From:TheBahamasWeekly.com
Kirkland H. Bodie: Another waste of the taxpayers money
By Kirkland H. Bodie
May 29, 2014 - 1:48:06 PM
My letter today is in response to a letter sent
from the Bahamas Festival Committee. Firstly,
I thought your letter did not speak to why we need to have a Carnival in The
Bahamas funded by the Bahamian taxpayers. Secondly, you totally evaded my
question on why, if we have these three major under financed festivals
already,(RAKE-N-SCRAPE, GOOMBAY SUMMER and JUNKANOO), that are authentically
Bahamian, then why are we investing more money on this foreign exercise called
Carnival than we are in our three festival budgets combined? If I am incorrect,
let me know please.
Now to your point on my Rock group “Stinkin”
Wayz” winning the 2012 Global Battle of The Bands Competition here in The
Bahamas and going on to represent the Bahamas in London, England. My group, Colyn
McDonald, Anthony Flowers & Darrell Hurston, and I placed third in the
competition; third place in the world. We did not receive one dime from the
Ministry of Tourism or from the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture. We did
not waste the Bahamian taxpayers’ money promoting a foreign culture. We did not
receive a nickel from any private sector company. The only company that
assisted us was Sky Bahamas so Mr. or Ms. from the Festival Committee, we owed
no one but ourselves yet we still represented our country with pride, spending
our own hard earn cash, which was worth less than half of the English Pound and
pulled out a third place win.
You tried to compare me and my band members
travelling and representing The Bahamas aboard to you spending the Bahamian
taxpayers’ money on a foreign festival and not on their home grown culture. Why
do you and your committee members seem to hate what is truly Bahamian so much?
And as usual, you are wrong again, I did not coin the phrase Rock-N-Scrape. We
won the band competition in The Bahamas with straight up Rock-N-Roll music and
a great stage performance. Check out the tape. There is no Rake-N- Scrape in
any of those songs. We had to perform the same songs that won the competition
in The Bahamas in London. I was so proud of my fellow band members for their
professionalism so please stop trying to mislead the readers because you have
no idea what a true artist goes through.
If I were you and this idea of a Carnival came
to the fore at our board meeting, I would have objected, but I am not you all I
guess. I am a proud Bahamian and I believe in Bahamian culture first. I
appreciate all forms of music but I love mine most. I have made my living off
of Bahamian culture, not like your committee members who do this thing part
time.
I am a 100% musician, artist, entertainer,
producer and writer. I don’t have no side job sir/ma’am, I take this serious.
How dare you use the Global Battle of The Bands competition to justify fleecing
the Bahamian people's money for a foreign agenda? That is extremely
disingenuous of you. We Bahamians may be passive, but we ain't fool
sir/ma'am.
Straight up, I will not support this festival,
it's song competition, or any part of it, in any way as long as it is called a
Carnival. I will not take the Bahamian people’s hard earned money in this farce
of a festival or song contest just to be like others, and their decadent
parading through the streets with rum in their hands. Those of us who have travelled
to these destinations have experienced the revelry. I am not a prude and I see
nothing wrong with you going to the strip joint if you want to, "that's ya
business" but don’t bring it into my home and ask me to pay for it. We
have so many Homecomings, Regattas and other Bahamian events by different names
like Coconut Fest, Snapper Fest, Crab Fest, Pineapple Fest, Bannerman Town
Homecoming, Rock Sound Homecoming and so many more throughout our country that
could use those funds your committee is wasting on this Bahamas Carnival. Many
of our family islands are struggling every single year just to make their
events come off, only working on a shoestring budget. The Ministry of Tourism
and Culture has been cutting back on sponsorship for these festivals for years
now but your committee wants to waste the people’s money on some other nation’s
culture. I cry shame on y’all and while your committee members are reading
this, they know that I am correct on this matter, but they do not have the
guts, to speak truth to power.
Bahamian culture is not Kirkland Bodie. Kirkland
Bodie is just a cog in the wheel of Bahamian culture, so is Ronnie Butler,
Eddie Minnis, and so many of the other musicians who have stayed true and
sacrificed their lives for their country. Our dancers visual artist, poets,
wood carvers, straw vendors, Junkanooers and others are just expressers of this
thing called Bahamian culture.
Questions: Why are we doing this? Whose idea is
this? What proof do you have that this will garner $30 million dollars in
revenue? Like you said, and if it doesn't, who will be held accountable? Why
are we not putting more funding into our cultural expressions (Junkanoo,
Rake-N-Scrape, Goombay Summer Festival)? What is your precise overall budget
and what are the committee members being paid? This should be public knowledge.
This is the people’s money ya know. And my final question; why is this not a
private sector venture? Why is this being put on the backs of the Bahamian
taxpayers?
This discussion is not about me sir/ma’am, this
is about our future, our kids,and what we will pass on to them, our self-worth
in this world as a peculiar people. In closing, if the populace is satisfied
with this, then “I Gee” and I will leave the country to the fools. If they are
not pleased with this idiotic idea, then join your voices and pens with mine
and make yourself heard Bahamians, here and aboard. Bahamian culture
forever!!!!
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