but worldwide.

      It seems that every time we take a step forward we take two backward. I cannot imagine what could be on the minds of the persons responsible for this backward leap- well actually I could and it's time that people in TnT stop pussyfooting around and wake up from their delusional state and call things as everyone sees.

      The powers that be have decided that pan is not just the national instrument but somehow they have decided that it an African derived instrument and that therefore it is not to be the single instrument that the youths should be exposed to but to level the playing field that we should throw in some east Indian derived instruments into the music curriculum.

      I believe that those in a position to make those decisions are still afraid of pan and what it represents and therefore believe that having it as the instrument of choice in the school music program would be giving too much to the 'other' side. Any other reason would be too unbelievable to fathom.

      It is a way to again force a separation or division of the populace into discrete blocks in order to keep themselves in power.

      I seriously doubt that those persons have ever been into a panyard before they have come into power (and now only as a token gesture because they have to) and therefore have a serious negative view of pan and don't want their children to be exposed to it.

      I can find no other rational explanation for wanting to end the program or to dilute it by including east Indian instruments in the curriculum.

      No thought has been given to the salient facts including that it is impossible or virtually so to teach western music structure using eastern instruments such as the tabla. The pan makes learning music easy, the exact opposite of the other instruments being proposed and throwing in the guitar or piano as a red herring only shows up the obvious bias.

      The fact is that the pan is the national instrument and therefore should have pride of place in any music curriculum in Trinidad and even in the Caribbean as a whole. Schools and music programs for the young from Australia to the USA are using pan as the instrument of choice for the teaching of music for several reasons not the least of which is the fact that it is accessible, attractive, exotic and also has other attributes that makes it by far the most compelling instrument for keeping young people focused on the music program.

      Why then would anyone after all the research, the progress and the results that have been obtained by the Pan in the Classroom project that with a snap of the fingers and without any consultation whatsoever, that the powers that be at the Ministry of Education would end so valuable a program and this in concert with the so called Ministry of Arts and Multiculturalism and with the deafening silence of everyone who should be incensed enough to take to the streets in protest.

      It just defies the imagination.

  • They will never learn after all these years, with the mind of the President and his puppets we in T&T we are in BIG trouble.

  • They need to let wst handle it for them
    • Eustace you are a smart man.

  • T&T is still ah 3rd world country. Pan need the young people to step-up.

  • The Contact Us button gives a list of Head Office and the Regional offices with a phone number for each. If you click on any of the offices you get an location address and an email address. After that there is an area to submit messages. Therefore your first complaint is not justified.

    I do not know about the other festivals.

  • It's what I've been saying for years. Disgrace is not the only negative qualifying discription. It is also inaccurate.

    One would expect that on the subject of Panorama placings from 1963 to the present an organisation which professes to represent the artform can at least get the facts right. It doesn't even follow a chronological sequence. It's as if some mentally challenged person in St Anns sufferring from an accute form of amnesia and dementia put the thing together. I may be wrong, it may just be Rum influence.

    The problem I have is that it appears that those "in charge" could not care less. They are also blinkered in their approach.

    No thought is ever given to afficionados abroad. It is centered around those currently in the country only. This may have been OK in times of pure verbal communication, but in today's society everything must be digitally focused.

    It is not good enough to expect word of mouth to be the order of the day. The country may be awashed with Oil and Liquid Natural Gas dollars but it's obvious these have not been used to effectively educate those in positions of influence on the finer points of modern society.

    The website should be held up high as an example of how not to do it.

    But I must say as I look at CarnivalTV's latest effort on the Steelfest, the seeds have not fallen far from the tree.

    They are just as bad. An entire 2 hours 14 minutes of Mono output. Now which idiot thought of that one?

     

    I doubt it would change in my lifetime. I'm 63.

     

    Ha! Ha!

     

     

  • Sometimes I wonder, where is the pan going in Trini?

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