EDITORIAL

Carnival in the Spice Isle is dieing rather slowly. The thousands of people who visit the island for the event with great anticipation of witnessing a spectacle are being short-changed.
The powers-that-be will have to do some immediate surgery in order to put back life into an activity that has served us very well over the years and runs the risk of suffocating.

GRENADA TODAY is calling for a concerted effort to be made to attract to the Grenada Carnival Committee (GCC) the people who know more than a thing or two about carnival in order to give some life to the organisation.

We need to pump thousands of dollars to help develop and promote our traditional mas. It should not only be the winners of the soca monarch and calypso king competitions that are allowed to walk away each year with so much thousands of dollars.

Some more emphasis and attention should be placed on our traditional mas in order to promote a total Spice Carnival package for visitors and locals alike. Our failure to rescue the carnival would see this showpiece of an event that can raise millions of dollars degenerate into a massive street jam and "jump-up and wave" in years to come.

An immediate look back at this year's event can conclude that there were far many failures than successes. The soca monarch semi-finals in Victoria Park, Grenville was a total disaster for GCC as patrons were left disappointed by the absence of the Royal Grenada Police Force (RGPF) musical band and having to listen to calypsonians singing to their CD's.

As for the Melody/Pappitette Calypso semi-finals, it was a case of the already bad getting worst as the Victoria Park quickly became a swamp after a few showers of "blessings". What a disaster. The toilet facilities there are in a deplorable condition and the trademark being a set of busted water pipes. It was a rather unfortunate situation of too many patrons having to deal with ankle high water at Victoria Park.

To add insult to injury, the patrons were being held captive since no one could venture back outside of the venue to look for better toilet facilities in light of the announcement from the organisers to hold the event in keeping with World Cup standards.

A glimmer of hope for GCC was once again the Soca Monarch Finals at Tanteen which was very well attended. This is clearly a good sign for the artform and one that should give us even more reason to protect this valuable tourism product that is called carnival.

Despite, the huge turn-out of patrons, the show turned out to be another disaster organisation-wise as patrons with valid tickets in their hands were forced to wait much too long outside the gate due to what appears to be a breakdown in World Cup security arrangements.

Too many untrained kids with seemingly political connections were allowed to handle the growing crowd at the gate to facilitate their entry into the venue. And what was rather insulting is that the well-trained members of the Police Force were reduced to mere spectators as the situation deteriorated from bad to worst.

The unprepared youngsters were left to battle with so many impatient patrons who were forced to wait far too long with valid tickets in hand to get a chance to see their favorite artist perform. This condition only helped to worsen the situation and soon thereafter people started to force their way through the gate and into Tanteen to get their money's worth.

Once people got inside Tanteen, it was another nightmare as the situation got even worst - getting refreshments were just as difficult as coming into the venue. In addition, the two portable toilets that were seen on the ground were just not sufficient to accommodate the thousands of patrons.

It was so degrading and humiliating to see women having to stoop down in the swamp in Tanteen to urinate. It was a very interesting encounter to see a former ambassador of the current NNP government and an ex-government minister of the regime standing up alongside each other by the fence urinating in public due to the so-called World Cup security arrangements that were in place.

Not only these two former government officials had to endure this but also thousands of patrons who had no choice but to submit themselves to these demeaning and harsh conditions as long as they wanted to be a part of the show. This newspaper cannot help but lament that there are far too many short- sighted and visionless people running this country.

Our Carnival is not an unexpected event like Hurricanes Ivan and Emily. Every Tom, Dick and Harry know that carnival is held every August and the country has a full year to prepare for the event. So who had the plan for this year under lock and key? Spice Mas is a major cultural event that brings in millions of dollars into Grenada and the economy?

Are we really killing a bird in hand that is our annual Carnival in order to prepare for a few days of World Cup Cricket that could turn out to be a financial disaster for the country?

We are not saying that the ICC 2007 Cricket World Cup is not important but let us not sacrifice carnival and other major national events for cricket.

Our carnival will be here long after Keith Mitchell and NNP depart, as well as the likes of Tillman Thomas and his National Democratic Congress (NDC), and the other smaller opposition outfits like GULP and PLM.

We have to lay the solid foundation now .... not tomorrow.