The 2006 carnival celebrations are turning out to be just another event on the island. The people who have been looking forward with much expectation to make thousands of dollars from the festival will have to go back on the drawing boards.

It has generally been accepted that most of the carnival-related shows that have taken place so far have not attracted the anticipated large crowds like previous years.

It should be noted that most of the shows took place in St. Andrew's, the once prosperous agricultural parish, that is struggling more and more since the passages of Hurricanes Ivan and Emily in the past two years. The rural economy in Grenada is either at a standstill right now or virtually dead.

The people not only in the out parishes but in the capital city of St. George's are facing hardships on a daily basis in terms of making two ends meet in this country. And the deliberate policy decision by the authorities to use the carnival celebrations as a forerunner for the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup is not helping the poorer folks in Grenada.

The government needs to take a fresh look this policy of no vending in close proximity to major events. The small man in the country has been cut-off from trying to make a dollar to help out his family.

Traditionally, we can expect all kinds of people selling a little something outside Seamoon or Queen's Park at this time of the year in order to look for money to buy schoolbooks and uniforms for the new school year. The closing of this window of opportunity will only hurt the economy.

It is generally accepted that when the small man has money he spends it and the shopkeeper at the village level will see a fairly reasonable turn around in the goods on their shelves.

The long and short of it is that the importers will bring in more goods and in greater frequency at our legal ports of entry and the Treasury would get its fair share of taxes. If the small man is shut out from making a dollar then he would be forced to look at alternative means including illegal action like smuggling in order to survive the harsh economic and financial realities.

Another Carnival-related issue that is of paramount importance to us is the failure of a new crop of artiste to make any significant breakthrough in the artform and leaving the playing field to only a few of the seasoned veterans.

Too many of our older calypsonians are becoming nothing but have-been due to lack of foresight on their part. It is quite obvious that some of the previous leading artiste do not have nothing much to offer in terms of material for the calypso king competition and prefer to hedge their bets in the soca monarch arena.

For sometime now, the picture has been emerging that only a few of the top calypsonians like Black Wizard, Ajamu and Scholar are capable and able to write and compose their own material in order to impose their will on Dimanche Gras night.
The others who have seemingly fallen by the way side need help and are not man enough to approach some of the better writers in the country to produce songs for them.

The likes of Sparrow, Denise Plumber, Baron, Sugar Aloes and a host of other top calypsonians in Trinidad and Tobago depend on calypso writers in TNT to keep them turning out hits year after year.

The time is definitely long overdue for the Ministry of Culture via the Grenada Carnival Committee to sit down with the two calypso associations on the island and discuss the issue of putting in place a batch of paid calypso writers for our artiste in a very frank and open manner.

The likes of Persuader, Ajamu, Black Wizard, Flyin Turkey, Neil Ferguson, and Teacher Eddie could be looked at for starters.

This newspaper is convinced that the likes of Inspector, Squzzzie, Mr.X and Randy Isaac could walk away on any given night from the Dimanche Gras with the title once they have the right material in hand.

Every year, it boils down to two or three calypsonians being in contention for the coveted monarch crown. It is no exception this year with the clear favourites being Black Wizard and the defending king, Scholar with Bolotti, Ajamu and Sour Serpent being considered as dark horses in the race.

We need to take the artform to a new and higher level and to the point where it can begin to rival that of our neighbours, both Trinidad and Tobago and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.