Rhon­da Krys­tal Ram­bal­ly

A to­tal of $23,301,461.09 was dis­bursed by the Min­istry of Arts and Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism through 917 grants for the fis­cal year 2010/2011 for a wide range of re­li­gious, cul­tur­al and oth­er ac­tiv­i­ties. The au­dit­ed state­ments of grants dis­bursed were pub­lished on May 18 in the T&T Guardian.

The most re­cent na­tion­al cel­e­bra­tion was In­di­an Ar­rival Day, last Wednes­day, with ac­tiv­i­ties through­out the coun­try and al­though the Gov­ern­ment has not said how much was giv­en this year, 60 grants to­talling $1,013,475 were giv­en last year, with the Sanatan Dhar­ma Ma­ha Sab­ha re­ceiv­ing the li­on's share of $350,000.

Ef­forts to con­tact Arts and Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism Min­is­ter Win­ston "Gyp­sy" Pe­ters and oth­er min­istry of­fi­cials for com­ment on how grants were award­ed proved fu­tile. Ac­cord­ing to the au­dit­ed state­ment, the largest al­lo­ca­tion was to­wards gen­er­al fund­ing with a to­tal of 208 grants to­talling $5,865,129.04.

Some of the en­ti­ties re­ceiv­ing those grants were the Na­tion­al Ac­tion Cul­tur­al Com­mit­tee-$1 mil­lion paid in two parts to­wards the Gen­er­a­tion Next Fes­ti­val; the Princes Town Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion-$100,000 for its Car­ni­val cul­tur­al pro­gramme; the Na­tion­al Chut­ney Foun­da­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go-$100,000 to­wards the 2010 an­nu­al chut­ney awards; the Scout As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go-$100,000 for scout mem­bers to at­tend the 2011 Jam­boree; the Uni­ver­si­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go-$140,000 for the pro­duc­tion of the mag­a­zine Talka­ree; the Laven­tille Steel­band Fes­ti­val Foun­da­tion-$100,000 to­wards an open yard con­cert; and the Tas­sa As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go with two grants to­talling $168,000 for the Na­tion­al Tas­sa com­pe­ti­tion.

Among the in­di­vid­u­als re­ceiv­ing grants un­der gen­er­al fund­ing were:

• Eliz­a­beth Gor­don-$250,000 to­wards West Side Sto­ry, a the­atre pro­duc­tion

• Morel Pe­ters-$150,000 to­wards Tra­di­tion­al Ca­lyp­so on the Move

• Kurt Allen-$75,600 to­wards ex­pens­es to tour with Alche­mys­tics

• Kei­th Di­az-$10,318 to­wards ac­com­mo­da­tion and air­fare to Lon­don

• Shaunelle Rame­sar-$12,000 to­wards liv­ing ac­com­mo­da­tion while on schol­ar­ship in Eu­rope

• Jill Ann Wal­ters-$12,350 to­wards a Christ­mas con­cert

• Lisa McKen­zie-$3,000 to off­set med­ical ex­pens­es

• George Kallicha­ran-$58,000 to­wards mak­ing and tun­ing pans for the Ma­yaro/Rio Claro Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee

Steel­band and Car­ni­val grants for 2011 were ap­prox­i­mate­ly $6 mil­lion with 166 grants dis­bursed to steel­bands-93 re­ceiv­ing $20,000 each and 73 re­ceiv­ing $10,000 each. A to­tal of $ 3,730,975.80 com­prised 111 Car­ni­val grants with the largest sum giv­en to the Chut­ney So­ca Or­gan­i­sa­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go-$500,000.

"D" Mas­sive Go­sein Rov­ing Chut­ney Ca­lyp­so Tent re­ceived two grants to­talling $300,000; Icons Ca­lyp­so Tent, Ka­lyp­so Re­vue and C A R En­ter­tain­ment each re­ceived $300,000 while Print Me­dia House Ltd and Spek­taku­la Pro­mo­tions Ltd each re­ceived grants of $100,000. A grant of $50,000 was al­so award­ed to Ca­lyp­so Re­vue.

In 2011, 44 grants to­talling $937,000 were dis­bursed to or­gan­i­sa­tions such as the Na­tion­al Phag­wa Coun­cil of Trinidad and To­ba­go-$150,000; the Ma­ha Sab­ha-$200,000 and the Kendra Phag­wa Fes­ti­val-$200,000. The Ma­ha Sab­ha South Re­gion­al Coun­cil al­so re­ceived $10,000.

For the 2011 Shouter Bap­tist Lib­er­a­tion Day, the Gov­ern­ment dis­trib­uted 22 grants close $700,000. The largest re­ceiv­er was the Na­tion­al Con­gress of In­cor­po­rat­ed Bap­tist Or­gan­i­sa­tion of T&T-$180,000. In 2010, a to­tal of $4.3 mil­lion was dis­bursed through 170 grants for Di­vali cel­e­bra­tions.

The Ma­ha Sab­ha re­ceived a grant of $1.2 mil­lion while sev­er­al of its branch­es al­so re­ceived grants. The Na­tion­al Coun­cil of In­di­an Cul­ture re­ceived $1 mil­lion and Win Ra­dio 101.1 Ltd re­ceived a grant of $115,000 for part spon­sor­ship of the Di­vali Na­gar. Sev­er­al con­stituen­cy of­fices re­ceived grants of $25,000. How­ev­er, the Ch­agua­nas East Con­stituen­cy Of­fice was grant­ed $60,000.

To cel­e­brate Eman­ci­pa­tion Day 2011, the gov­ern­ment dis­trib­uted 64 grants to­talling $2,002,500. The Eman­ci­pa­tion Sup­port Com­mit­tee got a grant of $1 mil­lion and the Na­tion­al Ac­tion Cul­tur­al Com­mit­tee re­ceived $500,000 while oth­er en­ti­ties re­ceived grants from $5,000 to $20,000.