Trinidad and Tobago Newsday
Trinidad & Tobago, W.I. - Pan Trinbago President Keith Diaz has renewed calls for a local masters degree programme in steelpan as people are learning Trinidad and Tobago’s national instrument in other countries.
....He said that it takes 10 years to become a master pan tuner and there needs to have pan tuning in programmes with accreditation locally “before somebody in the US, Canada or England do that”.
He reported that he has been speaking to the MIC board about a degree in pan tuning. He suggested that they should start in schools and pan tuning is getting “bigger and bigger” and there is money in the skill. He reported that in the United States there are 500 schools with pan programmes and six schools in the United Kingdom.
“We cannot afford to continue with road we going,” he stressed.
....He pointed out that the University of Chicago has had a pan programme for more than 10 years now and people from Caribbean countries go there to study it and do not come to Trinidad “because there is none in Trinidad and Tobago. But this is the land of the steelpan.”
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Mr Keith Diaz, that should have been done long time ago and other things, I don't know why we always wait until others do it and then decide to do it,
We have been "pussy footing" with the pan for years, now we are on the brink of being left behind, what's being done with the steelband are you going to keep on limiting it to panorama?
Cecil Hinkson: Do you realize that since I (and you) have been on this forum you have had ZERO PAN VICTORIES. The news is always DOOM and GLOOM with ZERO BREAKTHROUGHS.
Claude, maybe we are looking at the wrong place for victories, without good leadership you are guarantee Doom and Gloom, It appears to me that pan people in the Mecca has a defeatist attitude, they grab what get from panorama and that's it, there's no enthusiasm, few try to do something on their own. Breakthrough will come from outside. Just my opinion.
$955,000 for pan
Gary Cardinez Sunday, March 21 2004
Pan Trinbago, the governing body for the steel band movement, received $955,000 as funding for a 12-month Pan Tuning Course from the Community Development Fund. The handing over and signing of the agreement took place at the Ballroom of Crowne Plaza, Wrightson Road, Port-of-Spain last Friday between representatives of the Ministry of Community Development and Culture and Pan Trinbago during the launch of the Pan Tuning Course. Permanent Secretary in the Ministry Carol Clarke signed on behalf of the Ministry while Joan Yuille-Williams was the witness. Pan Trinbago’s President Patrick Arnold signed on behalf of the pan body.
Minister Yuille-Williams told the audience, “This programme is designed to train 100 persons in the art of Pan Tuning and as a former teacher, I insisted the course should contain life skills training. “The pan tuners of the future must not only display skills proficiency, they must also possess the attitudes and behaviour which will enhance their delivery and the image they project to the world.” The minister added, “Pan Tuning is an art like sugar cane boiling. It is a dying art and any of the people who are involved in it today are the holders of this proud tradition in Trinidad and Tobago culture. “There is a saying in Africa that ‘when an old man dies a library burns down’ and that is because the rich history, knowledge and experience that the person has was not passed on.
http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/print,0,16397.html
Where are these 100 persons now?
bugs
Heaven knows what ever happened with this?!?!
Bertel: Don't forget to add the FOUR MILLION for the HEADQUARTERS to this almost million. And the FIVE MILLION in debt that PAN TRINBAGO now carrying.
odw: Yuh exposing all the hypocrisy and corruption. Somebody should do a research project on all the BILLIONS spent on PAN over the years. And all we ever hear is more cries for GOVERNMENT INVESTMENT in PAN with somebody always presenting a NEW ANGLE to line pockets at the TOP with ZERO TRICKLE DOWN.
Diaz walks around making suggestions as if he has ZERO RESPONSIBILITY to the MOVEMENT. I thought he was the PRESIDENT OF THE GLOBAL GOVERNING BODY OF PAN -- so why complain about PAN PROGRESS around the GLOBE.
There are hundreds of schools in Britain which have steel bands, but as far as I know (and I investigated this for my PhD) no Universities apart form Roehampton have them as part of the curriculum. Pan may be used for performance in GCSE and A-level exams but further than that there is little going on here in terms of academic study. Indeed I am the only UK holder of a doctorate in pan, which I think may point to a serious issue with pan being regarded as an instrument worthy of serious study and regard here.
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