BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - THE recent release stating that Deputy Prime Minister, Sam Condor, had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Radio Taiwan International and ZIZ Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), though welcome, again raises many questions.
We have been waiting for years, or decades, for similar MOU’s to be signed between OECS and CARICOM states to enable free cultural exchanges which would serve to strengthen regional integration.
The recent changes in cable-tv offerings in sister-island Nevis do not appear to include any outreach to include St. Kitts news or cultural offerings. Likewise there is no effort by St. Kitts to embrace the news offerings of Nevis.
The Carnivals of Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, and the Crop-Over of Barbados may reach our television stations years later.
In the meantime, our models are becoming quite professional after immersing themselves in the readily available Miss World and Miss Universe as well as the red carpets of the Grammys, Emmys and Oscars.
Our youth are now aspiring to reach the screen by way of Reality Shows while documentaries of their history and visual depictions of their rich cultural expressions remain scarce.
The quite successful Latin Fiesta held over the last weekend sought to fuse locals and latinos and their cultures. It was enjoyable and commendable.
How is it possible to promote free movement of our peoples without any effort being made to understand and merge our cultures? Why is there no drive to immerse our people in indigenous cultural expressions? Carnival may not be unique to us but what of Calypso and Calypso competitions?
In this age where ‘distance is dead’ what is the new definition we ought to give to the term “neighbour”? In the standard dictionary, these ‘ancient’ definitions are given:
• someone who lives near you;
• someone or something that is close to a particular person, place, or thing
In the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus answered the question of “Who is my neighbour?” by saying, “He that shows mercy on you.” However at the recent Independence Anniversary Service, Pastor Prisca Heyliger, in delivering the sermon, gave it a twist by declaring that “Whoever needs help is your neighbour”.
But in light of Tourism’s recent thrust to concentrate on intra-regional marketing, we may have yet another definition: It is “Whoever can provide monetary benefits”.
