By JOHN MAXWELL

Barack Obama takes the oath of office to become the 44th President of the United States. —Photo: AP

SOME of those waiting to take part in the inauguration of Barack Obama as president of the United States had been standing for hours, many with tears streaming down their cheeks. Some others had been standing for decades and others for centuries—King Affonso the Mani Kongo, Crispus Attucks the Barbadian, Bouckman the Jamaican/Haitian, Henri Christophe the Haitian and John Brown, and Sojourner Truth and Rosa Parks and Fannie Lou Hamer, all Americans. 

Marcus Garvey no longer has to ask where are the black presidents and men of great affairs, and Nkrumah and Lumumba, Fidel Castro, Sukarno, Ho Chi Minh and Nelson Mandela all know that the Long Walk to Freedom has really only just begun, and Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr would know that the dream of freedom belongs to all of us and that we have the power to make that dream reality.

Yes! We Can and We Have and We Will.

According to the statisticians, the inauguration of President Obama ignited 35,000 news stories around the world, more than 30 times the number published about the last such occasion.

And I, as a Jamaican who has had so many quarrels with the United States, reflected on why the tears were streaming down my face as I watched the proceedings in Washington.

I remembered being at a party in Jamaica in 1965 at the house of the American chargé d’affaires in Stony Hill, when Martin Luther King Jr, the guest of honour, said that he had felt in Jamaica, and for the first time in his life, that he was a full and complete human being. That was part of his dream, that people should be judged by their character rather than by the colour of their skin. We are not there yet. We are certainly not there yet in Jamaica, and the election and inauguration of a black president in the United States is not much more than another signpost on the road we travel. But it is an important signpost.

There are at this moment, circulating on the Internet, two pictures of children going to school, attended by massive security. The first is of one of the children from the so-called Little Rock Nine being escorted into the segregated Little Rock Central High School in 1957 by federal marshals. 

The other picture is of two little girls, Malia and Sasha Obama, being escorted to school by members of the presidential bodyguard. The pictures are separated by 42 years and oceans of struggle and suffering, of tragedy and of triumph.

I remember Little Rock. The world stood fascinated to learn whether the then president of the United States, Dwight Eisenhower, would tolerate the challenge to federal law and authority posed by then governor of Arkansas, one Orval Faubus. When Faubus used his National Guard to prevent black children from entering Little Rock Central High School, someone suggested that Eisenhower himself should take the children by the hand and himself lead them into the school. Eisenhower, who allegedly spent more time golfing than on any other activity, was mocked by the comedian Mort Sahl. Sahl said Eisenhower was perfectly willing to take the children by the hand; what was giving the president pause was whether to use an overlapping [golfing] grip.

But Eisenhower did send the soldiers.

In his inaugural speech, Obama related how “less than 60 years ago” a black man like his father would not have been served in restaurants in Washington DC. Fifty years ago, in March 1959, when I was in Washington as a guest of the State Department, black Americans I met were amazed to learn that I had been served at DC restaurants, albeit in the company of my State department handler. One of my new black friends was a man named Taylor, who drove a taxi (Capitol Cabs) when he wasn’t working at his daytime job as a janitor at the State Department. We decided to see if we would be served in one or two of the places I had spoken about.

Washington had recently been officially desegregated because of the independence of Ghana and Guinea and the expected influx of black diplomats.

It was too soon, we discovered, to expect civilised behaviour. We sat, and sat, but, to all intents and purposes, we were invisible to the staff.

Race prejudice has long been an integral component of US society. The economic backbone of the 13 colonies and later of the United States was slavery, and the Civil War was a disputation about economic development and not about slavery. Lincoln, the ‘Great Emancipator’, had the courage and the political wit to abolish slavery as a means of weakening the Confederates and attracting more blacks to the cause of the Union.

Lincoln, like Obama, was a principled pragmatist, a politician who understood his duty to the people he represented. In Lincoln’s case he was also conscious of his duty to those without representation, unable to regard them, as had Jefferson, as being three-fifths human. One wonders how Jefferson squared his conscience as he mated with his black slave, Sally Hemmings, and whether he considered their progeny altogether human.

There are still people in the United States and in places where American influence was most significant, who still have their doubts about the humanity of blacks. Many white South Africans - not all - bought the insane logic of Malan, Verwoerd and the others and supported not only a system to permanently oppress and subjugate blacks, but even set up a scientific programme to devise medical strategies and to invent new diseases to exterminate them. The director of this programme, a medical doctor named Wouter Basson, still lives, unmolested and unprosecuted, among his intended victims in South Africa.

Among the people at Obama’s inauguration you may have noticed some old men wearing blue caps. These were some of the most valiant fighters of the Second World War, a group of black airmen in a segregated unit called the Tuskegee Airmen. Recognition escaped most of them, but Obama made sure they were invited to witness his taking office.

Another group, also named after Tuskegee, was not among those present. These were the black victims of an official experiment run by the US Public Health Service. Beginning in 1932, the USPHS used 399 black men as laboratory animals. The men, mainly illiterate small farmers, had been infected with syphilis but were never told what disease they were suffering from.

They were told they were being treated for ‘bad blood’ by doctors who had no intention of curing them. The data was to be collected from autopsies, and they were thus deliberately left to suffer unspeakable misery under the ravages of tertiary syphilis - which can include tumours, heart disease, paralysis, blindness, insanity, and death. “As I see it,” one of the doctors involved explained, “we have no further interest in these patients until they die.”

Despite the fact that one dose of penicillin could have cured many, decades earlier, the depraved experiment continued until 1972.

In 1997, 17 years later, President Clinton apologised to the seven survivors: 

“The United States government did something that was wrong - deeply, profoundly, morally wrong. It was an outrage to our commitment to integrity and equality for all our citizens. . . clearly racist.”

There was curiously, another connection to Tuskegee. The founder of the Tuskegee Institute, the first black college, was a man named Booker T Washington, and he was the first black visitor officially invited to the White House.”

And then there was the eerie coincidence that King’s 80th birthday was the day before Obama’s inauguration.

One of those present on the inaugural platform was one who was subject to hatred, ridicule and contempt when he (young, feisty and the best boxer in history) decided to become a Muslim, changed his ’slave name’ from Cassius Marcellus Clay to Muhammad Ali. Worse, he refused even symbolic service as a soldier in Viet Nam. He had nothing against the Viet Cong, he said, they had never attacked him. Nobody expected a pugilist, a showman, an entertainer, to have a conscience or to be capable of expressing it.

Against all ideas of justice (and even against the canons of free enterprise) he was stripped of his hard-won championships. No matter, in law and the courts he finally prevailed, as he prevailed in the ring, disposing of all the pretenders; and he survived at last in the consciences of his fellow citizens when they too awoke to the iniquities of a wicked war. He sat on the platform along with his contemporary, only the second man to be head of the US armed forces and Secretary of State, another black, of Jamaican parentage, Colin Powell. And with them was Eli Weisel, the champion of the millions of those who died and of those who survived Hitler’s final solution of the ‘Jewish problem’.

The chair of the proceedings, Senator Dianne Feinstein, could not bring herself to call the new president by his full name. The sergeant at arms went one better. He called out ‘Barack H Obama’. It was the president himself who first proudly announced his full name, Barack Hussein Obama, forcing his countrymen to abandon euphemism and to face facts and their whole heritage. And he was not afraid to address the Muslims of the world, despite the blanket libels of the past eight years, promising to meet them and all people with due regard and respect to try to make a new beginning.

As we reflect on Tuesday January 20, it may be possible to discern not only why the world believes Obama belongs to them, but why the world believes that the dream of liberty belongs to them too.

Ho Chi Minh said that when he was a waiter in a Paris restaurant he was fired by the words of Marcus Garvey. Freedom and Liberty are transcendent and they are not the property of any race, country or political system.

Bob Marley, the poet laureate of the last century, got it right:

“We can make it work!”

YES, WE CAN!

Copyright 2009 John Maxwell

jankunnu@gmail.com

By Sir Courtney N Blackman

Economist Professor Dennis Pantin, left, and Dr Trevor Farrell chat after UWI’s

The following is the text of an address delivered by Sir Courtney at a tribute held in honour of Dr Trevor Farrell by the Economics Department , UWI, St Augustine on Wednesday, October 8th, 2008. The conference title was “The  Economy 2008: Planning in a Turbulent Environment” 

I am deeply honoured by the invitation to deliver the keynote address at this Conference in recognition of the outstanding service of Dr. Trevor Farrell to the Faculty of Economics, in particular, and to the University of the West Indies in general.   Indeed, this is my first time speaking on this University Campus in a purely academic context.  Almost sixty years ago I first set foot on Trinidadian soil; today I feel that I have at last arrived.

 In the interest of full disclosure, I must reveal that Trevor and I have been intellectual soul brothers for more than three decades.   When I returned to Barbados in the early 1970s, Trevor was the only professional economist in the region who shared my conviction that management was a crucial but neglected factor in Caribbean economic development.    Over the years we have consoled each other in our solitude, shared ideas and brought new and important literature to each other’s attention.   However, my fraternal relationship with Trevor has not been without its impositions.   He sent his graduate students to intern at the Central Bank of Barbados when I was Governor, and later required me to read Masters theses for the less-than-princely sum of US$50 each, the lowest rate of compensation in my career as a Consultant.

My original choice of topic, The Meaning of Management: the Missing Factor in Caribbean Political Economy, was intended to focus on issues of management and economics that Trevor and I had most frequently discussed.   However, the cataclysmic and terrifying implosion of the US financial system, with its shock waves spreading throughout the global financial system, seemed a much more urgent subject.   As a resident of the USA over the past two decades, I have had, so to speak, a front row view of the unfolding drama.   I have therefore switched to the topic, The Global Financial Crisis and the Collapse of the Neo-Liberal Paradigm.

The current crisis is the most devastating in recent economic history.   Iconic Wall Street institutions, like Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, have vanished; the world’s largest mortgage insurers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, have been nationalized, and the world’s largest insurance company, AIG, with operations in 100 countries and with over 100,000 employees, survives only by the grace of the US Treasury to the tune of $85 billion.   Martin Wolf, in the Financial Times of October 1st, puts it this way, 

We are watching the disintegration of the financial system …   Finance is the web of intermediation, binging economic agents to one another, across space and time.   Without it, no modern economy could survive.

Indeed the crisis threatens the very position of the United States as the world’s sole Super Power, for it is the tremendous advantage it enjoys as the world’s leading financial centre, and issuer of the international reserve currency that provides the financial resources to support its global responsibilities and ambitions. The $700 billion initially voted by Congress is a mere downpayment on the cost of returning that country to its former pre-eminence.  For one, the problem of foreclosures that have thrown more than one million Americans out of their homes has hardly been addressed. 

