THE EDITORIAL, THE NATIONAL, FRIDAY 4 JULY 2014 (p 60) “ARTS FESTIVAL INEPTLY MANAGED We should have had an inkling about the level of preparedness, professionalism and competency organisers of the Melanesian Festival of Arts and Culture possessed last week. The fact that they (the Cultural Commission and the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture) were caught off guard at the “early” arrival of the New Caledonian and Fijian contingents was bad enough. But the haphazard way the festival has been run since day one has left many dissatisfied, frustrated and disappointed – and those are just the feelings of the locals. Sports Minister Justin Tkatchenko could no longer hide his contempt for the way the festival was being run when he posted on a social network a scathing commentary on Wednesday. His words may have rung harsh but so true. “It’s very unfortunate, I have (hate) to say this but it needs to be said. The Melanesian Arts and Cultural Festival was an absolute disgrace, mismanaged, and totally unorganised and was an embarrassment. Time to trim and cut out the dead wood, so to promote new growth in this very important area of culture, arts and tourism. We have to get this right. Our culture is our identity!” This opinion has been shared by many people not only on social media but those who have attended the festival at its various venues around Port Moresby over the past six days have come way thinking “what a shabbily organised event”. For a supposedly international festival, the atmosphere and tone of the event was not in keeping with that level, One comment posted summed up the event to being run like a “high school cultural show”. The previous festival held in the Solomon Islands four years ago has been described as far superior as a spectacle to the current mess we have before us. It was easily light years ahead in terms of the management, organisation and catered for every visiting group. One of the damning aspects of this festival has been the total disregard by organisers to do more about bridging the language barrier that is patently obvious with the non-English speaking countries that have attended this festival. It speaks of ignorance and gross disrespect when a group is seemingly left out due to the fact that they cannot freely interact with their hosts or the other groups. The New Caledonians, who speak French, have been treated poorly in this regard, particularly at the opening ceremony last week when English interspersed with Pidgin was used throughout the entire occasion. Common sense and courtesy seems to be in critically low supply at the Cultural Commission because there was not once translator to be seen or more importantly heard. The worrying thing for Papua New Guineans is that this festival was supposed to be an opportunity to showcase Port Moresby and its people to their fellow Melanesians from around the region. But instead the festival has showing PNG as incapable of hosting an event that our neighbour the Solomons pulled off with aplomb several years ago. And they did it with far less money and resources at their disposal. It is safe to assume the Solomon Island government did not outlay anywhere near K29 million for their festival but they did put on a show that was probably just as valuable, Going by the figure, in 2014, PNG has managed to deliver summer stock on a Broadway budget That is truly a harrowing indictment on the organisers, the ministry and PNG as a whole. One wonders, if Port Moresby cannot adequately host five countries for a small event such as the Melanesian Festival of Arts and Culture, then how is the city going to cope with the greater numbers at next year’s Pacific Games, which incidentally is exactly one year away today? Without wanting to disparage Pacific Games organisers, who thankfully are a totally different group, the fear remains that this is the same city and the attitudes may be the same, ergo, the outcome may be similar. There must be an inquiry conducted into the running of the festival. The public whose reputation has been tarnished by the ineptitude of the organisers, deserve it. They need to know who is responsible for the poor handling and management, particularly how such a large sum of allocated funds were spent. They need to know why that was the case and what is being done about it.” ............................... DO YOU THINK AN INVESTIGATION NEEDS TO BE CONDUCTED INTO THE HANDLING OF THE FESTIVAL?
Posted on: Sun, 06 Jul 2014 22:53:58 +0000
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