Michael L Joseph

Most of those so-called medi­um and large bands don't even throw a tantrum dur­ing the year, yet the small and sin­gle pan bands that keep the thing alive through­out the year, and be­cause of num­bers, con­tribute more to the cof­fers of our or­gan­i­sa­tion, are treat­ed with con­tempt around Panora­ma time. Dur­ing the year, and es­pe­cial­ly at elec­tions, they are the great­est as­sets. The print and elec­tron­ic me­dia ad­ver­tised the large and medi­um Panora­ma fi­nals as if that was the on­ly Panora­ma fi­nals held for the whole Car­ni­val sea­son. But most steel­band lead­ers make great sac­ri­fices, with­out thanks or com­pen­sa­tion, to pre­pare their units for the sea­son. If our rep­re­sen­ta­tive body is fo­cused main­ly on pro­mo­tion of medi­um and large steel­bands dur­ing the Panora­ma/Car­ni­val sea­son, and the sin­gle pans and small steel­bands are rel­e­gat­ed to mas­cot sta­tus, then this is cause for con­cern. If we con­tin­ue to treat our own with dis­re­spect and con­tempt, what could we ex­pect from oth­ers? (Re­pro­duced from When Steel Talks)