THE EDITOR: In 2011 I gave a then adviser to the minister of culture a detailed plan for pan. It never saw the light of day. Today we now lament the failure of the pan's presence after Panorama. This plan was designed to keep pan alive throughout the year, provide employment throughout the year for pan tuners, arrangers players and all aspects of the pan industry and the tourist industry and its spin-off jobs of taxi, food, etc (economists do your diligence on this). I provide this brief summary of the plan.
Title of the competition: Champion Steelband of TT.
1. Prize money has to be awarded for 1st place, $1 million; 2nd, $750,000; 3rd, $500,000; 4th, $300,000; and 5th, $150,000, for a total of $2.7 million. A small investment in our culture and a better bang for the buck in comparison to what is spent on Carnival for the last 15 years ($1.5 billion without any account) and little return.
2. The champion steelband of TT must demonstrate its versatility and pedigree by performing in four competitions staged throughout the year with 25 points per competition. The bands must play in all competitions to qualify for the prize money. The four competitions are: Pan is Beautiful, Pan Chutney, Panorama and Pan on Carnival Day, either Monday or Tuesday.
3. The bands would know their three scores before and the Carnival day will be the last competition.
4. The results will be announced by midnight of Carnival Tuesday and the cheques presented on Ash Wednesday.
Saddled with this is Tourism Trinidad which can now market pan throughout the year. Pan Trinbago and Tourism Trinidad could get together and work out the calendar/logistics utilising the winter months as a guide.
This plan is hereby submitted for the benefit of our culture. We have lost our way. This will bring us back on the road (no pun intended). I remain available for further and more details/dialogue. This is not not hard to do. Call me.
VAL RAMSINGH
political leader
The National Party
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