The thrust of my argument is that this economic crisis, the most severe since the Great Depression of the 1930s, represents a spectacular failure of Neo-Liberalism, and is therefore an occasion for its displacement by a new paradigm or, at least, its radical reconstruction.  However, in my  reading of the daily Press - The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Financial Times and The Economist - I have come across only one academic economist, Dr. De Grauwe, Professor of Economics at the University of Leuven and Centre for European Studies, who has touched on this issue.  His column in the Financial Times of July 23rd, 2008, is captioned “Cherished Myths have Fallen Victim to Economic Reality.”  With regard to central banks in developed countries he concludes, 

The macroeconomic models they have today certainly do not provide them with the right tools to be successful.   They will have to use other intellectual constructs to succeed.

My hopes were later lifted by, of all persons, a theoretical physicist.   The title of Mark Buchanan’s column in the New York Times of Wednesday, October 1, 2008, read, “This Economy Does Not Compute”.  He was commenting on the bumbling efforts of US government officials and leaders in the Congress to come up with a ‘bail out’ plan to bring the financial crisis under control.   Part of the reason, he offered, is that economists still try to understand markets by using ideas from traditional economics, especially so-called equilibrium theory.   

He cited the efforts of a few pioneers “who are building computer models able to mimic market dynamics by simulating their workings from the bottom up.”

 Readers of my most recent publication, The Practice of Economic Management: A Caribbean Perspective will be aware of my relentless criticism, over more than two decades, of the Neo-Liberal paradigm, as encapsulated in the so-called “Washington Consensus”. Following this introduction I examine the concept of the  ”paradigm”, the intellectual construct on which my presentation hangs.   Secondly, I chronicle the rise of the Neo-Liberal paradigm in the 1980s and 1990s.   Thirdly, I identify the factors leading up to the current crisis in the US financial system and its effects on the global financial system.   Fourthly, I speculate on Life after  Neo-Liberalism for the United States and the global community.  In conclusion, I suggest some lines along which you might proceed in the search for an appropriate paradigm of Caribbean economic development.  

The Concept of the Paradigm

The generic meaning of “paradigm” is “model” or “pattern”.   Its usage has in recent times been extended to mean the model underlying the theories and practice of a scientific subject, no doubt reflecting the influence of Thomas Kuhn’s seminal work, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Kuhn adopted the concept of the “paradigm” to explain the processes by which radical changes in scientific thinking are introduced - what modern scholars now refer to as a  ”paradigm shift”.   The most famous case of a scientific revolution was the overthrow of the Ptolemaic geocentric paradigm, placing the earth at the centre of the universe with the sun and planets revolving around it, by the heliocentric Copernican paradigm, which places the sun at the centre of the cosmos with the earth and other planets revolving around it. 

 Kuhn at first identified two essential conditions for a successful paradigm change:  first, the existing paradigm must suffer an unacceptable technical breakdown, thus creating a crisis; secondly, a novel and clearly superior paradigm must be available.   He did concede, however, that in the above example  ”several factors external to science played a particularly large role.” In his postscript to the third edition of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions he therefore introduced the element of community into his concept of the paradigm:  ” … it stands for the entire constellation of beliefs, values, techniques, and so on shared by the members of a given community.” (4) He goes on, “If this book were being rewritten, it would therefore open with a discussion of the community structure of science, a topic that has recently become a significant subject of sociological research and that historians of science are also beginning to take seriously.” In other words, pressures from the community can critically influence the overthrow or triumph of a paradigm.   This is especially true in respect of the social sciences for reasons that Magnus Blomstrom and Bjorn Hettne explain:

Since society is in a continuous state of flux, the social sciences are particularly prone to paradigm crises; however, the process of adjustment is hampered by the fact that theories may serve both ideological and legitimizing purposes.   The paradigm change must therefore be politically sanctioned. 

Rise of the Neo-Liberal paradigm

Neo-Liberalism is the direct descendant of the laissez-faire paradigm inaugurated by Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations in 1776 and elaborated by successive Classical economists, culminating with Alfred Marshall’s Principles of Economics in 1920.    The Classical paradigm failed to deal effectively with the Great Depression of the 1930s and was superseded by the Keynesian paradigm.    Throughout the Cold War there were two competing paradigms, the Keynesian in the West and Marxist-Leninist in the Eastern Bloc.   While leaving the vast majority of economic decisions to the Private Sector, John Maynard Keynes, in 1936, had advocated contra-cyclical regulation of government spending through the use of monetary and fiscal policy towards the maintenance of economic stability with full employment (7).  Marxist-Leninism espoused a command economy in which the vast majority of economic decisions were taken by a central planning authority.   When in the 1980s Keynesian policies failed to resolve the problem of “stagflation”, i.e. the simultaneous occurrence of inflation and unemployment, President Reagan in the United States and Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom gave ideological respectability and political legitimacy to a vigorous counter-revolution launched by the Chicago School of Economics, under the leadership of Milton Friedman.    Keynesianism was overthrown and the Classical laisez-faire paradigm reinstated.

A major casualty of this paradigm-shift was the banishment of development economics from the mainstream of the discipline.   Indeed, it has almost disappeared from the curricula of leading American universities.   The findings of distinguished development economists on the critical importance of institutions in economic development were thrown out the window and, flying in the face of history, the catalytic role of Government in economic development was denied.   Our own Nobel Laureate, Sir Arthur Lewis, had made the latter case most forcefully:

No country has made economic progress without stimulus from intelligent governments, least of all England, the foundations of whose greatness as an industrial power were laid by a series of intelligent rulers, from Edward III onwards; or the United States, whose governments, state and federal, have always played a large part in shaping economic activity…

Instead, economic development was treated as subject to the law of free market infallibility.   Once we got prices right, The Economist argued, economic development would automatically follow.

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 was seen as a victory for laissez-faire economics over Marxist-Leninism, and a more virulent and triumphalist mutation, known as “Neo-Liberalism”, evolved to become the dominant economic paradigm in the 1990s.    Neo-Liberal economists soon began to occupy the top posts at leading American universities and the US Treasury, and there was a changing of the guard at the IMF and World Bank.  The new dispensation came to be known as the “Washington Consensus”, and its mandate, in the words of President George W. Bush, was “to ignite a new era of global economic growth through free markets and free trade.”

The underlying tenet of the Neo-Liberal paradigm is that the unfettered workings of the free market ensure outcomes that cannot be improved upon by government intervention.   A collateral aspect of Neo-Liberalism is the valuation of the interest of individuals above those of society.   As Mrs. Thatcher infamously remarked, “There are no societies, only individuals.”  As if individuals could survive in the absence of society!  The markets postulated within the Neo-Liberal paradigm are even more remarkable than those of the Classical and Keynesian paradigms, which at least distinguished between various types - monopolistic, imperfect, monopoly, etc. Neo-Liberal markets are populated by ‘rational’ participants, are universally  ’efficient’ and can process all available information, making it impossible for mere mortals to outperform them.  Above all, Neo-Liberal markets always know what is best for human beings.

Moreover, price theory, the central model of the paradigm, can be used, according to Karl Brunner, “to explain the whole range of social phenomena.” (9) Indeed, Neo-Liberal markets more resemble deities than intellectual constructs.  No wonder that one often hears politicians, businessmen, and even professional economists, proclaim their “belief” in the “free market”.  My response is that I believe only in God!

The major policy prescriptions of the Neo-Liberal school were:

1. Financial liberalization:  removal of interest rate ceilings, abolition of exchange rate controls and the floating of currencies.

2. Financial globalization:  removal of restrictions on inward and outward capital flows.

3. Deregulation and privatization of government enterprises

4. Free trade:  removal of restrictions on imports and exports.

The Washington international financial institutions, together with the World Trade Organization, were the agencies designated to carry out the mandate of the “Washington Consensus”.

Cracks in the Neo-Liberal paradigm have been evident for some time.   In the 1990s attempts at financial liberalization promoted by the IMF- under the influence of Dr, Ronald McKinnon’s thesis of “financial repression” - turned out badly in Latin America, while in Jamaica the entire indigenous banking sector collapsed.   The same decade also saw the eruption of financial crises in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Russia and Thailand, following the opening of their financial markets to unfettered inflows and outflows of capital. (10) Meanwhile, the FTAA negotiations have gone nowhere and the latest WTO negotiations are deadlocked.

The spectacular collapse of Long Term Capital Management, a hedge fund run by Nobel Laureates Myron Scholes and Robert Merton, proved, in retrospect, to be a shadow cast by coming events; only a “bailout” by its creditors, orchestrated by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, avoided a wider collapse in the financial markets.  The events of the last few weeks leave the Neo-Liberal paradigm completely discredited.   It is a bitter irony that Government, whose intervention into the free market is so deplored by Neo-Liberals, has had to come to the rescue of the “free market”.

The Countdown to Crisis

I claimed earlier to have had a front seat view of the unfolding drama but neglected to tell you that the drama was of the genre of Greek tragedy.    The Hero in the play is the personification of the CEOs of Wall Street investment and banking houses, the most powerful and best paid business leaders in the world.   But the Hero is flawed by the vice of greed, and succumbs to the lowly but toxic “sub-prime” mortgage loan.    President Bush is the unsuspecting human agent that Fate uses to set in motion a series of seemingly unremarkable events that conspired to ruin our Hero.

In 2002 President Bush persuaded Congress to pass a $1.6 trillion tax cut bill that, in one fell swoop, transformed President Clinton’s legacy of fiscal  ”surpluses as far as the eye can see” into fiscal deficits that reached far beyond the horizon. (11) In so doing he transgressed the Keynesian principle of contra-cyclical macroeconomic policy in which surpluses accumulated in the economic upswing are drawn down in time of recession in order to kick-start economic recovery.  The Bush tax-cuts effectively removed the fiscal policy option from the table, and the full load of economic stabilization fell on monetary policy which, as John Maynard Keynes famously observed, was like pushing on a string..    As the recession that had begun in 2001 deepened and the fear of deflation grew, the US Federal Reserve aggressively cut interest rates to as low as one percent, only to stumble into the classic Keynesian liquidity trap.   The combination of low mortgage rates and easily available loans set off a housing bubble and spawned the deadly “sub-prime” mortgage loan.

A sub-prime mortgage loan is one made to a borrower who does not qualify for a loan at the most concessionary interest rate, and must therefore pay a higher rate to reward the lender for the extra risk he is taking.    Some lenders find it more profitable to package and ’securitise’ sub-prime loans for on-lending to other investors.   Between 2001 and 2004 the sub-prime mortgage market grew from $160 billion to $540 billion.    Under pressure from the Administration and Congress, Fannie Mae, the Government sponsored mortgage insurer, brought on its books $300 billion of sub-prime loans that it  either retained or sold to domestic and foreign investors - including some in the Caribbean.  When the housing bubble burst in 2006 home prices fell precipitously, and in many instances homeowners’ equity fell below their mortgage indebtedness.

