gimme culture

Press release

“The arts are a fundamental part of a confident and cultured society. They challenge and inspire us. They bring beauty, excitement and enjoyment into our lives. They help us express our identity as individuals, as members of communities, and as a nation.”

—Scottish Arts Council, Action Plan 2004-2009

Caribbean Contemporary Arts (CCA) is now obliged to face the stark reality that has been haunting us for the past years, and we have taken decisive action. As a collective, we have worked to the best of our ability towards developing both a sense of philanthropy and policies to increase the value placed on culture and identity.

Despite increased international funding for our core endeavours, we continue to lack operational funding or much in the way of communal national support. We can no longer afford to keep the organisation running, and therefore we feel that we have no option but to close down our current location on the Fernandes Industrial Estate, and to cease the running of all programmes, effective August 31st 2007.

We will continue, however, as an NGO under the name CCA, but strictly as an information base and to provide continuity for our archive, and also to maintain the possibility of future endeavors.

As from September the 17th CCA will be based at:

233 Belmont Circular Road, Belmont
Port of Spain, Trinidad, West Indies
P: +1 868 625 1889
F: +1 868 621 3837

Our e-mail contacts will remain as: mail@cca7.org and jleeloy@cca7.org

Our emotions are mixed: we are deeply saddened by the realisation that, even with financial support from our foreign partners, we continue to live in a country that lacks governmental and private sector support for culture and the arts. Since our inception ten years ago, we have attempted to tackle the formidable task of increasing awareness of and appreciation for visual art in our country, and the larger Caribbean region.

We have provided crucial training to arts and culture administrators, who now work in the field locally, regionally, and internationally. CCA has worked to create opportunities for local artists abroad, including exhibitions and workshop participation. As a result of our efforts, Trinidad is now considered a major centre for contemporary art in the Anglophone Caribbean.

We have put on over 70 exhibitions and have hosted Kairi, the Trinidad & Tobago International Film Festival. We have had 84 artists in residence, and 6 regional workshops with 118 local, regional, and international participants.

CCA’s plight is not unique to our organisation, but seems to be the on-going difficulty of all NGOs working in the field of Trinidad and Tobago. We can but hope that one day organisations such as ours will be able to reap from the same ground they tirelessly and optimistically continue to fertilise.

This is also a time of acknowledgement and appreciation. We are proud of our achievements, and hope that much has been learned from all the opportunities and experiences we have shared since 1997. We are confident that the spirit of CCA7 will live on through the work of the artists we have supported.We would like to extend our warm appreciation to all of our friends, affiliates, sponsors, and staff who have supported us over the years. Without your kindness and dedication, we could not have made it at all.”

“This is set to be a record year for nesting leatherback turtles on the coast of northern and eastern Trinidad with as many as 7,000 females expected to come ashore.

On just one beach, Grande Riviere, conservationists counted 388 nesting on one night earlier this month and now expect this to surpass the previously unthinkable total of 500 laying females.

“This is an amazing year. The biggest nesting season on record. The turtles are big and robust and we are thrilled to see so many on the beaches,” said Scott Eckert, a conservation biologist.”

more

my pal nikolai has some awesome photos on his photo blog

Sign at Paria Bay, north coast, Trinidad

Paria Bay, north coast, Trinidad

Sunderland and their three trinis gonna be playin in the premeirship next season

good article on manager Roy Keane here

THE EDITOR:

It is quite appropriate that the Government has decided to pave the nation’s roads to the tune of $600 million in this election year, given that the roads of T&T perhaps best represent the manner in which we govern ourselves. If we initially ignore the coincidence that this age old ‘mamaguy’ election practice follows the announcement of public consultations regarding the scourge of crime in this 2007 electoral year, the resurfacing of the roads is great news. The roads of T&T need urgent attention. The transport of the nation needs urgent attention. But, will the approach of this resurfacing differ to any of the previous paving regimes that were blatant vote garnering ploys?

How do the roads represent the governance and the society? Firstly, consider the resources available, a never ending pitch lake much like the natural and human resources T&T is blessed with, the envy of many a nation but yet it cannot be managed properly to produce a desirable end product— in this case a semi-perfect road. Secondly, consider that while the normal (and logical) practice is to remove the old layer of asphalt first, we take the approach that we just heap the new pitch upon the old. Not only is this a great metaphor of adding layers on top of the old problems but the side effects results in much more than a road with a humped profile that leaves the actual road higher than the pavement. Consider the flooding woes caused by this practice of which no self respecting engineer would be proud, or how this affects the drivers/cyclists that use those outer sloping lanes. This tradition further creates problems where previously none existed and the attempt to rectify it reeks of the attitude that brings no positive outcome for the vital aspects of society. An example of this? A simple ‘man-hole’ cover is turned into a perfect pothole by layers of asphalt and the answer is to paint a white circle around it in the hope that the driving public will avoid it. The symbolism of this procedure can be used across many segments of our society where the bare minimum is done to address self-created problems and the hope is that it can somehow be evaded.

