Yvonne Webb

San Fer­nan­do will have to look else­where for fund­ing for its 2014 Car­ni­val events as it main con­trib­u­tor, the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion, has tak­en a bud­get cut.Ap­peals from Car­ni­val con­venor Ju­nia Re­grel­lo for ad­di­tion­al fund­ing made dur­ing the launch of San Fer­nan­do Car­ni­val on Tues­day evening at Space La Nou­ba, La Ro­maine, seem not to have the in­tend­ed im­pact.

Re­grel­lo, who is al­so the deputy may­or, speak­ing in the pres­ence of Arts and Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism Min­is­ter Dr Lin­coln Dou­glas, Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion Min­is­ter Car­olyn Seep­er­sad-Bachan and com­mis­sion­er with the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion­er Kelvin Ram­per­sad, com­plained about the fi­nan­cial dif­fi­cul­ties be­ing ex­pe­ri­enced by the city.

He said that ap­prox­i­mate­ly 50 per cent of the first draw down of its 2014 sub­ven­tion, which has been cut from $2.1 mil­lion in 2013, to $1.3 in 2014, has been al­ready used to set­tle out­stand­ing debts from last year's Car­ni­val. Or­gan­is­ers of the Ari­ma and Ch­agua­nas re­gion­al car­ni­val cel­e­bra­tions have made a sim­i­lar com­plaint.

Re­grel­lo lob­bied the min­is­ters and Ram­per­sad to have their sum in­creased as sev­er­al ini­tia­tives, in­clud­ing the South So­ca Monarch Com­pe­ti­tion and re-en­act­ment of the Can­boulay Ri­ots, had been added to their pro­gramme.How­ev­er, Ram­per­sad in re­sponse said: "Un­for­tu­nate­ly the NCC had tak­en a bud­get cut and as a re­sult, we have to pass on that cut to San Fer­nan­do and all the oth­er Car­ni­vals."

Dou­glas did not broach the sub­ject but fo­cused on how his min­istry and the NCC could tran­si­tion Car­ni­val from be­ing a sig­na­ture event for TT in­to an in­dus­try.The min­is­ter ad­mit­ted Car­ni­val had a mar­ketable val­ue, not on­ly in terms of mon­e­tary, but so­cial val­ue as well."We are bot­tling and sell­ing hap­pi­ness," he said, point­ing out that while oil and gas, which sus­tains the econ­o­my, has fi­nite val­ue, "once we have Tri­nis we can make Car­ni­val."

Dou­glas said for Car­ni­val, a large group of vis­i­tors from dif­fer­ent parts of Africa would be here to ob­serve what we do and how we do it.Touch­ing on the theme of this year's cel­e­bra­tion, "The Rid­dum of San­do", Seep­er­sad-Bachan con­ced­ed that San Fer­nan­do had its own rhythm which dis­tin­guished it from every oth­er part of Trinidad, To­ba­go, the Caribbean and the world.

"The rhythm of San Fer­nan­do, or San­do, is unique, it is spe­cial and it is in­fec­tious be­cause we, in San­do march to the beat of a dif­fer­ent drum­mer from every­one else."She ap­plaud­ed those, past and present, who have con­tributed to this unique­ness long be­fore Ca­lyp­so Rose sang 'Ah Goin' down San Fer­nan­do', such as Black Stal­in, the late Ras Shorty I, Roar­ing Li­on and Mae­stro, in ca­lyp­so, Hat­ters and Cav­a­liers in pan and, in mas, Mac Copeland and reign­ing band of the year champ Ivan Kalicha­ran.