Meanwhile, our Hero had fallen victim to a most perverse incentive. At the Columbia Graduate School of Business in the 1960s, I was taught that Management was responsible for the “just” distribution of corporate earnings among all stake-holders - workers, suppliers, customers, Government, the Community and shareholders - the so-called “stakeholder theory”.   Stakeholder theory was superseded in the 1990s by the principle of “maximization of shareholder value”.   To align CEO interests to those of the shareholder, CEOs were paid an increasing proportion of their compensation in bonus awards of company stock and stock options as an incentive to put the interests of shareholders first.   Whereas in 1980 stock options constituted only two per cent of executive pay in major corporations, the proportion is now estimated at over 60 per cent, while the ratio of corporate pay to the median wage of workers increased from about 35:1 in 1980 to over 350:1 today. 

 The linkage of CEO pay to stock prices exposed CEOs to a moral hazard that many of them could not rise above.   Since an increase in stock prices also raised their own income, they began to manage the stock price and ceased managing the company, often “cooking” the books to inflate profits and push up the stock price.   Enron and WorldCom are infamous cases of corporate greed leading to the destruction of enterprises, with the loss of shareholder investment and workers’ jobs and pensions.   Many senior executives would be marched off to prison.   

On Wall Street, the Management of revered institutions forgot that their primary fiduciary responsibility was the safety of their clients’ deposits and investments.   Instead, they chased after off-balance-sheet profits from investments in exotic derivatives and hedge-fund bets.   Tragically, it was the lowly sub-prime mortgage loan that brought our Hero down, and with him everyone else in the building and vicinity.

Throughout it all, Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan, himself a confirmed Neo-Liberal, refused to regulate trading in the new and increasingly complex financial markets, confident the “free market” would regulate itself. (12) I have no doubt that it was the culture of selfishness emanating from the Neo-Liberal paradigm that led to our present predicament.

Life after Neo-Liberalism 

The damage to the US economy and to the national psyche has been severe.   The recession, already underway, can be expected to last for two or three years more.   US consumers, who have suffered huge losses in the stock market and from home foreclosures, face rising unemployment.   They will hardly be able to play their traditional role of buyer of last resort, and exports to the US, including oil, will certainly fall off.   We in the Caribbean must brace ourselves for adverse times.   It is especially important for trade unions to take note and modify their wage demands accordingly.

Kuhn’s first condition for a paradigm-shift has been satisfied, in that Neo-Liberalism has failed comprehensively; however, no obvious alternative waits in the wings.   Nevertheless, the strong opposition by Congress to the “bailout” of Wall Street, a general revulsion to the conduct of Wall Street CEOs, and a call in most quarters for increased regulation of the financial sector, suggest weakening support for the Neo-Liberal paradigm.   A Democratic victory next month might hasten the process.

Some Final Thoughts

Whether or not the Neo-Liberal paradigm is overthrown, reconstructed or merely modified, we economists in the Caribbean must not be content with hand-me-down economic models from so-called ‘mainstream’ economists.    As my late friend Lloyd Best reminded us ad nauseam, we must tailor our economic models to fit our own history, culture, circumstances and aspirations.   Indeed, that is what our New World Group of economists so gallantly attempted in the 1960s and 1970s.   They failed, in my judgment, for epistemological, not intellectual reasons, and gave up the quest.   But that is no reason why we should not try again to formulate a development paradigm that fits our needs - especially since Neo-Liberalism has failed in such a spectacular fashion.

In today’s climate of uncertainty, I suggest that you begin by going back to first principles.   Here are some lines of approach you might consider:

1. Economies are comprised of people, not of graphs, mathematical symbols or statistical data.

2. The market is a concept; it does not cerebrate. Only people do.  It does not know better than we do.

3.  Only people, not economies and markets, have problems.    Our theories must therefore be people oriented 

4. The market is a social tool for the inexpensive, not optimal, allocation of resources.   We must determine what we want it to do for us, not vice-versa.   Moreover, it is useful towards the solution of only some, not of all problems!

5. If we can live with market outcomes, we accept them; if we cannot, we must intervene as robustly as needed - even as the Americans and Europeans have done in response to the current global financial crisis.

Finally, economic development derives from the efforts of people, usually working in groups.   Their activities will be productive only if well managed.   Good management promotes productivity, profitability, the creation of new capital and, ultimately, economic growth and development.   On the contrary, poor management results in the destruction of capital and economic disaster - often with amazing swiftness, as the current crisis so vividly illustrates.   This is the lesson that Dr. Trevor Farrell has relentlessly kept before us for over three decades, and it is for this reason that we honour him today.

WRITER’s NOTE: Not long after this presentation, former Chairman of the US  Federal Reserve Board, Alan Greenspan, admitted to a Congressional Committee that there had been a “flaw” in his ideology, and that he had erred in assuming that financial markets could properly regulate themselves.

By Orville Wright

Minister of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs, Marlene McDonald

With an Act of Parliament on January 28, 1986, Pan Trinbago was affirmed as the monolithic body to govern everything pertaining to what is now the National Instrument.  It was not until 1992 that the present Prime Minister gave his blessing to pan and announced to the world at the finals of Pan Is Beautiful, that the pan is the National Instrument of Trinidad & Tobago.

I remember that occasion well because I served Pan Trinbago as the Chief Adjudicator for that competition, and when I heard that announcement, there was a feeling of euphoria all over the Jean Pierre Complex.  When I spoke to the audience on behalf of all the adjudicators, I mentioned the need to have the National Instrument in every school in Trinidad & Tobago.

Sixteen years later, while there is a Pan In The Classroom Unit under the aegis of the Ministry of Education whose goal is to have pans in schools, there seems to be a monumental hurdle-acquiring instruments-that has to be overcome before all schools have the minimum number of instruments required for an ensemble. 

The catalyst for this commentary is the brouhaha that erupted in December when the Minister of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs, Marlene McDonald, MP for Port of Spain, South, sent a letter to the President of Pan Trinbago questioning the use of the word national as it referred to the newly formed National Youth Steel Orchestra. Within the last twelve to eighteen months, there has been a perception of acrimony between Pan Trinbago-the body which the 1986 Act of Parliament charged with promoting and developing the National Instrument, and a government of the very PNM party that was in power when the Act was passed. 

This December incident is not the only conflict that has emerged between the government of Trinidad & Tobago, the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs, and Pan Trinbago and its role with the National Instrument.  In July 2007, the Prime Minister participated in the launch of the G-Pan, a pan evolution project funded by the Government of Trinidad & Tobago and implemented with absolutely no consultation with Pan Trinbago. 

Another embarrassing situation came up on March 28, 2008 when the Minister of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs, Marlene McDonald, introduced a bill in the House of Representatives to change the name of Trinidad and Tobago National Steel Orchestra to the Trinidad and Tobago National Steel Symphony Orchestra, and gave the impression to her fellow MPs that she had consulted with Pan Trinbago on the name change.  Based on information gleaned from a commentary by Sean Douglas in the Sunday Newsday of November 2, 2008, the Minister did her best to articulate the difference between an orchestra and a symphony.  None of it made sense to me, but the eventuality of it all was that Patrick Arnold, President of Pan Trinbago, said “his body had not been consulted on the new bill.”

I have always wondered what process a Prime Minister (regardless of party) utilizes to select individuals for specific portfolios.  My assumption is that the individual selected would have some training and/or background in one of those fields, or, has a very strong and proven relationship with that particular discipline.  There may not be a universal litmus test regarding such portfolios in governments worldwide, but I strongly believe that where the individual lacks expertise in the portfolio, consultation with those who possess the knowledge is of paramount importance. When the Minister tried to explain the difference between an orchestra and a symphony, you could tell she was completely out of her league   It seemed that she had either not consulted with Junia Regrello the Junior Minister in her Ministry who has very strong ties to the National Instrument, or she had  forgotten the information that he passed on to her.  

When Minister McDonald was given the portfolio of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs, I asked a number of my friends and colleagues in Trinidad about the minister’s connection to the arts in general.  Ah ask one set ah people, and nobody could tell me of her connection to the arts.  I became more suspicious when I listened to Steelband Times on i95.5 FM on Saturday afternoons.

I would be remiss if I did not mention former ministers of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs, Joan Yuille-Williams and Penelope Beckles, who, because of their affinity to the arts, represented culture extremely well.  To my knowledge, both neither was an artist, but to use contemporary vernacular, they had the steelband back.

Between November 2007 and February 2008, the host of Steelband Times occasionally compared the former culture Minister-fondly referred to by Chalkie as Auntie Joan, to the present culture Minister.  He lamented the lack of connectivity between the present culture Minister, Pan Trinbago and the National Instrument.  The current testy relationship-or lack thereof-between the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs, and Pan Trinbago seems to justify his concerns.

Getting back to the use of the word “national” in the NYSO, I thought this was very bizarre.  Here is a minister who ought to be an advocate for the National Instrument, sending a letter to the President of Pan Trinbago, chastising him and his Executive for executing responsibilities granted to them by the 1986 Act.   Worse- is that the future of the National Instrument was in the hands of the future, the youth, during that concert.  The 1986 Act says under #3, “The aims and objects of Pan Trinbago are as follows: (a) to promote the development of the steelband movement; (b) to promote the steelpan as an indigenous cultural art form.”

Quoting from the Express of December 18, 2008, the letter from the Minister to the President of Pan Trinbago said in part, “The ministry is concerned about the use of the word “national” as part of the proposed name of your Youth Steel Orchestra.  Moreover, the ministry has been receiving several calls enquiring whether this proposed steel orchestra is similar to the National Steel Symphony Orchestra; whether the designation satisfies legal requirements, and whether it is Government supported.” Now, people in Trinidad are not stupid. So I question whether enquiring minds really wanted to know if the National Youth Symphony Orchestra was “similar to the National Steel Symphony Orchestra.”

Did the Minister consult with Junia Regrello before she sent this letter to Pan Trinbago?  If she did, and Junia went along with the contents of the letter, one has to question his role as the Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs and more importantly, his role as it relates to the National Instrument.  If she did not consult with him, one can only deduce that the Parliamentary Secretary is there in name only.

The Act of 1986 grants Pan Trinbago the authority under #3, (d) “to present, manage, conduct, arrange and organize concerts…”  Having a youth orchestra of about one hundred children performing at the premiere performance venue in Trinidad & Tobago epitomizes the spirit of organizing a concert, and Minister McDonald should have been sending congratulatory messages to the President of Pan Trinbago on the accomplishment of the youth orchestra.  I am not always pleased with some of the initiatives of the present Executive of Pan Trinbago, but this initiative warranted kudos, and when I heard Patrick Arnold on i95.5 FM’s Steelband Times program in December patting himself on the back for his accomplishments, I couldn’t help but jump on the bandwagon with him. However, I had to say to myself, what took you so long?

