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13th Regional Cultural Committee Meeting Convenes in St. Lucia

Contact: John Emmanuel

Tuesday, May 14, 2002 - Directors of Culture of CARICOM States have begun meeting to discuss various policies and programmes affecting the growth and development of culture in the Caribbean. The two-day meeting that ends here today May 15, 2002 is also receiving reports from cultural based organizations such as CARIFORUM and UNESCO.

Of special significance to the annual Regional Cultural Committee (RCC) meeting now into its 13th year, are issues of cultural industry and diversity, cultural relations with neighbouring Cuba and participation in international cultural programmes. Delegates are also seeking to strike a balance by means of improving administration and efficiency in handling matters relating to culture, while at the same time reducing the levels of bureaucratic red tape.

Executive Director of the Cultural Development Foundation (CDF) Teddy Francis said, “we need to balance and find that happy medium in trying to perfect our national festivals by ensuring that we have our best Carnival and Corp Over, but while doing that we need to avoid at any point being insular and ensuring that it remains healthy competition and not trying to go to the extremes of nationalism.” The forging of the Caribbean nest Mr Francis said must be central to our themes though we try through our national festival to engender that national pride. “We speak so often now of cultural industry and making culture and cultural works a viable economic product. However we too must not go to far even in this area avoiding the danger of making it too commercialised and loosing our authenticity,” he exclaimed.

With the region having just concluded its premiere cultural festival CARIFESTA, cultural officials are calling for a review of the goals and objectives of the event before Suriname gets to host CARIFESTA-8 in 2005. St. Lucia’s Minister for Culture Honourable Menissa Rambally encouraged delegates to ensure that island states continue to promote a strong, meaningful and impactful cultural agenda, in light of the region’s growing dependence on tourism and financial services.

According to her, “what makes this meaningful is that cultural development in essence means people development. It means strengthening the people of our societies through creative expression for the benefit of us all. The challenges of today’s world cannot be confronted without a strong and determined people, they can be overcome by a people who believe in themselves and in their identify. Our cultural past and practices provides for us the competitive edge that is required to face the demands and challenges of this global environment.”

Minister Rambally informed representatives of St. Lucia’s efforts in developing and adopting a National Cultural Policy, that allows society to pursue the development of culture and related maters in a decisive manner, while placing people at the heart of the process.

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