Carnival

According to news reports, the National Carnival Committee (NCC) is due to announce which media house has won the tender for exclusive rights to broadcast Carnival events.  As a result, media houses may be setting themselves up for a repeat of the brouhaha between CNMG and Gayelle that occurred in 2010.

I know we've come to expect bacchanal for Carnival, but it doesn't have to be that way.  I'd like to suggest an alternative for NCC's consideration.

When Edmund Gall first wrote about the de facto monopolization of Carnival broadcast rights in Trinidad and Tobago (read it!), he mentioned friend Mark Lyndersay's point that it was more about control than optimization. When I wrote about the issue last night, I took the same tack.

I would just like to point out that I'm supporting Gayelle here in Trinidad, that someone suing for coverage of what is labeled a cultural event is reprehensible.

A few weeks ago, the T&T government decided to award sole rights to distribute coverage of major Carnival 2010 events to its own media house: the Caribbean New Media Group (CNMG).  On the face of it, this seemed sensible: award management of the distribution to a trusted partner.  However, though CNMG has been streaming its own programmes on the Internet for over a year at www.ctntworld.com, it proved to be completely unable to handle streaming of T&T Carnival.

Everyone seems to have something to say about Beyonce coming to Trinidad and Tobago (Paolo Kernahan's latest is the best so far, I think). This one has a ghastly picture of Beyonce, but did a good job of hitting the high points for the international community. The local community? 

Well, everyone has an opinion.

Here's mine.