Sudama ill-informed about national festival

Let me also say at the onset that as a citizen, where ignorance is pervasive, I have a jaundiced view about using referenda to determine courses of action.

Notwithstanding the above, I take issue with some of Sudama’s unsubstantiated views on fundamental aspects of Carnival, our national festival.

By now, it should be an undisputed fact that no national institution or political or State-driven policy is protected from the all-encompassing tentacles of corrupt dealings.

However, to single out the Carnival arts industry as a bastion of corruption having many levels, and a cauldron of lazy, non-self-reliant people is an indication that Sudama is grossly ill-informed about the overall social and economic function, labour and production outputs in relation to the national festival and country’s economic health.

I cannot practically, usefully or realistically defend the industry’s historical significance, function and outputs in a limited space such as in a letter to a newspaper.

In this regard, it is important that Sudama and every other interested stakeholder consult numerous available local and international theses, dissertations and reports in existence over time on the TT Carnival as it impacts tourism, crime rates, net foreign exchange earnings, and funding, verifiable by the meritorious research and empirical evidence, before writing, like Sudama, off the top of his head on matters obviously outside his scope of knowledge, depth of understanding and appreciation.

It is to be regretted that from a psychological and geographical distance, perhaps situated way back in time, Sudama should make his comments and not immediately and candidly contextualise altogether the overreaching issue of misappropriation of billions of taxpayers’ monies by swathes of exceedingly corrupt and lazy individuals across certain other sectors of society, self-reliantly plotting, cheating, denying the taxman his due percentages, dividing and disharmonising the country by seducing time-honoured values and producing nothing of substantive value for others to follow.

Sudama suggests “self-reliance” is a value to be emulated.

When the late first prime minister, Dr Eric Williams, bestowed on this country the watchwords Discipline, Production and Tolerance on Independence Day in 1962, covering all areas of our lives, he inadvertently omitted a critical, commonly overlooked but bandied about and least understood watchword called “integrity.” Kathleen Pinder via email