I looked at the EXECUTIVE SUMMARY of CAG on its Website and started seeing some potholes. Then there is mention of when Canada abolished slavery, as if that was the reason for Caribana’s entry into lives of Caribbean people, who were residents of Toronto in 67. CAG has lost the vision of what CARIBANA is all about. During this year Carnival festival, CTV claimed the festival started in 67 because of the abolishment of slavery in Canada. These false claims have us believing “we have lost that loving feeling” for our festival and are taking the festival way out of its route and into a gully.
I believe CAG must go back to the original name CCC (Caribbean Cultural Committee), because there is nothing I have seen so far, on its website that relates to Carnival Culture.
Caribana was not started as an ART group, and I see nothing that links Caribana to ART.
Art may play a part in designing costumes, but that's not what started people playing MAS in the late 1800 hundreds in T&T, Grenada and SVG. The Govenor's in these islands tried to clamp down on the celebration but failed because the black people rebelled against the attempt to stop them.
Several other Caribbean islands only started Carnival festivities after they saw the money that the event generated from tourism. The islands of Jamaica and Barbados took more than one hundred years to include carnival on the islands, so neither can claim carnival as part of their culture because the festival did not start on these islands because of the abolishment of slavery.
The various levels of government will always control FMC because FMC has no plans to look at the events that once had the festival earning its own funds.
I know from day one the government blocked the organization from having functions and events to make money. Their first refusal was a raffle that the 67 organization was looking at. Then the boat rides became city control after many years.
I recently saw where they are now trying to get more boats to take people to the islands. I can remember when CCC had to cancel the Center Island event because people had to wait hours to get there.
CAG does not have a plan to retake the festival or start one on its own. The reason: it does not have the backing of the Caribbean community and doesn’t know what attracts them.
Even though FMC controls the ingredients that cover the festival (the King and Queen, and the parade) it still lacks the knowledge and resources to run previous CCC events. The very successful Kiddies parade does not raise enough funds for the organization.
The only idea that has some merit is that which wants FMC to use the name Caribana. This can and will keep the name alive and reintroduce the "Miss Caribana Pageant", if FMC works with CAG.
Today other ethnic groups use July to stage their events, pushing Caribana off the stage. Soon the name Caribana will disappear, unless and until the week before the parade is reclaimed, and Caribbean events introduced: Pan food and soca are the ingredients for this come-back plan.
Many of the people on CAG board lack the skills and knowledge to take or bring back the festival to the Caribbean community. The name CARIBANA is slowly sinking in the mud and will soon disappear. Soon the name will disappear from the vocabulary of young people.
There is still an opportunity for CAG if it tries to reintroduce the “Miss Caribana Pageant”, by working with FMC. Then it can look at staging a show “The Night of the Stars” on the Friday Night before the festival. They can bring in Soca artists with very popular songs from several islands to perform. There can be a youth tenor pans competition where the youths' players use DJ background music to get the congregation dancing and singing along. This would take care of the steel pan section of the festival. I am sure this event will attract more than 30,000 people. Tickets sold at $50 or $60 can bring in more than $1million ($1,500,000)
The board should also have members looking at different plans to revive and rebuild the organization using CCC. The word “ART” took the festival out of the Caribbean people's vision. Caribana was and is part of the Caribbean people’s culture.
Finally: why are Indians controlling the security for the festival? How can FMC or some folks complain that the government doesn’t support black Caribbean businesses and entrepreneurs. Indians have taken over many businesses in Canada. You go into the banks, Canadian Tyre, Bell, Rogers, KFC and they are all controlled by Indians. Even the condo where I live is controlled and manage by Indians. They don’t allow any other nationalities in the puppy hole.
They were after CCC for many years when we had the T-shirt design competition. One guy would come from Montreal to see who won the competition then flood the street and shops with our T-shirt design product.
If we leave the door open, they will come in like they did in T&T, where the police rounded up black people from other islands and shipped them out. Meanwhile the Indians brought their people to the island and soon they outnumbered the black population that was there before “Indian Arrival Day”.
Please correct me if any of my observations are incorrect. I do make mistakes, but I am never wrong. I am putting this info on my BLOG where you can reply to it, or you can check me out on Facebook.
