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The country of “Tobago” was represented at the recent 11th Caribbean Festival of Arts (Carifesta) in Suriname, leading to confusion among Carifesta officials and the official T&T contingent, the Sunday Guardian has found out. The Sunday Guardian was told the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) sent its own contingent to Carifesta, which was held between August 16 and 25, and an announcement was made onstage that the group was from “the country of Tobago.”
Minister of the Arts and Multiculturalism Dr Lincoln Douglas, who was part of the official T&T contingent, confirmed reports. Saying it was a very “sad” thing, Douglas said, “A contingent did represent Tobago and it was not the first time something like that happened.” Douglas said it was a habit of the THA to send separate contingents to events. Saying the situation created some discrepancies, he said, “Both the Carifesta people and the official contingent were confused.”
He said his ministry frequently received complaints that Tobago was not well-represented in official T&T contingents to cultural events. However, he said, at this year’s Carifesta, Tobagonians made up an important part of the official T&T group. “We tried to include all at the forefront. There were cooks and performers from Tobago in the official T&T contingent.”
Douglas said he intended to speak to Chief Secretary Orville London and Secretary of Culture Dr Denise Tsoiafatt-Angus about the issue. “It is unfortunate that those kinds of things happen, but we have to work through them,” he said.
Ingrid Ryan-Ruben, director of culture at the Ministry of the Arts and Multiculturalism, also attended this year’s festival. She said it was common for countries to be represented by an official contingent, as well as unofficial groups. Usually, unofficial groups participated in “fringe” festivals that were not part of the official programme, Ryan-Ruben said. She said, “Carifesta wants to deal with the official contingent.”
However, this year, because of a delay in finalising the programme for the fringe festivals, the official T&T contingent allowed unofficial groups, which included a contingent from the THA, to participate in the official programme. Ryan-Ruben said she was not present on the night when an announcement was allegedly made that a group was from the “country of Tobago.”
“At the end of the day, everybody was included. When we are abroad, everybody represents T&T and we don’t want it to seem as though we are divided.” Efforts to contact London and Tsoiafatt-Angus were unsuccessful.
Habit7 wrote:Grenada willing to take Tobago's place if they want out.
Trust me.
eliteauto wrote:well if at a national level they feel unrepresented, yet they can send a contingent good enough to make the main stage then it sucks to be the ministry, good move by the THA in seeking Tobago's interest
zoom rader wrote:Habit7 wrote:Grenada willing to take Tobago's place if they want out.
Trust me.
But Half of Grenada lives in Trini
it's a two way street, does it happen that way with mainland events?MG Man wrote:eliteauto wrote:well if at a national level they feel unrepresented, yet they can send a contingent good enough to make the main stage then it sucks to be the ministry, good move by the THA in seeking Tobago's interest
why not collaborate, or at least let the trini side know what they planning?
Habit7 wrote:zoom rader wrote:Habit7 wrote:Grenada willing to take Tobago's place if they want out.
Trust me.
But Half of Grenada lives in Trini
Yip, CARICOM Single Market and Economy, they could come and live aand work here as much as we could go there and sell Chubby, Sunshine Snacks and Holiday Foods.
Deal with it.
RASC wrote:Habit7 wrote:zoom rader wrote:Habit7 wrote:Grenada willing to take Tobago's place if they want out.
Trust me.
But Half of Grenada lives in Trini
Yip, CARICOM Single Market and Economy, they could come and live aand work here as much as we could go there and sell Chubby, Sunshine Snacks and Holiday Foods.
Deal with it.
Ask zoom Rader if he knows the % of local industry exports to there islands.
We benefit a lot from this free travel. Let them come here and get a taste and liking for our products.
Right now ppl even smuggling Kiss Cake into Jamaica. Cause they can't get it there and love it over their locally made alternative.
What about the hundreds of local business men who can easily open business up the islands? You think zr studying that? All he studying is "too many black ppl allowed to enter the county".
Is racism trumps business sense and all.
Habit7 wrote:^^^dont you work in the UK as an immigrant worker?
Habit7 wrote:^^as do skilled workers within the CARICOM Single Market and Economy, the only difference is we keep their tax dollars.
Deal with it.
where in the world this does not happen?zoom rader wrote:Habit7 wrote:^^as do skilled workers within the CARICOM Single Market and Economy, the only difference is we keep their tax dollars.
Deal with it.
I dont mind skilled workers coming in, the problem is you have illegal immigrants coming in the back door that pay no taxes but want the best of trini social system.
nemisis wrote:where in the world this does not happen?zoom rader wrote:Habit7 wrote:^^as do skilled workers within the CARICOM Single Market and Economy, the only difference is we keep their tax dollars.
Deal with it.
I dont mind skilled workers coming in, the problem is you have illegal immigrants coming in the back door that pay no taxes but want the best of trini social system.
Habit7 wrote:Communist countries dont have taxes
Habit7 wrote:Yes I do. But I also think we need less xenophobes like yourself who perceives every CARICOM national as a freeloader.
altec wrote:somebody in Tobago feels they are indeed another country; saw a few road signs in German. Thought that we had signs in english and spanish only. Next thing would be Hindi and chinese.
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