I do not know how the NYSO learned its repertoire and I am not sure of the quantity of pieces in the band’s repertoire, but I trust that the Executive of Pan Trinbago is using suitably qualified musicians/individuals to develop a curriculum for the orchestra that includes note writing (music), theory, ear training, harmony and most importantly reading, so that two years down the line, those children would be learning their parts by reading music as opposed to learning by rote.  I think a brave initiative like this could boost Pan Trinbago’s governance of the National Instrument, and ultimately propel them to earn the respect that was vested in the Act back in 1986.

Currently, the perception among the public and some of the pan fraternity/sorority is that Pan Trinbago is a useless organization, and the government and the Ministry are just prepared to fund Panorama-and that’s it. When one looks at the past couple of years and what has transpired with the government and Pan Trinbago, the question has to be asked, why is Pan Trinbago not consulted when there is an initiative with the National Instrument?  The most egregious slap in the face was with the unveiling of the G-pan in July 2007. 

I previously shared my views on the G-pan from an arranging perspective, but I cannot fathom why the G-pan would have been conceived, developed, and manufactured without Pan Trinbago’s involvement. Quoting from the Act #3, (g) Pan Trinbago is “to encourage and conduct research programs on the steelpan.” Letter (h) under #3 further states “to do all such things as are incidental or conducive to the attainment of the above objects or any of them.”  This language is quite explicit with respect to Pan Trinbago’s mandate.  Why then were they not consulted?

Is it because certain members of the present Pan Trinbago executive have been there far too long and have outlived their effectiveness as guardians of the instrument and the organization?  Has the government had enough of the leaders of the organization making the same excuses year after year for the tardiness of almost every show that Pan Trinbago produces-especially Panorama? Does the government really care about Pan Trinbago? 

Pan Trinbago finds itself in an awkward position.  They go to the government to get funding for any major program they plan-as they did recently to get $2.4m-and as long as this symbiotic relationship exists, the issues present today will continue until tomorrow and beyond.  There seems to be a mind-set that pan belongs to Trinidad & Tobago, and therefore it is the responsibility of the government to fund every conceivable project related to pan.   

But is that really plausible?  Every time an individual outside of Trinidad & Tobago-Trini or non-Trini-does some enhancement with the pan, the first thing you hear is, boy how dey go do dat; dat is we ting; pan belong to Trinidad and dey eh have no right to do dat.   I always chuckle when I hear this because I don’t think the people who are making all this noise are aware that if somebody in Japan make a pan, the government of Trinidad & Tobago and Pan Trinbago cyar do nutting bout it.  All this talk about patent and royalties is just hot air, and the government of Trinidad & Tobago and Pan Trinbago will never be able to reap any financial gain when somebody in Switzerland make a pan. It is impossible to police something like this.

Jazz is the one and only genre of music that America calls its own, but you don’t hear the thousands of jazz musicians in the US calling on the government for support.  I know that some people will say that the pan is the only instrument invented in the 20th century.  But what does that guarantee? There are a number of organizations in the US that support jazz, and this is done through NGOs all over the US. IAJE (International Association of Jazz Educators) was the premiere organization focusing on education, but this organization recently filed for bankruptcy.  The fundamentals of this organization were that it had worldwide membership, and members paid dues and there were annual conferences all over the US and sometimes in Canada.  Pan Trinbago should research this model to determine if this is an appropriate direction for them. 

Sometime in October or November 2008 when I tuned in to Steelband Times on i95.5 FM, the host of the program had Pan Trinbago;s Education Officer talking about a cooperative initiative that would involve members of all the steelbands in T&T.  This sounded like an excellent idea until the Education Officer mentioned that out of this cooperative a scoring industry would emerge.  

Having studied music-arranging specifically-I have never been privy to a scoring industry, so a statement like that from a musical perspective has absolutely no merit.  Musicians learn to write scores, but it is not part of the pedagogy that yields countless scores to have a scoring industry. This sounds nice, and I think I know what the Education Officer wanted to portray, but she ought not to mislead young people or anybody into believing that a scoring industry is a possible outcome of the cooperative initiative that she was presenting.  

However, writing scores is an area that Pan Trinbago should explore because as far as I know, there is no methodology for writing scores for steelband.  For the World Steelband Competition/Pan Is Beautiful, arrangers are required to provide scores for the adjudicators, and I am confident that there is no uniformity with regard to the role all the pans have on the scores provided.  Moreover, you need people to teach music to the members of the cooperative-first-and then you might have some direction with regard to writing scores for steelbands.  Again, the idea is great because the Education Officer envisions scores being produced for steelbands, but you cyar put de cart before de horse.

The Pan Trinbago (Incorporation) Act 1986 incorporated Pan Trinbago for the purpose of exercising powers “to promote the development of the steelband movement and the steelpan as an indigenous, cultural art-form”.  Many argue that, since being established in 1971, Pan Trinbago has not done much to develop the steelband and the steelpan movement.   Now in its 38th year, it may be time for Pan Trinbago to engage in some serious self-assessment and have an independent organization examine its operation with a view to making it more responsive to the needs of its membership, potential membership and its market, and also better able to exercise the powers granted to it by the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago Act No. 5 of 1986.

By Duff  W. Mitchell

“Nature is mighty. Art is mighty. Artifice is weak.  For nature is the work of a mightier power than man.  Art is the work of man under the guidance and inspiration of a mightier power.  Artifice is the work of mere man in the imbecility of his mimic understanding”.  —Anon

The Scene Is Not Alone

In Port of Spain, Trinidad, beyond the 1930s the community was most intolerant of a young woman not married even getting pregnant.  More often than not, she was banished to Toco,  Matelot, Mamoral,  Biche or some other country district where an extended family member harboured her - thereby taking shame out of the family’s face.  During the Carnival season in Gonzales in 1938, nature took its course.  Young Ellen Aberdeen got pregnant and found herself on the horns of the dilemma:  What do I do in this artificial order of the day?  After protracted consideration, young Ellen, a non-swimmer, decided to reconcile matters by jumping off one of the jetties below South Quay to join the ancestors of the Middle Passage.

The relative calm of the harbour scheme waters suddenly changed.  The splash of a wave drenched young Ellen while a voice declared: “Suppose you ain’t drown, you will make your  family shame!”  Young Ellen succumbed to the power mightier than the artifice of her contrivance and ‘returned to the hills of Gonzales to take her blows’.  She managed with the pregnancy under the saving guardianship of another man Ebenezer Clarke and saved the day for LeRoy seventy years ago on November 7, 1938.

By that time Ellen Aberdeen was Mrs. Ellen Aberdeen-Clarke.  Now, the rest of the family felt comfortable to deal with her.  Two sisters came to visit and proclaimed in the course of jubilation: THIS CHILD IS NOT YOURS … HE IS OURS.  They were of the Orisha faith whereas Ellen followed the Belmont Gospel Hall.  The Gospel Hall was the training ground for children although they were Anglican, Roman Catholic or Methodist.  The Gospel Hall Sunday School, their outings, their Boys Club and their Christmas concerts were drawing cards for all of Belmont until the time came for Confirmation or First Communion and so on at the brink of adolescence.

From the period of his adolescence, LeRoy opted to be present, to take notice and to be truthful to his self commitment wherever his group of friends went. On one occasion the group went to Blue Basin to refresh themselves.  They encountered the lingering remains of a Spiritual Baptist ritual.  Not entirely prankish impulse took possession of the rest of the group.  They destroyed the sanctuary of candles, vases of flowers and the contrived altar while one boy stood aside and did not join the wrecking crew.  An immaculately dressed Baptist woman attracts his attention and disappears upon proclaiming to LeRoy: You’ll be a Leader of men.

In those days, on account of the acute shortage of school places for secondary education, there existed strictly speaking private schools.  One Arthur Murray ran such a school named Osmond High School.  Let us pause to underline the significance of Arthur Murray’s Osmond High School.  Many professionals that is to say - doctors, lawyers, engineers, diplomats, top public servants, teachers, nurses, government officials  - graduated under the erudition of Murray’s Osmond High School.  One of its now deceased educators, J. Hamilton Maurice, became the first President of the Senate. One of its students succeeded him - the late Dr. Wahid Ali. Another student became our Master Artist - LeRoy Clarke.

Let us charge the Ministry of Education with the responsibility to name the next key institution of learning in honour of Arthur Murray’s contribution to the education and life of the people of Trinidad and Tobago.  

Impressions

Mr. Murray, Principal of Osmond High School who frequently relieved his staff at Robert Street by taking all four senior classes for any period that suited him, was seemingly touched by a mightier power when, in the midst of a Geography lesson on Africa demanded: Clarke, when are you going to go to Africa and set my people free?

Always intrigued by the Shango Baptist bell-ringing messengers who graced the hills of Gonzales, LeRoy grew up to launch his well groomed manhood at St Philip’s Anglican School in John John.  John John provided a set of circumstances that marked the defining period of young LeRoy Clarke’s life.  For, he encountered in John John, all the elements of under-privilege that cried out for attention.  Not to mention his acquaintance with the Yoruba icon Andrew Beddoe, whereupon he opted for the Yoruba persuasion.

While he continued to hold down Cabinet positions in Osmond’s Ex-Pupils Association, draw, paint, play with verse and serve Derek Walcott’s Theatre Workshop, LeRoy’s appetite for community work satisfied itself in John-John.  St Philip’s, sitting on rocks, saw a luscious kitchen garden.  An Ex-Pupils’ Association grew to affiliation with the St George West Congress of Youth Clubs.  

In short order, officers of the Community Development Department roped him in for specific training on Nelson Island.  The Tacarigua Orphanage surrendered its Men’s Hostel to the community. Tokyo Steelband found a new home.  It was obvious that a mightier power had possessed LeRoy.  The community response was overwhelming.  Everybody wanted a piece of LeRoy, while, his wife to be, Vera awaited him in New York. It was time to leave.

New York was the ideal place for LeRoy to reflect and focus on his surrealist tendencies in the world of Art.  A nation had appeared not out of the spirit of courtship resulting in the pregnancy of struggle.  

Europe had had enough.  Britain had mounted the stirrups of maternity to push and push and push harder and harder to give birth to nations she had raped in the womb of colonialism.  The trauma of the raped gave Bob Marley his immortal persuasion:  Emancipate yourself from mental slavery.  LeRoy paralleled Marley’s call with Fragments Of  A Spiritual.  Something had to be done to rekindle the flame lit by Eric Williams and fuelled by carnival band leaders, George Bailey, Harold “Sally” Saldenah, Ken Morris and responsive conversations that were going on all over Trinidad and Tobago.

