SHAS­TRI BOODAN

To­ba­go will be cel­e­brat­ing Car­ni­val in Oc­to­ber. That is the word from Min­is­ter of Arts and Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism Win­ston "Gyp­sy" Pe­ters who says the ini­tia­tive is aimed at boost­ing tourism. The min­is­ter made the an­nounce­ment dur­ing the launch of Car­ni­val cel­e­bra­tions in Ch­agua­nas on Sun­day in the car park of Mar­ket Square. "Af­ter Mi­a­mi Car­ni­val is fin­ished the place to be is in To­ba­go," said Pe­ters, who ad­vised rev­ellers to keep their cos­tumes from the Trinidad cel­e­bra­tions for mas in the sis­ter is­land. Pe­ters said the pro­mo­tion of Car­ni­val in To­ba­go, which would be used as a busi­ness ini­tia­tive to pro­mote T&T, would be­gin next month.

The min­is­ter al­so spoke about the is­sue of ful­ly con­struct­ed Car­ni­val cos­tumes be­ing im­port­ed from abroad. He said he planned to take a note to Cab­i­net to raise the tar­iff on ful­ly im­port­ed cos­tumes to 2,000 per cent. Pe­ters said young peo­ple were be­ing de­prived the op­por­tu­ni­ty for em­ploy­ment and learn­ing mas-mak­ing skills be­cause mass-pro­duced cos­tumes were be­ing im­port­ed from In­dia and Chi­na.

Pe­ters praised the Ch­agua­nas Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee for hav­ing the biggest and best launch in T&T. He said it was time the Gov­ern­ment put more rev­enue in­to de­vel­op­ment of cul­ture. Sun­day's event, which at­tract­ed large num­bers of spec­ta­tors, be­gan with a street pa­rade of tra­di­tion­al mas char­ac­ters. A spe­cial per­for­mance was giv­en by Ver­nel­la Al­leyne-Top­pin, Min­is­ter of To­ba­go De­vel­op­ment, who sang along with a min­strel band from To­ba­go.