Former Pan Trinbago president Patrick Arnold is tipped to be the new chairman of the National Carnival Commission (NCC). He confirmed this in a Sunday Guardian interview, yesterday, but declined to indicate his vision for the state agency until presented with his letters of appointment this Wednesday.
The NCC is a division of the Ministry of the Arts and Multiculturalism. "I didn't expect to get that, but it happened. As president of Pan Trinbago, I was on that board for like 13 years. I'm accustomed to it. I have to thank the Government for giving me the honour to serve," said Arnold. Arnold has been in the culture business all his life, having served as chairman of the Heritage Committee in Tobago and leader of Our Boys Steel Orchestra, Tobago.
His intended appointment comes almost 11 weeks before Pan Trinbago's staging of the National Panorama Semi-final which will be the first show of the season to be held at the Big Yard Grand Stand Queen's Park Savannah in Port-of-Spain. Even so, there has been no word on the proposed launch of Carnival 2012, neither a blueprint for the success of the festival particularly as it relates to the perennial congestion during the National Carnival Bands Association of T&T (NCBA) Parade of the Bands Competition on Carnival Monday and Tuesday. But Arnold moved to assure the national community that the board, even in the absence of a chairman, had been working to put the necessary systems in place to ensure the success of Carnival 2012. "The NCC is made of pan, mas and calypso. I would want to see where their head are and what we can do as we can go forward. They (the NCC) had been meeting. They had a vice-chairman. I would like to meet with them on the way forward," he said.
Asked about his vision for the NCC, Arnold said it would be best to outline his intent to the board and the members of the Special Interest Groups (Sigs) before going public. Citing his intimate relationship with the steelpan-the national musical instrument of T&T-Arnold said he wanted to hear what Pan Trinbago's vision for the instrument was and through the NCC, collaborate on way to advance it. He maintains his vision for the nation's steelbands to become self-sufficient and not only focus on the national Panorama competition, although it remained a critical feature of the national festival. "In the good old days bands were playing all over the place–in parties–and we also had a competition on Dimanche Gras night, but we didn't just practice one tune to go to Panorama. So we have to introduce methods where we can market our products," Arnold said.