While Discipline, Tolerance and Production were the adopted watchwords of the nation , the motto for nationhood fell short of the mark and could today find reference in our work ethic: ‘Together We Aspire, Together We Achieve’.  A pixilated proverb comes to mind: ‘If aspirations were equine, eleemosynaries would afford themselves transportation’. That is to say: If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.

Not only did our motto fall short of the mark, it became entrenched through one laureate when he sang “In order to achieve, we going to aspire and we bong to be a success.” (Sparrow).

If only we could amend this to read “In order to achieve, aspire then perspire and we bong to be a success.”

LeRoy knew that and determined to work hard to prepare himself and to perspire on the job of reconstruction of which he then dreamt.  In the process he has built up a library of books and music that must be preserved so that the baton he has held since 1972 will be held in turn firmly in the marathon relay of the African struggle for identity and self-fulfillment.  I speak of his library, but you must see it for yourselves.  Moreover, I know of no normal diligence that could produce the volume of work that this artist, possessed with the summoned cosmic energies of mother Africa, has offered.  Engaged in the re-drawing of the folklore characters of Alf Codallo and Fanon’s ‘Wretched of the Earth’, the mightier power invited LeRoy to embellish upon the Douen.  LeRoy took on the challenge and passionately laboured through Douendom and the series of paintings called Douens to launch an exhibition at Howard University. At Howard University at that time was the venerable C.L.R. James in whose literary honour a library stands in the Borough of Hackney in Islington, England.

The Douen itself being a mysterious character, the exhibition was accordingly mysterious.  Such it was that when C.L.R. James visited the exhibition, he made sure to say to LeRoy: “On Modern Art I am an authority.  On any artist worth his salt, from Michelangelo to Picasso, I am an authority.  But, about this I know nothing.  Tell me about it.”

The series Douens had a peculiar attraction to Trinidad and Tobago.  TRINTOC underwrote its coming home to Trinidad and made a grand affair of its showing at Government Training College for teachers on St Vincent Street.  Busloads of school children from all parts of Trinidad and Tobago, the general public and a private viewing by President Ellis Clarke, all added to the introduction of a new languaging in the space.  Whether the messages in the work reached the people, could take second place to the fact that folklore had taken centre stage and was for the first time ushered into the language culture to describe the condition of the African psyche - Douendom. All the cosmic energies that occupied the benevolent undertaking had realized their potential. Obeah!

By that time LeRoy had already established the journey his work was going to take;  for, in 1972, when a group of artists assembled to carry out a post mortem on Fragments Of A Spiritual, he unexpectedly turned up for a confrontation. The confrontation came to a head when, for all and sundry to hear, LeRoy asserted: Artists in Trinidad prefer to dance to the minuet rather than to dance to the Calypso.  Clarke theorized that Calypso, Steelpan, Folklore and Obeah held the keys to the hearts and minds of his people.  He was prepared to employ the familiar as the vehicle to lead the African mind.  Here are a few instances worth noting:

The blood sucking Soucouyant spawned the images of an external social order determined to drain the African of everything upon which his humanity depended - Language, religion, culture and institution in his portrayal ‘Weavers of the Dust’.

The morocoy, that Deacon of the Order of the Species, served as a reminder of an organism never forgetful of  ’from whence he came’ (with the security of moving around with his own house) and stood out as the emblem and symbol of endurance in the portraiture ‘Eye Cosmogonic Morocoy’.

The Pan, having come from the realm of waste if not worthlessness, without language, without form, risen from a dust-bin to the exalting  finesse of a musical instrument, stands firmly in the foundation of the painting Pan Matrix. The Douen of course, rendered ‘obzockey’ with all the distortions engendered by some 500 years of oppression and subjugation of every unimaginable kind and weaved into a social misfit with head and feet in opposite directions neither knowing from whence he came nor where the hell he was going, gave vitality to the whole series called Douens.

Through the woman in John-John, at close range Clarke came to learn the power and will of the woman to defend her man even against the police, felt the rhythm of her language and witnessed her enthusiasm for working at the Arts and Crafts to celebrate Independence. Although her “fancies are bounded by no law” for Clarke the woman is the embodiment of hope; for man is individual and supportive by nature whereas woman is the possibility of the demonstration of creation.  For him she is the obeahing of togetherness - of unity.  She stands erect, well endowed in the forefront of an embrace of the world of African vibrations and energies in the portrayal ‘Will Know How To Embrace My Earth’.  So much for theory.

As for his practice, LeRoy spoke truth to power.  In a televised conversation with Sat Maharaj that was getting out of hand, LeRoy reached out to Sat and with a gentle touch on Sat’s shoulder suggested “I (LeRoy) should be getting on.  Not you.  Because if I left home with five dollars and returned home with one dollar, my four dollars went to you”.  Needless to say, calm returned to the airways.

Sometime before this when the United National Congress in its turn at governing, named its cabinet, LeRoy uttered this monumental observation: I got the feeling this morning that I had awakened in Pakistan!  Truth to power! For we further witnessed the dismantling of the fabric of fair appointments to key Public Service positions by replacements clearly in tune with the biases that characterized the regime’s administration. Another recipient of the key to the city of Port-of-Spain, the poet laureate, Brother Mudada, amid encore upon encore, achieved the distinction vox populi with a four verse satire - a taste of which went as follows:

Dey only looking so
But dey have dey good sense
Dey know what dey doing
Cause when you look at this government
You see folks who intelligent
Look, as dey win dey reshuffle
Look, how quick dey fit in new people
Even though it may hurt so
All dem CEO had to go
……………..
…………….
The first government I know
Whey serving its people so

We are not talking politics here, nor are we taking a look at LeRoy Clarke as a politician.  Rather we are taking a look at the Master Artist whom politics cannot ignore.

Another aspect of his practice was ‘Example is better that precept’.  Once he had reconciled matters with his God and adopted the Yoruba discipline to walk in the ways of his ancestors, LeRoy changed his wardrobe completely.  Never again was LeRoy Clarke to be seen except in authentic African raiment, symbolizing the return to his roots.  The pursuit of all aspects of that discipline led to the recognition in his elevation to Elder and later Chief Ifa’ Oje’ Won’ Yomi’ Abiodun.

The Chief, the Elder, the Poet who paints, LeRoy Clarke like President Max Richards has recognized that the underpinnings of strong statehood - tradition, togetherness and inspiration - are not as sound as they should be.  Moreover, that tradition obstructed by whim, inspiration detoured by fancy and togetherness poisoned by hypocrisy are clearly the complications of social diseases that can lead to failed statehood.  The worst of them being hypocrisy.  David Rudder did not venture below the proverbial surface to contend that in Trinidad & Tobago the Ganges meets the Nile.  It took the promising Sekon Alves to point out in a composition by Larry Harewood.

All this talk about unity
Seems only a fallacy;
For it doesn’t show
When we vote. Oh no!
When the Ganges meet the Nile
In country or town … Tell me
Is there a pretensive smile
Or a genuine frown?
‘Cause the way you talk  bout me
When I’m not around
Could lift this country up
Or bring it right down.

LeRoy Clarke has inspired treatment of this disease at a personal level with timely doses of (and I quote here) “Eye am perhaps the biggest hypocrite in the world… but Eye am working on it.”

As for his regular aesthetics, music must accompany his approach to a canvas.  In accordance with the mood of his undertaking, he would opt for calypso, by Stalin, Brigo, Shorty especially Sparrow and Shadow - Sparrow for his renditions and Shadow for his lyrical and musical adventure, Shorty for his inventiveness, Brigo for his command and Stalin for his commitment.

He finds pan music especially conducive to some aspects of his work especially that of the late Clive Bradley and Boogsie Sharpe.  He finds Boogsie particularly intriguing and often sees the tapestry of his paintings reflected in Boogie’s arrangements.  He considers Boogsie sheer genius.

If theory, practice and aesthetics are components which complement each other and must be developed so that liberation movements of Afro-Caribbean people succeed, the work of LeRoy Clarke amounts to an interesting devotion to take the Horse of African psyche in Trinidad and Tobago, in particular, to the fountain of freedom and self fulfillment - his El Tucuche, via the epic journey from Fragments of a Spiritual through Douendom.

TRINIDAD & TOBAGO

• Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira admitted for the first time that Government was wrong in its estimation of the depth and duration of the current global financial crisis. Addressing the year’s first post-cabinet news briefing, she projected further revenue reduction beyond the $5.3 billion which Prime Minister Patrick Manning had mentioned in announcing a $4.5 billion cut to the 2009 Budget, as a means of weathering the crisis. She said the Government would proceed cautiously in making further adjustments because the impact on  employment levels, economic growth and social stability.

A few days later, in an address to the senate, Prime Minister Patrick Manning announced that the government would issue bonds to raise the money needed to finance an additional $1.7 billion budget deficit resulting from the escalating impact of the global economic crisis. He said bonds would serve the dual purpose of mopping up excess liquidity as an anti-inflationary measure. One day later, Central Bank Governor, Ewart Williams praised the Government’s decision to issue bonds to cushion the revenue shortfall which could reach about $3 billion.  

In its annual report on Trinidad and Tobago, Moody’s Investors Service said T&T’s Baa1 government bond ratings and stable outlook are supported by a vibrant and well-diversified energy sector, a relatively low and declining public debt burden, and a strong macroeconomic policy consensus. In Moody’s view the government’s commitment to undertake a fiscal contraction and avoid tapping into its stabilization fund underscores Trinidad and Tobago’s longstanding tradition of prudent policy management. Trinidad and Tobago’s long history of policy consensus is also a key factor underpinning its solid investment-grade ratings. The international rating agency believes the current downturn will be an important test for the economy’s resilience to shocks. 

Scotiabank’s managing director, Richard Young, reported a decline in commercial and retail loans over the past few months, as high interest rates and steep inflation made customers reassess their need for consumer credit. In presenting the bank’s financial performance during a luncheon at Scotia’s Hospitality Suite at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain, Young said the bank’s loan volumes were about eight to ten per cent lower in the past few months compared to the same period last year. He cited higher car prices and increased interest rates as factors leading to a reduction cut the number of people applying for loans. 

Emerging indications of the impact of the global recession on the region also came from a senior executive of one of the Caribbean’s largest conglomerates. Michael Carballo, Group Financial Director of CL Financial said in an interview in Newsday in early January that while Trinidad and Tobago was not in a recession the signs of a downturn were evident in reduced  spending, restructured budgets and even in reduced feteing. Less than three weeks later, CL Financial withdrew as main sponsors of the Plymouth  Jazz Festival which it had launched four years ago and which is scheduled to take place from April 24th to 26th.  CL Communications CEO Anthony Maharaj, prime mover behind the project told the Trinidad Guardian “CL Financial feels the time is right and the level of interest so well established that the festival presents a plum opportunity for a new sponsor.” The budget for the 2007 Jazz festival exceeded $30 million.

