An article written by one of the contributors to a special Carifesta issue of the Guyana Review – which will be published a few days before the start of the event – makes the point that Guyana’s prevailing social, economic and political difficulties ought not to preclude us from being good hosts to what the celebrated Barbadian novelist George Lamming described recently as “one of the most profoundly political events this region continues to celebrate.” Lamming was, of course, placing Carifesta alongside the various other abortive attempts at unifying the Caribbean undertaken for more than half a century. Carifesta at least, alongside cricket, serves as an important if periodic reminder of the dream of Caribbean integration.
These are hard times for Guyana as they are for the rest of the region and we are constantly reminded – except, of course, for one particular exception in Caricom – that we cannot control the price of oil nor, for that matter, do we have control over the quotas that are imposed on our exports to metropolitan countries.
And yet we have every right – and every reason – to continue to believe that an event like Carifesta can help to fashion the economic integration that we have talked about for so many decades and which, it appears, is even now, being contemplated with renewed interest by sheer force of circumstances.
Those circumstances are, of course, the consequence of rising global food prices which have spawned emergency measures in the region to pursue a collective revival of Caribbean agriculture.
One of the things that Carifesta X can and should do is to remind the entire region of our collective economic potential. Those who come here from across the Caribbean will, we hope, get an opportunity to come to a more refined understanding of Guyana’s economic potential, in areas like agriculture, agro-processing, mining, and jewellery production – and hopefully, those experiences will not only create a greater appreciation of the value of intra-regional trade but will also generate ideas that will lead to an acceleration of intra-regional investment including investment in the growth and preservation of the region’s culture.
In this regard what comes readily to mind is the paucity of opportunity for publishing the region’s creative works right here in the Caribbean, a weakness that coincides with a surfeit of literary talent that continues to be concealed by circumstances. It would do the region a power of good, for example if, arising out of Carifesta X, we could see a commitment by the region’s business community to the creation of one or more publishing houses that could begin to bring to the attention of the Caribbean people a measure of their literary talents.
There is more that Carifesta can do. The careful international promotion of this grand multi-cultural meeting in a single space through a carefully prepared and skilfully presented programme can provide a distinctive marketing opportunity for the region that can significantly boost its tourism potential, In this regard, it is significant that the participants in Carifesta X include extra-regional contingents as well as Caribbean people from the diaspora who can play an important role in marketing our region in the places where they reside.
Viewed against this backdrop, the hosting of Carifesta X by Guyana, the prevailing difficult circumstances notwithstanding, should be seen as an investment in the social, economic and cultural advancement of both Guyana and the rest of the region and even if the difficulties will be there for all to see, we are inclined to believe that if the organizers focus fixedly on the spirit of the Festival and what it seeks to accomplish the ‘warts and pimples’ of our prevailing difficulties will be overlooked.
