Bo­bie-Lee Dixon

Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC) chair­man Win­ston "Gyp­sy" Pe­ters has ap­pealed to Min­is­ter of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts Ran­dall Mitchell to keep the promis­es made to mem­bers of the cul­tur­al fra­ter­ni­ty. He said emo­tion should not be the rea­son for the pro­posed Na­tion­al Cul­tur­al Pol­i­cy which is be­ing im­ple­ment­ed to en­sure artistes are ap­pro­pri­ate­ly cel­e­brat­ed and treat­ed with the dig­ni­ty they de­serve while alive.

Pe­ters made the state­ment dur­ing his trib­ute to late ca­lyp­so vet­er­an San­dra “Singing San­dra” Des Vi­gnes-Milling­ton, dur­ing a memo­r­i­al ser­vice at the Queen's Hall, St Ann's.

He was re­spond­ing to Mitchell's state­ments ear­li­er in the memo­r­i­al ser­vice, in which he an­nounced plans for the Na­tion­al Cul­tur­al Pol­i­cy.

Pe­ters told Mitchell that promise had been made through­out the years and was al­ways said on the oc­ca­sion of the death of one of the coun­try's cul­tur­al am­bas­sadors. He said while all the trib­utes were beau­ti­ful, the ques­tion re­mained: "Where were we be­fore now? Why the ab­sence in the lives of so many who have done so much for our coutry, when we need them the most?"

Pe­ters said mem­bers of the cul­tur­al fra­ter­ni­ty did yeo­man ser­vice through the arts. He said they did it silent­ly, but did it nonethe­less.