Dear Editor,
In a week that has hopefully clarified the good Minister of Culture’s unfortunate misconception that I am his “lone critic,” it seems that Dr Frank Anthony has disappeared from the public eye. While the Minister clearly feels he is not answerable to me on the issues I’ve raised concerning the Caribbean Press, there has also been no response to the letter signed by 30 persons claiming to have been underpaid by a collective $600,000 from the Digicel-sponsored National Drama Festival, no response to the substantiation of those charges made by the NDF Director Godfrey Naughton, and no response to the letter by respected theatre producer Gem Madhoo-Nascimento on his poor record on theatre. Of course, the Minister did state that he is only answerable to Parliament, yet when he was last week scheduled to respond to written questions posed by APNU MP Christopher Jones with regard to the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall serving as a goat abattoir, he absented himself from the National Assembly.
Despite the Minister’s lamentations of personal persecution, the reality is that my concerns remain the stagnation of cultural policy under the Government of Guyana in general, even as the rest of the region is forging ahead.
A little over two years ago, as then Cultural Policy Advisor to the Alliance For Change (AFC), I wrote an article entitled ‘Mainstreaming Culture in Development’ (Kaieteur News, November 6, 2011) in which I made the following observations:
“How does cultural development dovetail with economic development? For emerging economies such as ours, we simply do not possess the economies of scale to compete sustainably in a global free market system when it comes to the production of certain primary products, like sugar for example. What we do however have a monopoly on is a unique cultural heritage, which we can consolidate, develop and transform – where possible – into the creative industries that are a crucial part of the contemporary global economic pie.”
A few days ago, parallel sentiments were expressed in the executive summary of a groundbreaking report prepared by Oxford Economics for the British Council, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the Organization of American States, entitled ‘The Economic Impact of the Creative Industries in the Americas,’ and launched at the 6th World Summit on Arts and Culture (Chile, January 16):
“The creative industries represent untapped economic potential, and make a positive contribution to the innovation economy and other sectors of the economy through supply chain effects. If the Americas are to continue to increase competitiveness in this changing global environment, they need to put in place the right conditions for creativity and innovation to prosper in a new entrepreneurial culture… A global market for creative goods and services is growing rapidly and outperforming other exportable sectors. The sector is also becoming increasingly international, with both creative goods and creative services traded in international markets, highlighted by growth in global creative exports at over 10% per annum for much of the past decade.”
As PPP Minister of Culture for what is going on eight years, Dr Anthony has been stubbornly resistant to the development of any comprehensive cultural policy in this country, particularly concerning as fundamental an element as copyright legislation. For example, as Guyana was preparing to host Carifesta X (2008), musician Rudy Grant argued in an October 2007 letter that:
“The Government of Guyana cannot invite all of the countries in the Caribbean to a cultural festival when their cultural ambassadors, singers, musicians and creative people have been treated with disrespect over the last 20 years by their works not being protected by the laws of the copyright act, after they have invested their hard earned money in something that they have created by their own sweat.” (‘Artistes should boycott Mashramani and Carifesta…’ Stabroek News, October 27, 2007).
There was predictably no direct response from Minister Anthony despite him claiming in July of 2007, in answering questions from then PNC parliamentarian Aubrey Norton, that various ministries were engaged in discussions on copyright legislation reform, and when those discussions were completed legislation would be tabled in Parliament. It is 2014 and absolutely no progress has been made on this front; the government’s only involvement with intellectual property issues was the Ministry of Education’s opening bids for pirated textbooks in 2012. If it is any comfort to the Minister, he is not the first person from his party to make unfulfilled promises with regard to copyright legislation; consider the following excerpt from a Gaulbert Sutherland article of May 27, 2008 (‘Modern copyright legislation still an aspiration’):
“Back in 1999, President Jagdeo had said that updated copyright laws were key to the country’s development and had stated that he intended to have a draft bill, in circulation at the time, in place by the following year. This, however, has not materialized.”
Fifteen years after that initial epiphany, the PPP has yet to table a single piece of legislation towards that end. That said, Minister Anthony’s woeful record on establishing a progressive cultural development policy environment is entirely his own, even if one were to take into account just the latter four years of his tenure. For example, last year’s national calypso finalist songs were banned from state radio; the Caribbean Press has failed to publish a single emerging writer outside of the Minister’s daughter and Dr David Dabydeen’s friend, and there is still no Board in place; there is a scandal involving the monies distributed in the privately funded National Drama Festival; and the administration has quietly disengaged any meaningful support for a fledgling film industry.
With regard to the latter, in December of last year the Minister was seen in his usual photo op mode endorsing the Loyola Documentary Film Festival, an initiative of the Catholic Church; indeed, an article on the Minister’s endorsement of the festival is featured prominently on the ministry website. However, the Minister has made no mention of his 2013 initiatives on film, despite budgeting $9.25 million for that sector. I know for a fact that it did not go to the Paloma Mohammed-helmed CineGuyana initiative, ceremoniously launched by the government in 2010, since those concerned have complained that government sponsorship did not go past the initial year. The Minister’s press conference this year was absent any reports on film-related projects or expenditure for 2013, as is his ministry’s website.
When I formally registered Janus Ideas last year, it was the culmination of years of plans to actively invest in and reap the rewards from the tremendous potential I believe lies in the unique and intangible combination of our complex heritage, particular history and breathtaking landscapes. For that to happen, the environment has to be transformed into one far removed from what currently obtains, into one where artists and writers are respected, where the law protects intellectual property, where poor players do not have to threaten protest to receive payment, where the allocation of national resources is not dependent on political connections, and where there is an innovative and inclusive blueprint for the development of cultural industries. It is clear that the creation of this environment is beyond the competence or interest of Minister Anthony.
Yours faithfully,
Ruel Johnson
