By Gary Cardinez - Trinidad Express
The inaugural International Conference on the Steelpan held at the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA) ended on a high note Wednesday afternoon.
In their panel discussion on "The Future of the Steelpan" both managing editor of the T&T Review and Express columnist Sunity Maharaj and attorney Martin Daly made the point that the ultimate power of the national instrument lies in the hands of the people.
Maharaj let participants know that the people of Trinidad and Tobago had to come to terms with pan.
She said: "No crisscrossing of policies or acts of Parliament will help. Pan lies at the heart of the people and the ultimate responsibility for the national instrument resides in the hands of the people. We have to change our attitude, no amount of romanticism has kept back pan, no amount of money made pan survive. Pan survived out of a passion. The possessiveness that comes with the territory of pan must be examined.
Maharaj said: "There is to be real planning and the government process must include the Ministries of Education, Trade, National Security and Tourism. Pan performs a roll, it is art, history, it is science, it possesses a healing power, it can earn foreign exchange and has great potential for business."
She compared the creative sector with the energy sector saying, "Both employ (thousands of) people but we have to crack the challenge of taking the money from the energy sector and put it into the creative sector.
She said, "We must not be caught without oil and gas before the creative sector is earning up to capacity. It is our responsibility as we move forward, we have to decide what we want for pan but it must be organised. It is not hard to sell, so let us sell it."
Daly gave the practical approach to the future of the steelpan saying, "We have to get over the ambiguity of pan and no government can decide who embraces pan. The reality is pan is in over 50 countries in the world, what have we gotten out of it? What did we get out of it as a people? We did not give pan to the world, certain individuals did. It is fifty per cent gone, people no longer have to come here to hear it. We have to make Trinidad and Tobago an attractive venue for pan. People must want to come to T&T.
Replies
I like the idea of the people of Trinidad and Tobago "coming to terms with pan". That is a loaded construct - full of emotional, sociological, technological, economical implications. The reason it is important for the people of Trinidad and Tobago to come to terms with the pan is simply that in another 50 years, there would be no "ownership", no linkage between Trinidad and Tobago and the INSTRUMENT. Where is the piano from? Where is the guitar from? We no longer care, we could open a shop and start making guitars tomorrow morning; if we are successful we will make some profit. The coming to terms is important IF we wish to capitalise on our head start in the manufacture, the performance and other technical know-how we have acquired over the last 70 or so years. That competitive edge will not last forever - be warned. The other 'term' we need to address is the fact that we have focused for all these years on the instrument itself, refusing boldly and stubbornly to acknowledge the passion, genius and - at least - competence of the performers of the instrument. How many steelpan CD's have we seen where the names of the performers are credited individually? I know of sooo many pan geniuses, but no one knows their name or their photo, because we have not come to terms with poor people having genius, what a sad commentary on our various institutions. Trinidad and Tobago have at most another 50 years at most to maintain some kind of diminishing competitive edge in this burgeoning industry which I truly believe could eventually be a dominant segment of the global music industry. Can we come to terms with pan AND pannists, T&T?
By the way I would like to recognise Gary as one of the troopers who finds his way to EVERY event to report to T&T, thanks Mr. Cardinez!!!
More like 5 years Keith. There is already a US patent for a manufacturer of pan by a unique method which should wake us up to the power of patents. In the US it's always first to register is first to own as far as patents go and it is easy for someone in the US to produce a patent application for a standardized pan ensemble that would warrant a patent. Remember that patent encompasses any 'new' way of doing any old thing. So don't be surprised if some enterprising person decides to file a patent application for a set of standardized pans and win the patent.
All it will take is for someone to come up with a set of pans with the notes placed in a standardized manner as distinct and different from that which occurs now and that's it.
That will mean that if we in the land of pan want to use those pans we will either have to pay to do so or be prevented from doing so because those US patents are enforceable all over the world due to conventions on patent cooperation and mutual enforcement to which most countries of the world have signed.
To be forewarned is to be forearmed.
What was the reason the G-Pan develop and patent, $35 million spend on this project, is the G-Pan acceptable to mass produce - why are we sitting on this? I have a hunch their are plans on the drawing board to launch with the opening of PanTrinbago Headquarters.
Only the last 3 years because of WST the steelpan enthusiast around the world is pushing this instrument in the right direction and we are getting answers.
I am optimistic the best is yet to come - we are in the Internet age, that is the paradigm shift...
After reading this article I can only conclude more profoundly that it is why we need "A Ministry exclusively for the Pan in T&T" By now someone like Maurice Bishop of Grenada would have probably initiated that concept.
Think of the possibilities of a serious Minister having his or her own Ministry for the Pan. with a budget , ressources, staff....etc...
Other than that ..what do we have .....still continuous years of more neglect and 'Old Talk"
Salah