I BEGIN this column by referring to the letter in the May 22, 2023 edition of both the Stabroek News and the Kaieteur News by the Hon. Jermaine Figueira, M.P.
In this letter, he spoke on the economic value of the Arts as a vital economic niche, with the accompanying important relevance of copyright.
This dialogue has always persisted in this column, from its inception, and with this writer and many others in the print media much further back. What is new is that a young Member of Parliament has addressed this concept; its potential reality and legal platform.

That the talent and awareness exist cannot be questioned. But to do justice to this column, especially to someone exploring this conversation for the first time, vital things must be known. The Cultural Industries, as creative expressions in the global market language are referred to, revolve around arts and literature, music and entertainment, design and architecture, furniture, toys, electronic and board games, food products and ancestral treatments that we all turn to when strange pandemics come our way, just to make reference to a few items. What is, however, the essential ingredient towards the Cultural Industries is the legal provision of copyright, patent, and registered trademark. The latter, I think, is available, but there needs to be some discussion on the method. But for our Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), nothing exists. We must converse on its pros and cons. Most of us register abroad.

The giant elephant in the room is the fact that, like the minibuses, the useful bus touts, the speedboat transportation and the past ‘suitcase traders’, none were initiated by any government official. But by obvious recognition of what was needed, it possessed potential as a marketable product or venture, and can be packaged, from a people-survival standpoint with useful managerial advice.
Government’s contribution is, most times, to tax the initiative. When I touted the idea of the Cultural Industries locally, the result of an ACDA Symposium on Sunday, January 15 2012, the following necessity from experience came into conceptual being.

ESTABLISHMENT OF A CIS
“The establishment of a ‘Cultural Industries Secretariat (CIS)’, managed by a council of practitioners, minds that have evolved from this source will be the only practical path towards the gathering of talents towards the trade pathways beyond the current embarrassing state of ‘Hunter Gathering’. The CIS is defined in the following context, simplified for clarity, anticipating the limitations of majority responses that would most likely follow from most people out there when the debate went public.
The Cultural Industries Secretariat is a national-interest projection, which is a necessity, formulated to address existing niche industry development, employment and sustainability, along streams not indexed in the national socioeconomic discourse.”

Only one CEO publicly responded; that was Ramesh Persaud, who was then at IPED (Institute of Private Enterprise Development). We met, and Ramesh was on the ball with clarity of what the concept revolved around. He did put a proposal to me, which, unfortunately, I couldn’t grab, because I was hook, line and sinker into another project. I do have the curse of having multiple in-house projects, and not near to finishing any towards registration. And registration is the closure of the initial long difficult investment, from concept to manuscript to pre-press development, amidst the inevitable pauses caused by the pot-boilers that living demands.

When I was on the ERC (Ethnic Relations Commission), at the first meeting, I introduced a document on The Cultural Industries Secretariat. My take was that diversification of the economy, based on local potential, should be looked at. I theorised that if people are employed, they have fewer complaints about race, etc. Because all the wars of colonisation and disguised exploration were based on stealing other people’s IPR and wealth, which included medicines, fruits etc.

Neaz Subhan agreed. I figured that I was talking over the heads of the others, and I couldn’t blame them. This was not a leftover from our colonial past; this was new heritage taking shape. It never came up again, directly, over the three years we served, though its products became relevant during that period, but not without a fight most times. The current subvention is a product of that lobby that manifested in 2017; the only misconception is that the Cultural Industries revolve around small businesses that live through their product line, but there’s nothing wrong with encouraging young minds who want to help themselves.
It’s rough carrying new ideas to people, but I’ve explored the American and other models. Creative people, especially in the Comics, didn’t have it easy either, nor did black musicians, whose talents created the ‘Music Industry’. We’re at a threshold; let’s learn from the wheel, rather than try to reinvent it.

De lamentables