Experience has embedded the need to pay attention and be prepared towards some level of activism regarding one’s livelihood. Long gone are the egalitarian principles that deem natural the process of necessity that one’s engagement is necessary when discussing one’s interests. Some years ago, I read an interesting article in an old newspaper that brought some questions. The problem was that the event that had caught my interest had passed by then. I somehow assumed that at least some member of the group of creative people who were running businesses and earning livelihoods on their talents in Guyana would then know. Strangely, no one I had spoken to even knew that it occurred.

I had presumed that one or the other would have an insight on what had transpired. It was based on a ‘Draft Cultural Strategy’ back in 2019. I was at the ERC then and was distracted by those duties. What had stuck, however, was by the time I had read the article, everything was over. I was concerned and presumed that some member of the organised Arts community at least would have been involved. To my surprise, most were unaware that this event existed.

Recent calls yielded some memory of the event but none directly connected to the output of this important deliberation, that it was part of the 36th meeting of COHSOD – the Council for Human and Social Development. It is interesting that such a significant event, in title at least, could have thus commenced without a background of the micro institutions that exist in its focus agenda from member-to-member countries of CARICOM. This would have enabled clarifications towards directives to support its important agenda.

Without groundwork, a strategic vacuum will exist towards any realistic effect without the imperative of the contributions of the mentioned functionaries of the creative institutions which should have been concluded as delegates if not then, sometime before, to be able to have some real insights to the subject. From experience, if indeed these authorities desire to have some clarity to be able to truly act, how can it be achieved without the direct engagement of the practitioners concerned, especially those who can make a significant presentation of their ‘functional timeline’?

Too many projected interest gestures fall into mere events, void of impact as either inspiration, enlightenment, or support. Because the organisers would know that it is impossible for ‘all-knowing’ functional meritocracy to exist in the human world, so misrepresentation and wasted efforts will prevail. That is why both Art and Science have areas of discipline; though at times overlapping, each field of execution must be engaged to articulate its contributions based on findings. The onus rests with the creative community to be aware towards its livelihood.

The challenge rests not with the authorities’ expectations nor declarations about goodwill intentions. But from learning what we need to know towards marketing the products we develop, understanding the business of the arts, especially the legal aspects of engagements. We live in a country of copyists, pirates, and dishonest people. Many of them know the international laws and will destroy you because of your ignorance. This covers every creative area, including jewelry, clothing, design, architecture, toys, games and furniture, and especially popular culture music.

If you think that tracks online are free, you will be surprised. But awareness must revolve around our regional organisations in groups contacting them and enquiring about their programmes to address existing potential, who still need enabling guidance towards full growth.
Get online, buy literature on the laws of your talents. Regardless of the laws that Guyana don’t offer us, you need to give yourself a chance to know your options and where and how to act if the situation ever requires you to do so.