Open let­ter to Arts and Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism Min­is­ter Win­ston Pe­ters: In one breath you are boast­ing that 220,000 vis­i­tors will be com­ing to our coun­try for Car­ni­val. In an­oth­er breath you an­nounce that the Gov­ern­ment does not get any re­turn from fund­ing the in­ter­est groups that are re­spon­si­ble for mak­ing the event pos­si­ble. Make up your mind. You are con­ve­nient­ly sep­a­rat­ing gov­ern­ment from coun­try. The coun­try ben­e­fits to the tune of ap­prox­i­mate­ly $1 bil­lion, of which a sub­stan­tial sum goes back to the Gov­ern­ment in tax­es.

The $100 mil­lion you spend on Car­ni­val fills all the ho­tels, cre­ates thou­sands of spin-off jobs, sales in food, al­co­hol and non-al­co­holic bev­er­ages soar, as do car rentals. And there are count­less oth­er ben­e­fits to this coun­try. To in­vest $100 mil­lion to make $1 bil­lion sug­gests great fis­cal acu­men and makes plen­ty com­mon sense. Were you not the per­son say­ing we need more car­ni­vals in the year? Why? Be­cause you of all peo­ple know Car­ni­val is a great mon­ey earn­er. Was it not you who said that the mon­ey made from Car­ni­val goes in­to schools' in­fra­struc­ture etc? If you want to be so stingy and not sup­port the peo­ple who make the event pos­si­ble, then can­cel Car­ni­val next year and keep "your" mon­ey. Then you will not have to throw it in our faces.

Er­rol 'Bal­ly' Bal­lan­tyne

Port-of-Spain