“I know we will die
Our relevance will die
If we do not move…..
…beyond this step”
– nala
SALUTATIONS
I came to talk of technology, and have brought none, because we still sit on the crossroads!
Change is nothing new. Advent of new technology only signaled yet another change through which our art and culture have further opportunity to grow, be promoted… and be traded. How do we manage the mighty continents of mind and memory to harness technology potential for arts and culture in the Caribbean?
So as we pull around us and celebrate the many sources of our richness and look towards new strategies for promoting our potency, the CARICOM Secretariat, with much enthusiasm, looked forward to being part of this symposium.
We referred to this changing environment in 1972…and every CARIFESTA after that. But we viewed it as a speck on the horizon, this raging revolution of technology. We viewed it with a “fixed fear of pain” like Kamau Brathwaite’s New World a-coming. But even then it was here and already it was becoming business as usual…a business we would have to learn, at times, yes, painfully because that is the trademark of change. But we must grasp its meaning and its power, create and embrace the new forms using the new media. It is a primary force of a reconfiguring existence. It underpins globalization and is a driver of World Trade Organisation (WTO) led philosophies. So, even if we are content to rest inert at the crossroads, it is the world our children are inheriting and the world that will shape and nurture their future. The evolving policies therefore cannot be confined to trade but must embrace an entire future.
I know we will die
If we do not move…..
…beyond this step”
Whether previously thought figments of the imagination, or in the words of Derek Walcott, “bananas of the mind”, convergence and interface of the world with technology has given us new definitions – and new but not so new meaning. Knowledge continues to re-engineer and re-energize itself and the need to make most of scarce resources further intensifies appeal to leverage tools for prosperity, cohesion and convenience. So, the then sci-fi Star Trek approach to life is now the way of doing things and the world is a very different place. We now take for granted doors that open as we approach them, phones without wires that roam and it is said that by the year 2007 they could have technology to beam persons through molecular transportation. For one thing our children are fashioning and creating a world that is almost beyond our imagination. That is true even here in our little corner..this “same sea” we share, just “different waves”
According to Newsweek of August 25, 2003, which devoted its major part to examining what they called “Bionic kids” and how technology is altering the next generation of humans, they will continue to be wired, unwired and rewired. Mind multi-tasking in information processing is key. And this is evident at the simplest levels. It is pointed out, for example, while television stations previously only ran “crawls” of information at the bottom of the screen during emergencies, it is now routine. On more intense levels, these children will interact with people they will never see and move ideas instantly at the global level. One commentator expressed it:
“Every aspect of our lives – reproduction, consumption, the zones and environments that we inhabit, work in, culture and nature, health and food security, governance and security – will sooner rather than later, be based on and tied to this Information mode of production
– Pradip Thomas
What advances in information and communication technology (ICT) actually mean is that we now have the capacity to really stay at home and sing the Lord’s song in any strange land.
This definitely offers art and cultural trade potential. But if this is going to work for us, if we are not to be only someone else’s marketplace, the contribution of the artist and our treasures of origin, geography and history, in this brave new world, must be central. They must lead us in our bid to harness creativity, mine its potential and craft a world that pays tribute to our aspirations. How this march to an information society unfolds will depend on what perspectives people have and how they make the technology work towards their social and economic objectives. It is social transformation that will give the future, including art and culture, its comfort.
What ICT offers, particularly the rise of the Internet, is an environment that, in its own interest promotes creativity. Even our notion of art must be expanded.
So, as the Region continues to operationalise its Charter of Civil Society and the creation of the environment to nurture the ideal Caribbean person, and express its culture with indigenous rhythms, colour, carnivals, folklore, and endless recipes for good hot sauce, some major policy challenges will have to be universal access to the technology & networks, application, adequate domestic and external connectivity, bandwidth and stimulation of relevant content. This must be buttressed by investment in capacity building and a sound research and development agenda.
The case of music in Jamaica
It is reported that in a recent study on the Jamaican music industry, conducted by Dr. Vanus James of the UNDP, findings indicated that music and entertainment contributed more value to the national tourism product than any other input, including rooms. And here we acknowledge Caribbean Music Expo (CME) for providing this information. Tourism is by far the biggest foreign exchange earner for Jamaica and now most Caribbean countries. And as Loydd Stanbury so aptly put it, with that kind of input from the music and entertainment sector in Jamaica, the case for entertainment in any policy for ICT development programme is strong. But where do we take it…where can we take it? Stanbury also reports that Jamaican music producers have been able to compete and win major contracts overseas. In addition, they have managed to remain fairly well on the cutting edge of technology (and here the example was given that Kingston alone has in access of sixty professionally equipped recording studios, the majority of which are outfitted with state-of-the-art computers, the latest in digital audio production software, and are also connected to the Internet. Yet this requires the enabling environment to be sustainable.
So how is policy evolving to do the necessary harnessing, particularly to ensure that our art and cultural and heritage industries are not left outside the loop of the new trading systems? Left as:
Lands smoking with their dreams
That drift across the world
Like memories of ancient beauty dimly recalled.”
-Wilson Harris
One area that deserves special mention is Intellectual Property Rights, which can be real revenue earners through adequate protection. But the interests must be balanced given the trends relating to issues such as domain names and other content matters.
So what is the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) doing to ensure that we seat our societies firmly in this 21st Century (for some it may mean leapfrogging over the 20th but that is all right. Technology allows us to do it). A major appeal of ICT is its international reach, which expands physical space and taps new markets and allows us to squeeze benefits out of globalisation.
At its last meeting the Heads of Government, in adopting a CARICOM ICT/Connectivity Agenda, Heads of Government recognised that the Region’s bid, as smaller economies, to evolve a vibrant trade organization could be better served by ICT enhanced competitiveness in services and seizing opportunities offered by E-Commerce, especially for Small & Micro Enterprises (SMEs) which are fuelled by creativity. Delivery of public information and cultural industries are therefore pivotal and education and development of export-oriented service industries have been recognized as priorities.
CARICOM, collectively and individually as Member States, is therefore pursuing its Agenda through four basic approaches: formulation of sound ICT policies which will push the CARICOM Single Market & Economy within the hemispheric and global trading arrangements, legal & regulatory reform, with special attention to intellectual property rights and instruments of competition, E-readiness assessments, and progressive de-monoplisation of telecommunication.
The issues are many, crosscutting and often complex. We therefore invite you this afternoon to our “satellite symposium” Managing Mighty Continents of Mind & Memory: Harnessing Technology Potential for Arts & Culture in the Caribbean” at Theatre Unique at 2:30 p.m. In partnership with TELESUR, the Suriname telecommunication provider, we explore options for the arts, culture & technology. We have to be part of the new systems.
“But whatso’er of ours you keep,
Whatever fades or disappears,
Above all we send you this –
The flaming faith of these first years”
– H.A Vaughn
We have to swiftly but as painlessly as possible learn the new ways, and embrace them, universally. As we link past and future, I express profound appreciation to the elders for giving us benefit of their thoughts. And to my friend Nala, thank you for the generosity of sharing yours, and giving me this poem that I used to focus this paper.
Many of us had hidden our dreams deep inside our chests
and some of us hid our dreams in our hands and backs and heads and hips….
I know we will die
If we do not move…..
We cannot sit at the crossroads….
