Dear Editor,
A few things. Firstly, the calypso ban. What has been sad is that theprevailing attitude to this has been, as Dave Martins summed up in his otherwise excellent article:
“The ban, however misconceived, is a done deal. The damage has been caused.
The hope now is in the attitude of persons like Minister Anthony who are seeing in that scenario opportunities that could ultimately benefit the calypso art form in Guyana.”
That is completely and utterly wrong. In so much as the songs still exist, in so much as NCN still exists, and in so much as the songs are not being played on NCN, the ban remains and the damage continues, whether or not the notice specifically banning them has been taken down. The problem we have here is that the inane and rabid stance of the PPP with regard to freedom of expression has gone so far right, that we accept as trite a statement from the Minister of Culture that out of every challenge there are opportunities.
This “challenge” to freedom of expression is one which emanates specifically out of Freedom House (in which Minister Anthony is a high official) and which Freedom House with its tentacles embedded deep into the state media can revoke at any time it so wishes. The opportunity that the Minister remains deliberately and characteristically vague about would have been to play the calypsos on NCN – end of story. They have not been played, they are still banned and the PPP, even as they celebrate the legacy of Cheddi Jagan, continue to perpetuate the sort of mindless repression of the human spirit that he fought against.
Secondly, let me return to the issue of the Caribbean Press, which seems to have died down without even the promise of resolution, or ‘opportunity’, coming out of the Ministry of Culture. The publishing of the book written by the Minister’s daughter is a done deal, and unlike the ban on calypso, cannot be revoked: moving forward, my suggestions are basic – establish a functional board; establish clear guidelines for submission by authors, resident and overseas; and establish a clear programme of activities for the upcoming year, a programme in which the publication of local authors is the central plank.
Finally, there has been one thing that has been done right in regard to culture in recent times – the Guyana Prize for Literature Committee has ensured that several workshops have been held under the aegis of the Prize. The first, although it may not be considered a workshop proper, was held by Pauline Melville late last year. I conducted two concurrent workshops on Fiction and Poetry in January, and Jan Shinebourne conducted another two on the same topics last month.
The model of drawing upon the resources of past winners is an excellent one and should be refined and expanded upon, and I signal my commitment to contributing to that process. I’d like to extend my gratitude to Mr. Al Creighton for shepherding this initiative, and to Ms. Debra Lowe for more than effectively managing it, and for affording me the privilege to contribute. The final workshop, on drama, is scheduled to be held at 5 pm on Tuesday, 5 March, at the National Library Conference Room and I advise anyone interested to attend and take advantage of the opportunity. The deadline for submissions of manuscripts/work by local writers is March 15th.
Yours faithfully,
Ruel Johnson
