Did anyone really pay attention to what the Prime Minister said recently when he announced a committee to plan for us to start having a festival that would be a knock-off copy of Carnival; the annual festival held by some of our Caribbean neighbors?
Junkanoo is our festival.
It is The Bahamas’ cultural festival. It is our marquee annual event and draws thousands of tourists and Bahamians alike each year. People come to us for Junkanoo. They go to places like Trinidad, etc for Carnival. Why would people suddenly flock to The Bahamas for a festival that’s not even native to us, but is instead native to other countries?
Why are we not focusing on expanding the Junkanoo brand? Suddenly the magnificent craft and expression of who we are as Bahamians – Junkanoo, Goombay and Rake & Scrape – are not good enough for The Bahamas anymore?
Now the Prime Minister tells the country that if we do the same festival that’s being done elsewhere in the Caribbean, it can potentially grow the economy more than Junkanoo does. Oh really? He even went so far as to ridiculously cite what he claimed was a local businessman’s suggestion that a knock-off Carnival festival here could grow the economy by over 2%.
Now to put that in context, the entire nation’s economy of all its industries combined in good times grows anywhere between around let’s say 1.0-2.5% each year. But the Prime Minister wants us to believe that he believes a single copy-cat parade could grow the national economy more than the entire nation’s economy of industries grows the nation’s economy.
Talkin’ fool is more than just a very serious ting these days, it has become a very sickening ting.
Sharon Turner
www.thereal242.com