Even the labour process of resurfacing offers representation of archaic practices that require a novel approach. In a nation 10 degrees from the equator and with a massive traffic problem, resurfacing is carried out during the working hours of the day? Minimise the disruption caused to already frustrated commuters by carrying out the work at night and also gain greater productivity from workers plying their trade of working with hot materials in cooler conditions. This some would say, is 2020 thinking. I will not go into the question of less work being carried out at night by workers, which is down to the deadlines set by the Ministry when planning such projects. (We do set deadlines, no?)

Finally, though the similes can go on and on, the resurfacing over age old roads signify the need to use public funds to gloss over the inadequacy that lies underneath. New roads are a much needed requirement, but it has to be done properly. Engineers point to the heat of T&T and the type of pitch that we use as a disadvantage to building perfect roads, but if sprawling, flawless highways can be built amongst deserts of the Middle East why can the art not be perfected for our roads?

Given his eagerness to respond to letters in the press (a practice to be partially commended as it at least displays his willingness to read the public’s view), Mr. Imbert will not be thrilled with the comments above nor the government with the metaphorical exercise, but it would be refreshing to know that an innovative approach was taken with this $600 million. Is that old bane of many, the old road going to be removed prior to resurfacing? It is so simple in helping perfect the roads that it baffles one as to why it is not done. Have other institutions such as WASA been consulted in this latest wave of road works to ensure that they do not dig up the new roads shortly after they are built, when in fact they can use the opportunity to carry out their own works with the minimum of disruption to the public? A sort of killing-two-birds-with-one-stone tactic (apologies to the bird lovers). Has there been any consideration to conducting the work at off-peak times? Where roads are being resurfaced in flood prone areas, is the road works going to include attention to the surrounding environs that cause the flooding?

Just a few questions to consider ensuring that this valid and much needed resurfacing represents forward thinking in keeping with the Vision 2020 concept and that it is not an archaic election gimmick that is being thrust upon voters as an insult to their intelligence. After all, we would not want the roads of our nation to continue to exist as a metaphor for the country through a $600 million trick, would we?

Sheldon Waithe

I never knew Lloyd Best in the flesh, only ever had the pleasure of his ideas, which in themselves were gift enough. In the ‘Western intellectual canon’ its easy to pick out personal heroes, growing up in London, being schooled there and sharing the ideas of a tradition well and truly engrained in the British academy i never learnt about people such as Best and George John, people outside of this ‘Western canon,’ but people who forged there own equally great line of thought. It was later in my adult life while living in Trinidad when i noted all those Caribbean people i admired, my friends, collegues, family – all adored Best, all spoke with such passion about his ideas, his influence, about his vision of the Caribbean and Trinidad. A vision not just for today or the recent past but also about the possible futures, both good and bad to come. My mother and my aunt were liming partners of Best and can tell a story or three about the intellectual battles they had. My editors and creative influences worked and learned alongside him. i knew i wanted to interview him, or rather just have a conversation for my PhD topic, and i always knew the time was running out. Just this Christmas and the summer before it too i regretfully failed to make the time. In my dissertation work i try to speak using many voices, dialogism as it is called, and one strong booming voice in that plentude of voices - a voice that tells me about creating new political entities in Trinidad, about how to develop the cultural gift of pan, about the economic future, about Trinidad and its people and about so much more, is Lloyd Best. A man whose ideas give me and my work a Caribbean life and space to built from, but who in life i never had the pleasure to meet. Ideas though can live forever, and i guess that means the power of the person can too.

George Lamming on Best

“With the passing of Lloyd Best an irreplaceable light has been put out. Lloyd and I shared a friendship which survived the sharpest of disagreements, but each disagreement deepened my respect for his integrity.

For more than 40 years he put his formidable intellect in the service of one singular cause - independent thought and Caribbean freedom. there was no corner of this archipelago which escaped his political concern, and his politics was the name of an intellectual culture. Best fought to the very end to help us dismantle the imperial boundaries we inherited. We failed because we do not recognise the difference between politics and government; and dare not see our mimicking of a Westminster model as the greatest obstacle to genuine representation.

To find a language of our own creation that would define the Caribbean collective experience was the gospel he preached.”

trinidad express piece