Arcelor Mittal announced its decision to “temporarily” lay off 120 employees at its Point Lisas Industrial Estate plant, due to a global drop in demand for steel. In its public statement, the steel manufacturing giant said all key stakeholders including the Steel Workers Union of T&T (SWUTT) had been notified of the temporary lay-off of workers which was effective immediately. The company said the layoffs which began on January 10th is expected to last three months and that the affected workers would receive an “ex gratia amount equal to 40 percent of basic wage.” The Arcelor Mittal’s plant has been closed since October when the company brought up its maintenance schedule to make use of the initial downtime created by slow demand. Several other Point Lisas companies opted for early maintenance including PCS Nitrogen.  

The National Gas Company of T&T (NGC) estimates that it has been affected by decreased sales “in the order of ten to 15 per cent,” according to Frank Look Kin, company president.  The decrease is due to declining demand for NGC’s natural gas by its customers. These include methanol, ammonia, steel and other plants at the Point Lisas Industrial Estate.

At the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (T&TEC), CEO Ernest Boxill said he expects 2009 to be a difficult year due to a drop in revenue at a time when the commission is involved in a number of capital projects. Boxill disclosed that the cutback in production by a number of Point Lisas plants on the Industrial estate has resulted in decreased demand for electricity. He said this could impact on a lot of T&TEC’s infrastructural development projects, but did not say in what way. 

BG T&T and its partners Petroleum Company of T&T (Petrotrin), ENI and Petro-Canada announced the safe delivery of the first gas from their Poinsettia Field development via their newly installed 20-inch pipeline connecting the Poinsettia field to the Hibiscus platform and on to Atlantic LNG. The Poinsettia field is operated by BG T&T and is located about 40 kilometres off Trinidad’s north coast in the North Coast Marine Area (NCMA). 

Tourism Secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly, Neil Wilson, said the tourism picture in the sister isle is much better than many think and is out-performing other Caribbean destinations . Speaking to the Express, Wilson based his conclusion on the latest tourist arrival figures for selected Caribbean destinations. In October 2008, tourist arrivals in Tobago were down 4.3 per cent; in the US Virgin Islands it was down by 36.9 per cent; St. Marteen by 13.8 per cent; St. Lucia 3.1 per cent; Jamaica 1.9 per cent; the British Virgin Islands 2.6 per cent, Barbados 5 per cent and Antigua and Barbuda down by 10.4 per cent.

Hindu Credit Union’s (HCU) liquidator Dave Rampersad advised depositors that they may have to wait longer than anticipated to receive returns on their deposits since those first in line to be paid, preferential creditors and ex-employees, were yet to receive monies owed to them by the organization. Rampersad told Newsday that he was trying to collect funds from organisations owing money to the credit unions. Although 13 of the credit union’s vehicles were recently sold to the highest bidders he said the organization was still in the process of collecting payments.

JAMAICA

Prime Minister Bruce Golding put his country on economic alert right off the mark in his New Year’s Day address in which he tackled the economic challenges facing Jamaica while saying that his government was implementing policies to stimulate the economy and protect jobs. Declaring that his Government’s primary focus was on positioning the country for the earliest possible recovery, Golding outlined his strategies for protecting the economy. He signalled significant changes to come in Jamaica’s conduct of international finance and business adding that Jamaican organizations would have to respond to these changes. Jamaica entered the New Year in red ink with its budget deficit larger than the projected J$42 billion, despite having chopped J$13 billion in expenditure.

The World Bank approved a US$100-million loan to assist Jamaica in improving fiscal and debt sustainability. The loan will support a broad programme of measures to control overall public sector balances and debt, increase the efficiency of financial management and budget processes, reduce distortions, and enhance the efficiency and fairness of the tax system.  

Fears that Jamaica could have been faced with a crisis in servicing its debt obligations were eased, with the signing of a US$329-million loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Prime Minister Bruce Golding said the administration would be able to pay a €200-million bond due in February. 

National Commercial Bank Jamaica Limited (NCB) gave its personal credit cards customers a payment holiday to give them a payment break during these challenging times. Customers who manage their credit cards responsibly can skip a monthly payment without incurring late payment fees.  

Air Jamaica announced plans to cut its Jamaica-Barbados route by the end of February in a cost-cutting move that would eliminate 600 jobs from the struggling air carrier. Spared was its Barbados to New York route. Effective February 26, Air Jamaica will exit its Atlanta, Los Angeles, Miami and Grand Cayman and Grenada routes. Under its new schedule, Air Jamaica now has 218 weekly flights to 14 destinations between Jamaica and Toronto, New York, Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Curacao, Nassau and Havana. The airline will also offer service between New York and Barbados and New York and Grenada. The government has said it favours privatization of the airline and are seeking to divest it by March 31 of this year. 

Prime Minister Bruce Golding wrote a letter to his ministers urging them to exercise restraint in spending public funds during the current economic downturn. The letter called on them to provide leadership to the officers in their ministries in containing expenditure, downsizing or eliminating programmes and projects that, though desirable, were not immediately essential. He also encouraged his ministers to step forward with ideas for programmes and projects that could help their country weather the economic storm and get back on the road to recovery.

BARBADOS

The Central Bank of Barbados moved to encourage the country’s increasingly cautious consumers to spend in order to stimulate the economy by again reducing interest rates on deposits. Effective February 1st, the Bank dropped rates from four to three percent in response to “economic developments [that] indicate the need for further easing”. The move comes less than three months after another rate decrease.  

CLICO Holdings Barbados Ltd announced plans for a new housing project at an estimated cost of B$60 million. Work is due to start within weeks on Crystal Haven, a condo type project in Clairmonte, St Michael, according to the Nation. The company is also building low-income houses in Todd’s, St George, with a price tag of $150,000 which should be completed in another four to six weeks. 

Barbados awarded exploration licenses to one of the world’s largest oil companies to explore the possibility of drilling for oil offshore. The Government said it granted its first oil and gas offshore licence for two blocks - Carlisle Bay and Bimshire - to the oil, gas and mineral exploration company BHP Billiton, the world’s sixth largest oil firm which also has offices in Trinidad and Tobago. These two blocks are the first of over 20 which Barbados is seeking to explore and drill. If the bidding is successful, the island could earn millions since companies may pay over US$100 000 (BDS$200 000) per block for a production licence.

CUBA

While fellow Caribbean countries experienced declines in tourist arrivals for 2008, Cuba announced that it had broken its historical record, exceeding the figure of 2,319,000 visitors in one year. This, despite the impact of hurricanes which, according to Tourism Minister, Manuel Marrero, had caused a 34.5 per cent decrease in visitors, 10,000 of whom had returned to their respective countries with 109 international flights cancelled and 6,000 rooms closed.

Cuba and Argentina signed 11 bilateral agreements in Havana  in the areas of trade promotion, technology transfer and humanitarian assistance. Another agreement also commits the countries to eliminating reciprocal visa requirements for diplomatic, official and service passports. Memoranda of understanding were also signed in the areas of prevention and mitigation of natural disasters, the peaceful use of nuclear energy, agriculture, fishing, forestry, food industry, biotechnology and rural development. 

VENEZUELA

Venezuela’s US dollar reserves closed 2008 at a record of $42.2 billion after climbing $5.1 billion during the last two days of the year, according to data on the Central Bank of Venezuela’s website. The increase comes as Venezuela prepares to confront a drop in oil revenue this year by covering public expenditure with reserves and off-budget development funds. Venezuela’s 2009 budget calls for expenditure of $78 billion with revenues based on an average price for oil of $60 a barrel. The OPEC-member nation separately holds $39 billion in a National Development Fund, known as Fonden, to cover this year’s spending plans. Of the total, $9.6 billion is available for new projects. The Central Bank also has $828 million in an economic stabilization fund of which $7 billion of “excess” reserves will be transferred to Fonden in the first half of 2009.

Venezuela announced that it is reducing crude shipments to US refineries Chalmette and Sweeney to comply with its OPEC output cut of 189,000 barrels per day, to be borne in part by foreign oil companies.The cut nearly shuttered a joint venture with BP and slashed output from eight other projects that include foreign investment. Sweeney and Chalmette are joint ventures between state oil company, PDVSA and US oil companies Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips which are suing Venezuela for its 2007 takeover of Orinoco belt projects they once ran. 

GUYANA

In Guyana, the Institute of Private Enterprise Development (IPED) reports no significant growth in the small business sector in 2008. “What we found was that some people went out of business and that those who are good at business simply stuck it out. Additionally, we have seen no significant increase in the number of new loans,” IPED Finance Controller Ramesh Persaud told Stabroek Business. Among factors with a negative impact on IPED’s loans portfolio, he said, were inclement  weather and attendant flooding.  ”More than 45 per cent of IPED’s portfolio is within the agricultural sector; more than 40 per cent is in the rice sector and 5 per cent in other crops.”

A poker-faced EARL BEST worries about England tour crowds

Sir Allen Stanford

When Carnival sneezes, cricket in the West Indies, so dependent nowadays on its carnivalesque additives for much of its attraction, is virtually certain to catch a severe cold. And in the wake of substantially reduced crowds at popular Carnival events, even the West Indies Cricket Board now knows for certain that belts are being tightened. Willy-nilly. So perhaps we shall see something different happening with the marketing of the England versus West Indies series, the first Test of which bowls off this week in Jamaica. But there is room for serious doubt. There is little evidence to suggest that those responsible for selling cricket in the region are really in the market for workable, long-term solutions to the problem of dwindling crowds.

Here’s an idea for them. It has been offered a score of times before in many different fora; perhaps this time, it will fall on much more fertile ground. The advice, after all, comes out of the mouth of a true cricket icon. I refer, of course, to Sachin Tendulkar’s recent statements about how to solve the problem of shrinking attendances at Test cricket. For cricket’s handlers here in the region, the problem is made more acute by the parlous state of West Indies cricket, so cruelly exposed in New Zealand, and the even more parlous state of the West Indies Cricket Board’s finances, dealt a serious blow by the strategic withdrawal of Sir Allen Stanford in December. Despite presidential and other protestations about the Board’s financial independence and solidity, who can believe that the WICB is not worried about its continued survival as a viable entity?

What the Indian batting mega-star said was that the increasing popularity of the shorter forms of the game, particularly the Twenty20 version, did not make him lose any sleep over the future of Test cricket. Conceding that even in India where the game enjoys a fanatical following attendance at Test matches was declining, Tendulkar pooh-poohed the notion that the axe hung threateningly above Test cricket.

“Test cricket has its own place,” he reassured reporters in Mumbai last month. “There is no threat to Test cricket from IPL or Twenty20 World Cup or even 50-over matches.” But he did feel that there was something Indian cricketing authorities should do to prevent things from developing into a crisis. 

