THE EDITOR: I have become increasingly despondent with the complete absence of an entrepreneurial spirit on the part of all Carnival stakeholders.

I fully expected that after previous cancellations stakeholders - masqueraders, calypsonians, promoters, bandleaders, etc - would have met firstly with their own associations then collectively to provide a way forward for Carnival 2022. Instead, like a bunch of spoiled children, they appear to have folded their arms and awaited a pronouncement from the Government.

This is immature. An entrepreneur would first determine the associated risks, make a determination of the potential return on his investment for a given course of activity. Accordingly, the stakeholders ought to have put proposals for holding the celebrations based on available information rather than placing the burden of responsibility on the Government to tell them what is in their best interests.

Following their submissions, discussions with those in the Government could then take place and a way forward agreed on. This would have removed the uncertainty around an issue that is of national importance.

Respectfully, this principle extends to all sections of our community, ie, businesses as well as public sector activities. Our teaching community in particular (at all levels), services sector and all uniformed service providers have failed miserably in this regard.

One would have thought that unions especially would have seen that it is totally inappropriate to adopt an adversarial approach to a problem that affects us all collectively. It behoves us to balance national interests against that of individual or petty insular short-term benefit.

SAMUEL B HOWARD

via e-mail