On Friday, Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Neville Wisdom met with members of the media to discuss the management of the 2004/2005 Junkanoo parade.
The minister must realise that for the continued support of Junkanoo by the public, future parades must be better planned and managed. There are several reasons for this. First, with the 2002/2003 parades, there was the major controversy over the rental of bleachers from Canada; second, there was the concern of some Bay Street merchants that Junkanoo bleachers would block store entrances, further limit parking, congest the downtown area, and therefore have a negative impact on sales.
Then with the 2003/2004 parades, there was a blow-up over the winner of the New Year’s Day Parade, which only fed up the public as it realised that Junkanoo was losing its funï¾–competitive nature. It also raised concerns over who would be willing to judge the parades after the way the judges were treated this time around.
This will be the third year of Junkanoo parades under Minister Wisdom, and although he cannot be faulted for the actions of the Junkanoo groups this past year, as the festival comes under his portfolio, he is the one who has to bear the brunt of the criticism when things go wrong with the parade.
Now, he has announced that strides have been made to turn over the reigns of the leadership of Junkanoo to the recently formed Junkanoo Corporation of The Bahamas (JCB). The JCB will take over the control of the parades from the government.
Only time will tell what good this change over can do to repair the damage done, but after the controversies in the past, the new JCB should be given a chance to prove what it can do to improve one of our national events.
The public will be watching and evaluating if it has made any progress for future parades.
Editorial, The Nassau Guardian
