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Cultural Industries

Day of Absence 2010: Third Response – Investment

12 January 2010

If the Day of Absence is really about tourist’s pleasure, if this is what we really care about, let us at least be honest about it. I sincerely believe that we should deal with our own cultural hunger before we worry about how to provide better shows for our visitors. Confusing the two will eventually [...]

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Day of Absence 2010: Second Response – Quality

2 January 2010

… are all Bahamian artists worthy of respect? The simple answer is no. Why should anyone respect bad poetry, bad writing, bad painting or poorly organized festivals? … Allow me to suggest that there are perhaps two reasons why Bahamians, on the whole, have not received much in the way of international (or local) acclaim [...]

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Day of Absence 2010: First Response – Clarity

1 January 2010

The critique(s) offered by Ward Minnis about the Day of Absence concept on his blog, Mental Slavery, and on Bahama Pundit, are both comprehensive and impressive. And he’s right, in several places. Particularly when he writes Her Day of Absence clouds over and conflates many different and unrelated ideas while advancing an awkward historical agenda [...]

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Day of Absence 2010: Introduction

31 December 2009

Well, it’s that time again. What time? you may ask. Because it’s not like this is a regular occurrence, a public holiday so to speak, or anything grand or exciting. But the new year is a-coming in, and February is nearing, and it’s time for me to observe the Day of Absence once again. Now [...]

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On the need for cultural capital – Richard Florida on Montreal’s Creative Class

16 June 2009

I’ve already blogged about why I think that our government’s cancellation of CARIFESTA was a bad idea. (I think the word I used was “terrible”). Now the rumours I am hearing about the future of Bahamian culture and its development are as bad or worse. Rather than serious investment in the development of our cultural [...]

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On Culture, CARIFESTA, and the Bahamian Economy, Part I

17 April 2009

It came to my attention last month that our government was planning to postpone, once again, the hosting of the Caribbean Festival of Arts, if it had not yet done so. Announcements to that effect would be made very soon, I was told. The fact that such announcements have not yet been made may make [...]

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Another Reason Why We Need our Artists

12 February 2009

Bahamas Suffers While Jamaica Rocks
Posted by sally 1 day 23 hours ago (http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com)
Category: travel

Jamaican Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett has announced a 3.4 per cent increase in visitor arrivals for the month of January, compared with the same period last year.

Bartlett said the 138,000 tourists who visited the island last month were the largest number of visitors to vacation in Jamaica in the month of January… in any year.

The minister was addressing journalists during a press conference at the Ministry of Tourism on Knutsford Boulevard in New Kingston on Wednesday.

Bartlett credited the growth to the staging of the annual JAMAICA Jazz and Blues Festival held last month, as well as the intense advertising, marketing and promotion campaign that the ministry had embarked on in recent months, especially for the start of the winter tourist season.

Bahamas News Center, my emphasis

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An answer, maybe, to Rick

5 September 2008

Guyana Providence Stadium: Guyana – Rambler on the benefits of Carifesta So please, El Presidente could you arrange just one more week of freeness, dancing and drinking? You know as a Moscow trained economist that this splurge of government spending, (you take $500 million of taxpayer’s money out of the economy and send it right [...]

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Budget

9 June 2008

The Bahamas’ budget debate is taking place now.  As a civil servant, I am not free to comment as I would like.  So I’ll just ask questions instead. I am listening to the debate, and the rhetoric is impressive.  But what is the reality?  Is this budget really preparing us for the 21st century?  Do [...]

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CARIFESTA XI

27 March 2008

For people who haven’t been paying attention, it turns out that The Bahamas is going to host CARIFESTA after all, earlier than originally announced. Trinidad and Tobago has agreed to let The Bahamas host the Caribbean Festival of Creative Arts (CARIFESTA) in 2010, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham announced Saturday. He made the disclosure during a [...]

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