Sean Nero

Arts and Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism Min­is­ter Win­ston "Gyp­sy" Pe­ters is as­sur­ing pan­nists from Laven­tille-based Wit­co Des­per­a­does Steel Or­ches­tra that Gov­ern­ment will do more to fa­cil­i­tate a safer com­mu­ni­ty for them. He did so af­ter the of­fi­cials of the leg­endary steel­band packed up their pan racks and in­stru­ments last Fri­day and re­lo­cat­ed to the Nipdec carpark on Cadiz Road, Bel­mont, be­cause play­ers and sup­port­ers feared for their safe­ty.

Speak­ing to the T&T Guardian dur­ing a vis­it to Des­per­a­does with Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Sen­a­tor Brigadier John Sandy, Pe­ters said: "Ev­i­dent­ly, we have to do some more be­cause there is no such thing as overnight suc­cess. So we have to do some more, at least now. Look through the whole thing and see what needs to be done and con­tin­ue to do it." This is the sec­ond con­sec­u­tive Car­ni­val sea­son that the ten-time Na­tion­al Panora­ma cham­pi­ons Des­per­a­does have been forced to re­lo­cate from their home base on Laven­tille Hill.

This time, how­ev­er, they are mov­ing out of Laven­tille in spite of a state fund­ed cam­paign called the Pan Re­lay held last De­cem­ber. Con­cep­tu­alised and spon­sored by the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty and the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC), the Pan Re­lay was sup­posed to help fos­ter a cul­ture of se­cu­ri­ty in the area. Pe­ters said it was im­por­tant for the gov­ern­ment to show ca­ma­raderie with the whole pan fra­ter­ni­ty. An­tho­ny Mc Quilkin, as­sis­tant man­ag­er of Des­per­a­does said he and a few oth­ers fought for the band to stay on the hill and con­duct Panora­ma prepa­ra­tions.

"The road play­ers said that in no un­cer­tain terms are they not com­ing up the road to play and sup­port­ers like­wise, be­cause of the crime sit­u­a­tion. "There is a crime sit­u­a­tion in the coun­try, not just Laven­tille alone. But peo­ple are just scared to come up the hill and play and come up to lis­ten to the band al­so." Mc Quilkin said if the band had in­sist­ed on stay­ing at its reg­is­tered ad­dress, on­ly its stage-side of 35 play­ers would have been avail­able for the Panora­ma com­pe­ti­tion. "Al­though we are the band who has won Panora­ma with the least num­ber of play­ers, I don't know if that is a sit­u­a­tion we would want to go in this year," he said.