“Whenever Test cricket is played,” he suggested indirectly to the BCCI, “local school and college students should be allowed free entry on weekends so that ten years down the line these children will become lovers of Test cricket. I remember when I was a 10-year-old, I went to the Wankhede stadium and watched the West Indies in action. I still remember Michael Holding’s bowling in that match.”

Which brings us back to Stanford. One of the major successes of the Stanford experiment was the degree to which he was able to entice people of all ages to the matches. Innovative marketing that took account of West Indian specificity and idiosyncracies ensured that it was not just the traditional crowd that turned up at the Twenty/20 turnstiles. According to Stanford, it mattered not that the format was different; the game was the same. Lovers of Twenty/20 cricket today were, at least potentially, lovers of Test cricket tomorrow. There were those (including Holding) who held that, in fact, Sir Allen’s strategy was designed less to develop durable interest in Test cricket down the road than to provoke exploitable interest in cricket up the road, i.e. in North America. And the Stanford detractors also noted - unfairly in my view - that the huge sums to be earned by those who actually played in the games were driving would-be West Indies players to pay much more attention to the development of Twenty/20 skills at the expense of basic batting skills.

Sachin Tendulkar... solution for bringing the crowds to cricket

Whatever the truth of those claims, I think that even Test cricket will be adversely affected if Stanford decides to stay out of West Indies cricket. It is beyond dispute that large numbers of people of all ages who had never come close to looking at a cricket match discovered the game because of the new tournament. It is no less true that large numbers of young people who had given little thought to cricket as a career began to consider taking up the game seriously once they saw the new earning potential created by Stanford’s annual Twenty/20competition. So WICB President Julian Hunte misses the point when he sees the Stanford decision to “review” his involvement in West Indies as meaning simply a temporary loss of revenue. If he - and, by extension, his Board - fails to see the implications for future interest in cricket, I fear that the already shrinking crowds may soon disappear completely. 

But even if Stanford were still on the scene, one has to wonder who’s going to be watching the contest between Chris Gayle’s West Indians and England. It is not just a matter of increasingly scarce resources and belt-tightening. After New Zealand, people may well be asking themselves what there is to see if you are a West Indian supporter. Having lost only the ODIs - and by the narrowest of margins at that - Gayle’s side might well have come out of the tour “with our heads high.” The tour statistics, however, tell a sorry tale. Only a pair of players, Gayle and the ever reliable Shivnarine Chanderpaul really did themselves proud. And given the high standards he has set for himself, the Guyanese left-hander, one feels, would have been less than satisfied with his showing overall. None of the other batsmen enhanced his reputation although Ramnaresh Sarwan’s unbeaten half-century in the second ODI did remind all of how talented a batsman he still is. The promising youngsters who, it was hoped, would seize the opportunity provided by the tour to seal their place on the team, Xavier Marshall, Shaun Findlay, Kieron Pollard consistently failed to convince and often failed to fire. They would have won themselves no new fans.

The bowlers performed no better than their batting teammates, not at any rate with the ball. Jerome Taylor as usual left little doubt about his quality but injury prevented him from giving of his best throughout the tour. With the exception of Fidel Edwards who produced an impressive performance in Napier, what one remembers about the others is not so much what they did as what they were unable to do. Like so many spinners before him, Nikita Miller made no impression, doing nothing to suggest that he will be back. And both fast bowling newcomers, Kemar Roach and Lionel Baker, confirmed pre-tour suspicions that their selection was premature, seeming not quite up to the demands of the international game. It is, moreover, worth recalling that the Kiwis are ranked below the West Indies in the cellar position, meaning that the challenge of the last two months or so was hardly among the toughest tests that international cricket currently provides.

As for the imminent series, neither the contest nor the English opposition, ranked no higher than fifth in the current Test listings, seems to be particularly compelling for the spectators. The record shows that since Michael Atherton’s 1998 1-3 loss to Courtney Walsh’s side in the Caribbean, the home side has not been able to get the better of these tourists. Despite the aura of unsettledness surrounding the touring side, what with the sacking of the coach and the replacement of Kevin Pietersen by Andrew Strauss at the helm of the team, few will feel that Gayle and company will reverse the recent trend. No one will attach any real significance to the result of the one Twenty20 match on the schedule, carded for March 15 at the Queen’s Park Oval, just before the start of the ODIs. And there is little to suggest that, home conditions notwithstanding, the West Indians can as a team attain levels of consistency that will see them get the better of their visitors in the four-Test, five-ODI series.

So when the First Test bowls off on Wednesday, many eyes will be on the size of the crowd. There has been a lot of talk recently about the number of Jamaicans on the team. Apart from those already mentioned, the squad in New Zealand also included Brendan Nash and Carlton Baugh, making a total of seven. If the spectators stay away from Sabina (Feb. 4-8), they will probably also stay away from the ARG in Antigua a week later (Feb. 13-17). Economic factors are likely to have the least impact in Barbados (Feb. 26-March 2) and Trinidad (March 6-10). But what is certain is that, if only Gayle and Chanderpaul continue to step up and deliver, there will be hundreds of empty seats at all the grounds around the region until the Test matches are out of the way.

Unless, of course, acutely conscious of Carnival’s symptoms, the Board decides to try Tendulkar’s medicine.

By Keith Collister

The Jamaican dollar has been under pressure since the collapse of Lehman Brothers on September 15th of last year against its US counterpart. At the start of 2008, the US dollar was trading at $70.61 and at the end of the year it had reached $80.47, with most of the fall occurring in the last quarter.

Most of this fall occurred in the last quarter of 2008, as the major Wall Street firms, under massive financial stress from their huge losses, called in virtually all of what was almost an estimated US$400 million in margin loans to the island’s financial institutions against Jamaican bonds. Unsurprisingly, this put enormous pressure on both Jamaica’s bond prices while leading to a rapid devaluation as local brokers bought US dollars to meet overseas margin calls.

To alleviate some of these pressures and restore confidence to the market, Jamaica’s central bank established a special $300 million US loan facility to assist local broker dealers to satisfy margin calls or retire such margin arrangements. The best guess is that just under US $200 million of this facility was accessed (predominantly to two major players), which, coupled with Bank of Jamaica intervention in the market, appears to have been the main reason for the sharp fall in reserves. These fell to a still relatively healthy US$1.76 billion at the end of December, compared with US$1.88 billion as of December 2007.

Towards the end of last year, there has been some conversion of Jamaica dollar holdings to US dollar as a precautionary measure by individuals and companies, and some limited anecdotal evidence of capital flight. The major commercial banks were also thought to be buying substantially more US dollars than they were selling in the final quarter of last year. However, it should not be assumed that all or even most of this was speculation, as it should be noted that the banks would not only have needed to repay margin debt, but replace lost overseas credit lines (withdrawn due to the credit crisis), and help their customers who were facing a massive reduction in trade credit over the period.

The contraction in overseas credit to Jamaica is actually the justification for the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) loan of US$300 million which was signed (last) week. This “liquidity support loan” is meant to provide credit to the productive sector, with a five year maturity and a 3 year grace period. According to Central Bank statistics, the commercial banking sector (particularly the non-Canadian banking sector), has actually been net sellers of foreign exchange since the beginning of the year. This presumably reflects their anticipation that they will soon receive ample IADB funds to cover their needs, and a view that the dollar would soon peak, at least on a short-term basis. 

The continuing pressure on the dollar appears to reflect a combination of the absence of the Central Bank from the market for nearly two weeks (they came in on Friday 23) as well as purchases by Government entities, particularly oil, dividend and other capital repayments to head offices, some limited capital flight, and encouragingly, some purchases of international Eurobonds by local investment houses, suggesting that for the most part Jamaica’s local financial system is now relatively stable.

Oppenheimer’s Greg Fisher advises: “We have been seeing more and more local bidders looking for paper across the Jamaica curve. This really began towards the end of 2008 but has dramatically accelerated in the past few weeks. However, the size of the orders… on average… is still far smaller than, let’s say, a year ago. Over the course of the past three months or so, the total percentage of bonds outstanding held locally… has obviously increased as non-Jamaican institutions have been net sellers of most of the emerging market credits as a whole. As the global markets have continued to depreciate, so too has the level of risk the Hedge Funds have been willing to take when it comes to the non-investment grade names.”

In addition to investment flows, real foreign exchange flows from remittances, tourism and bauxite are believed to have recently fallen relative to last year, and it is likely that these have not been fully offset by the decline in the prices of oil and food.

Government officials believe, however, that there will soon be sufficient foreign exchange available in the foreign exchange market to satisfy demand and ease pressures on the local currency.

Senator Don Wehby, minister without portfolio in the Finance Ministry, suggested at Wednesday’s monthly Mayberry Investor Forum that the disbursement of the IADB loan “will actually help to stabilise the foreign exchange market and I would not be surprised if I see a revaluation of the Jamaican dollar”.

He advised that the Government has secured the funds to repay the euro 200 million loan due on February 9, 2009 (which may have been why the Central Bank had stopped selling US in the market) and that the US$600- million of external funding that was needed to finance the budget is now fully secured.

In addition to the IDB loan to the banking sector, and the very recent World Bank loan of US $100 million (at an excellent rate of under three per cent), the government will borrow US$100 million from Bank of Nova of Scotia (this) week, and US$50 million from the Caribbean Development Bank before the end of the fiscal year. Combined with the disbursement of the US$329 million of loans recently signed with the IDB (last year Jamaica signed US$191 million in loans with the IDB of which US$150 million was disbursed), this should alleviate the immediate foreign exchange shortage, allowing the Jamaican dollar to revalue in the course of the next few weeks. We are also fortunate in having much lower financing needs for 2009/10 of approximately US$233 million and US$204 million for 2010/11. Nevertheless, despite likely additional inflows of foreign exchange from multilateral loans, that two year period is likely to be extremely challenging.

—Reproduced from the Jamaica Observer of January 25, 2009

By DAVID CAVE

This year 2009 appears to be one of great expectations and challenges: Obama fever and a global recession.  It is under this air of excitement and trepidation that the Japanese photographer Shizuka Minami launched her exhibition MINAMI + Carnival on 15th January at Soft Box Studios on Alcazar Street, Port of Spain.

 The exhibition comprised of sixty dry-mounted photographs that were taked during the Carnival festivities of 2005, 2007 and 2008.  First impressions were positive.  The variety of the exhibition left no doubt that Minami is a technically proficient photographer. There is the frozen action of BP Renegades of Panorama 2008 contradicted with the empty chairs in the Savannah.  Despite these contrasts of stillness and action, Minami is able to maintain a persistent point of view throughout the dynamism of Carnival.  All of Minami’s photographs are superbly colourful yet devoid of clutter.  In a split second she is able to distil the chaos and cacophony synonymous with Carnival and produce a clean, harmonious image.  This is true minimalism: the paradox of less = more.

