Read by Ruel Johnson
The Alliance For Change notes President Jagdeo’s recent assertion that his government recognises and is committed to the development of intellectual property and creative industries in Guyana. First stated at the Guyana Prize for Literature awards ceremony, he repeated this commitment at the dedication ceremony for the facilities upgrading of a private educational institution. While we concede that his words on both occasions were indeed inspiring - as seems to be a clear pattern - his record has clearly contradicted them.We can consider the – for want of a less ironic word – ‘development’ of what is now marketed as The Caribbean Press. Launched in May 2009, this initiative came out of the President’s Commitment in 2008 to commit US $100,000 – some $20 million – annually towards an indigenous regional publishing house, one dedicated as it was understood then to the publication of contemporary Caribbean writing. As it is now, what we know that the Caribbean Press is nothing close to what was promised: no contemporary writers have so far been published; the editorial board exists outside of the region; the books are printed outside of not only Guyana but the region; and despite the Ministry of Culture taking responsibility for the Press, there is not so much as a contact person available at the Ministry responsible for it.
While we find as indefensible that the policy direction and management of what is supposed to be an indigenous press lies completely outside of the region, equally as important is the issue of fiscal accountability.
Production Costs
We have learned via the media that there are 30 titles that have been and are being printed; we further understand that there is a standard number of 400 copies of each of these titles being printed. Having examined similarly sized publications produced locally, and comparing commercial quotations for more high-gloss publications regionally, we can safely say that the productions costs of the Caribbean Press should not exceed a generously estimated US $5 per.
If we consider that there are a total of 12,000 (30 x 400) books printed, this should result in a total estimated cost of US $60,000. If we were to take on face value the President’s commitment of US $100,000 – which has not been modified or otherwise qualified since it was made – as annual, it means that so far US $300,000 or $60 million has been invested in the Caribbean Press. If it is that the commitment was a one-off, then it would be simply the US $100,000. Either way, assuming that our estimated printing costs and number of copies produced are correct, we still have either US $40,000 or US $240,000 to account for after printing.
Our questions to the Minister of Culture are:
· What is the exact amount of money that has been budgeted from 2009 to 2011 in funding the Caribbean Press, and how much of it has been expended?
· Under what budgetary allocation does the government’s commitment to the Press Fall?
· Outside of the printing costs, what other expenses does the Caribbean Press accrue and would the Minister be willing to release those figures?
Our Solution
While we await the Minister’s response, the AFC would like to hereby unequivocally state that the Caribbean Press – as obtains with other cultural initiatives engaged in by the administration – runs directly counter to enhancing the role of culture in development. An AFC government would be committed to truly engaging the Arts in the development of Guyana, investing in our cultural industries strategically and accountably. For example, a government supported publication industry – as well as every other creative industry – would be based on three simple but fundamental pillars:
The Local Artist – we are going to ensure that artists and writers producing work locally get paid for their creations, but also are directly employed on a sustainable basis. Whereas the Caribbean Press has deliberately stayed away from publishing contemporary writers under the Jagdeo regime, the AFC will engage our local writers and artists in producing books which engage our society as it is, even as we – as an adjunct to that – examine our history.
The Local Intellectual – we find it insulting to the local intellectual community, those who have stayed to contribute to Guyana’s development instead of opting to be part of our infamous brain drain, that the Board of the Caribbean Press consists as far as we know of no one resident in Guyana. An AFC publication mechanism would avail itself of the talents of people like literary scholar Professor Daisal Samad; seasoned editor, Sandra Granger, wife of David Granger; Curator of Castellani House, Elfrieda Bissember; Ameena Gafoor, Founder of the Arts Forum; Arnon Adams, current editor of the Guyana Review. And that is by no means an exhaustive list of people who are currently here who could have easily constituted an indigenous editorial board for the Caribbean Press.
The Local Entrepreneur – finally, the bulk of the costs associated with publication is printing. Instead of pumping your hard-earned tax dollars into much stronger economies on the insulting pretext that we lack the local capacity to produce printed work of sufficient quality, the AFC will invest in the development of small printers like Ramsaywack Arjune – a family run press at Grove; and medium sized printers like F & H Printery or Pavnik Press, the latter of which has worked with Ameena Gafoor to produce her Arts Journal for the past seven years.
Capacity building investment in local entrepreneurship is in the printing industry is not something strange to the Jagdeo administration – there are for example the indecent concessions given to Queen’s Atlantic Investments, parent company of Guyana Times and Global Printing. The main difference between how we would investment in local publishing would be that instead of funneling government ads to support a paper founded to support the President and attack his critics, we shall place your money, your tax-dollars in educational material that our children can use. And instead of creating concessions geared to put our friends into a printing business which receives the lion’s share of government printing jobs, we are going to give concessions – like tax exemptions on ink, paper, and equipment – on entrepreneurial small and medium printers.
That is the only way to develop an environment for the development of creative industries in small economies such as ours, and it is something that is clearly not being undertaken by the present regime.
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