A few weeks ago, my mother-in-law asked me, what is a doubles?
(she was asking because her vegetarian Yoga instructor who was fishing on
Facebook for a doubles man in Windsor).
I realized as a son-in-law/cultural ambassador, I wasn't doing
such a good job if my own mother-in-law didn't know what a doubles was. So,
when she came to visit, I found myself by Leana's waiting patiently for my
order and started flipping through the Caribbean Camera. I read this headline "CAG board to decide on FMC
proposal"
You
can click the link to read the article
It's
about time. Whenever I hear someone refer to our festival as the Toronto
Caribbean Carnival, it makes me cringe, and reminds me that the FMC and CAG
have FAILED to negotiate a workable solution. I mean, who walks away from a
brand name with such wide recognition? Who do you know that has never heard of
Caribana? Do you have any idea what it costs to build such a brand? (Ask them
how much time and money went into getting people to say Toronto Caribbean
Carnival. How well did that work?)
So why now?
Ok fine, maybe the name has some baggage associated with it,
and the mere mention triggers many to flee to cottage country for the weekend.
But, all kind of festivals would kill to have a name like Caribana.
Well the 50th anniversary is coming up this summer, and it really
would be silly to try and celebrate the 50 years of the festival formerly known
as Caribana. I was kinda hoping they would finally make an effort to kiss and
makeup before the anniversary.
Maybe the current FMC leadership is looking for legacy. I mean,
what sort of progress has been made since Joe
Halstead handed over the reins? I'll give you a minute to think on that one.
You guys can tell me what successful new initiatives have been launched since
Joe departed (in the comments). I don't want to say they are treading water or
worse, but ...
Anyway, saying that they negotiated a deal to bring the name
Caribana back, it would be something they could point to at the retirement
gala.
Don't get me wrong, I have no horse in this race, I don't
care who runs things, as long as they don't run it into the ground. I think
working out a deal to bring all interested parties back into the fold, and work
together to build on what we have, is to be encouraged.
I don't imagine this will make any difference in the running
of the festival, I mean as the article states, it's not a marriage of
equals. And who pays the piper...
So, this isn't a magic pill to cure what ails us, except maybe the
answer to, "why don't they call it Caribana anymore?" Well,
everybody reading this knows the answer, and you will no longer have to explain
to your friends why Caribbean people can't come together and work this stuff
out. That alone is a worthy goal.