The austerity of Minami’s vision is exemplified by the Dimanche Gras photograph of February 18, 2007 where a flag woman stands on the stage with the national flag raised, most likely during the playing of the National Anthem.  She is virtually isolated.  The media, technical staff and judges are far away, beyond the glare of the spotlight.  This is not the image that would appear in a TDC brochure or on the outer pages of the newspapers of Ash Wednesday.  This is the Carnival we may see but certainly do not remember. 

 And this is my greatest concern about the Minami Exhibition.  Our cocktail sipping crowd who are desperately trying to replace wine and jam with wine and cheese seems to be cursed with a spectacular degree of amnesia.  Interrogate anyone who attended this opening about the details of the work on display and chances are that the majority of the attendees would remember only that the photographer was Japanese.  This is indeed sad because the focus of this exhibit should be the artwork, not the artist.

 That being said, it is also depressing to know that these photographs will be buried in oblivion after the exhibition ended on 29th January, only to be accessed by a tiny minority like yours truly who share an interest in Trinidad and Tobago’s art history.  Other impressive collections by photographers like Jeffery Chock and Alex Smailes are a rare sight, even in the bookstore.  I therefore fear that this recent display of Shizuka Minami’s work will suffer a similar fate.

Minami’s photographs are a welcome addition to the gamut of Carnival images.  They offer a fresh perspective, but somehow these pictures do not burn themselves onto our retinas.  They are new but somehow not novel enough to shake us out of our complacency.  Minami also places herself in a precarious position as an artist.  She has to be minimal without appearing to be banal.  The images are pleasant to look at, but very few of the photographs grip you.  The greatest attention-grabber is the price. If you want to purchase one print of these images be prepared to shell out at least TT$900 for a small 7×10.5 print.  A print measuring two feet by three feet costs TT$6,000.  In the art scene these numbers are not celestial, but the photographs are shot in 35mm digital format and are therefore easily reproduced.  There is also no overt guarantee on a limit to the prints, thus making their exclusivity more questionable.

It is somewhat heartening to see photography slowly gaining recognition as a genre in Trinidad and Tobago’s art landscape.  Unfortunately, this Minami exhibition won’t single-handedly push this medium into the mainstream.  There is still more work to be done.

By TT CAN!

The Prime Minister’s Draft Constitution has clearly established HIS agenda, namely, to acquire more personal power as Executive President. But is this the time for citizens to hand over power like a blank cheque ? Does his agenda really address the real concerns of our society? In other words, what’s in it fir us citizens ? We are watching our unique and cherished Trinbago way of life perishing daily before our eyes. Surely, OUR urgent agenda must be to focus on rebuilding our society - peacefully, equitably and sustainably. 

But can we the people find a way to speak clearly and with one voice? Up to now, racial politics organized by self-perpetuating leaders has managed to keep all ‘tribes’ divided, voiceless and impotent, reduced to steupsing in a corner or burning tyres in the road. 

So here’s a plan to change all that. Let all Civil Society Organizations commit themselves to collaborating in restoring sanity and hope to Trinidad and Tobago. The term ‘Civil Society’ includes the private sector, professional organizations, trade and employers associations, banks and credit unions, environmental, spiritual, cultural, sport, youth, women and differently-abled advocacy groups etc. It includes all political parties but excludes all Members of Parliament. 

The process of collaboration is surprisingly simple. Let us come together for ONE DAY under a sea of tents in Woodford Square - not as a rabble but as groups of serious planners drawn from many organizations, with experience and vision covering every aspect of our national concerns. Utilizing TT CAN!’s well-established, credible and non-partisan methodology, separate tables would each be dedicated to a single broad issue and the discussion would be guided only by a Facilitator and Rapporteur (no speeches). The group representatives at each topic table would address their issue under only three headings:

• Where are we now ?

• Where would we like to be?

• What Governance Arrangements, at local and central levels, will be required to help us reach those goals ? 

All views would be recorded, since all citizens’ views are valid. No consensus would be required but TT CAN!’s experience has been that consensus  always emerges since emphasis is placed on attentive listening and mutual respect.  A secretariat would ensure that reports of each topic group are made available on the same day and a comprehensive Report would be compiled shortly after. 

However, articulating THE CITIZENS AGENDA to politicians unaccustomed to listening will be a meaningless exercise unless we citizens also establish an on-going mechanism for monitoring its execution. Now is the time for us to make ‘our representatives’ understand that listening to the people is their most sacred responsibility.

TT CAN! accordingly proposes that each topic table in this Citizens’ Agenda Consultation should conclude its discussions by nominating a representative to serve on a PERMANENT CIVIL SOCIETY COUNCIL. The initial mandate of the Council would be twofold:

• To press for Constitutional change to provide broad representation of Civil Society Organizations in the Senate, appointed and recallable via the Civil Society Council. The objective would be to inject non-partisan expertise into national debates on critical issues like justice and rehabilitation, management of the economy, education, health, the environment, childcare etc. and maintain citizen oversight of Parliament and Government institutions;

• To develop Regional Civil Society Action Groups.  The objective would be to inject civil society priorities, experience and management skills into the planning and cost/effective delivery of government services directly to communities and regions;

• To organize Resumed Sessions as necessary to consider the inter-group implications of the reports as a basis for concerted action.

• To develop a draft constitution and small secretariat structure in support of these mandates and to enable the Council to maintain meaningful liaison with Civil Society Organizations, whether these are individually represented on the Council or not.

Articulating The Citizens Agenda within a framework of genuine, participatory democracy is an urgent responsibility for all civil society organizations that wish to transform Trinidad and Tobago into a peaceful, equitable and sustainable society.

In this regard we welcome the calls from the Congress of the People for building a Grand Consensus based on moving away from the politics of division and the manipulation of power. Similarly, many dedicated NGOs are already hard at work trying to prepare a unified Civil Society presentation to the Summit of the Americas in April. Other important sectors of civil society, notably the financial sector, major professional groups and religious organizations are already playing crucial roles separately. Working together,  we all could create a tsunami of positive change for Trinidad and Tobago.

TT CAN! welcomes your suggestions and material support for planning and implementing a National Consultation to produce The Citizens’ Agenda before April this year.  Please contact us:sheilahsolomon@gmail.com keys@carib-link.net  (William Latchman) or TT CAN!, PO Box #1568, Wrightson Road, PoS

JAMAAL SHABAZZ  explains his decision to join coach Even Pellurud in the face of criticism

The coming of Norwegian World Cup winning Coach Even Pellerud marks the crossing into a new threshold in the history of women’s football in Trinidad & Tobago. Judging from the reaction in certain quarters, it seemed to surprise many that Jamaal Shabazz -this writer- would give up being “The Boss” as technical Director of the Guyana Football Federation to become the assistant Director- and not even for men’s football but the T&T Women’s football programme! What a comedown, they felt.

Some of my friends in the coaching fraternity are angry that I would accept working under “a foreigner”- as they describe Pellerud,   even going so far as to suggest that I am setting a bad example for “ah we boys”. 

“Man Shabby, we should have a coaches’ association and get organized and call the shots in T&T football” is a cry that I’ve been hearing every day. Another common theory is that I have “sold out to Jack Warner” and am now in the “bought over” circle. 

Well, all those issues are the subject of a whole different discussion which I commit to dealing with in another article. For now I prefer to stick to women’s football and what the arrival of Mr. Pellerud means for female sport in this country. 

Women’s football went through an embryo stage where people like Robbie Greenidge, and others too numerous to mention individually, helped to develop the likes of Shirley mae McIntosh, Marlene Riley and Shelly Ann Francis. These pioneers would play exhibition games as curtain raisers to men’s games and even had one or two unofficial tours before they became recognized as a national team. Robbie Greenidge was the first and only coach to take a T&T Women’s team to a second round in CONCACAF level tournament back in 1991 in Haiti when T&T finished third behind USA and Canada. 

The mid to late 90s up until this year marked the survival stage of women’s football. I like to call it the period of the settlers. The players and staff made tremendous sacrifices- all for free. It was all about keeping the game alive since women’s football was then the “outside child” of the Trinidad & Tobago Football Federation. 

People like Marlon Charles, Izler Browne,  Ricarda Nelson, Arnold Murphy and Ronald Brereton were working overtime to keep the women’s game alive at national team level while clubs like Vandykes, Ramsingh’s Central  and Real Dimensions were defying all odds to keep the game’s head above water at club level. 

This survival stage was also punctuated by the appearance of the stately Dr. Iva Gloudon who brought a 5-year strategic plan to women’s football. So from 1999 until now we have been exporting female footballers to the United States on scholarships. At this survival stage, suddenly, poor people’s “girl children” could get an education using their talents in football. Before the emergence of Dr. Gloudon, there was only had Delia de Silva at FIU in Florida.

Dr Gloudon’s strategy was to develop a cadre of females who would be well rounded human beings fully capable of  contributing to the development of both  female sport and society. 

The appointments of Jinelle James as Director of Technical Development in CONCACAF and also Manager of the National U-17 women’s team, Ricarda Nelson as a manager of national teams for the last 8 years and Izler Browne as a national women’s team coach prove that the seed Dr. Gloudon planted has started to grow. 

Yet it is Keith Look Loy who should be credited with persuading football magnate Jack Warner to make the biggest move for the local women’s game yet. The stage is now set for T&T to move from merely surviving and participating to qualifying and being really competitive in international women’s tournaments. 

After the failure of American coaches Randy Waldrup and Butch Lauder to get T&T to qualify for the U17 World Cup despite having more resources than any other staff in the history of women’s football, the duo fell to the normal cliché - to he who much is given much is expected. 

After they were found wanting, football magnate Jack Warner then entrusted Look Loy with the responsibility to form a committee to recommend a high level coach that could shape T&T football into this new era. 

Look Loy went about the task with such meticulous fervour that one might have been forgiven for thinking he was on the Electoral College, choosing the Republic’s next President.

He collected some of the best resumes in the women’s football business and set about having the committee shortlist the best candidates in some order of priority. His standards had no room for friendship, partisanship and all the other ships that go with selecting coaches in this country. The end result is Even Pellerud, a man who could be considered the Leo Beenhakker of women’s football.

Pellerud’s presence as Head of the T&T Women’s Programme is, to me, an indication that the TTFF is really serious about the path forward for the women’s game.

Therefore, while I would have hoped that we would have developed the pool of talent to go local, I have chosen to put aside this position because of my interest which is to see T&T rise in the women’s game as we are rising in the men’s game. In this regard, I happily relinquish all reservations and make myself available for learning from a master like Pellerud as Anton Cornel learned from Leo Beenhakker. God willing, my apprenticeship will come to an end one day and even if I do not get to cross the river, a son or daughter of the soil will. Our time will come.