Grenada Carnival Committee
Saturday, July 30, 2011
One of the Caribbean's foremost experts on the region's cultural industry has highly commended the branding of Spicemas, saying there is nothing like Grenada's Jab Jab.
The website, to the many other aspects of the branding for Spicemas, is premised on utilizing traditional mas, particularly the Jab Jab iconography,'' said Trinidadian Dr. Keith Nurse. I think that's a strong sense of branding.''
Grenada's branding, with Jab Jab as the focus, is very clear, said Dr. Nurse. When you see it, you know this is Grenada. It is not some other country in the region,'' he argued.
The Director of the Shridath Ramphal Centre for International Trade Law, Policy and Services at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies in Barbados, Dr. Nurse specializes in cultural industry, international relations theory and methodology, and International political economy.
He's also a published writer. Among his works are Festival Tourism in the Caribbean and The Caribbean Music Industry.
Dr. Nurse is in Grenada to conduct an economic impact assessment study of carnival.
As part of the study, funded by the European Union, Dr. Nurse is meeting with key carnival stakeholders, including Minister responsible for Culture, Senator Arley Gill; Grenada Carnival Committee (GCC) Chairman Colin Dowe; members of the private sector; and representatives of mas, steelpan and calypso.
The main goal of the survey is determining how much finance is generated by Grenada's hosting of carnival.
You'll find that sponsors, as well as hoteliers, people in the car rental business and others, are all benefitting from the key flows associated with the festival,'' Dr. Nurse said. What we will do in the study is, in effect, try to document and map those flows and outline in some way, what would be some of the key strategies going forward.''
Mr. Dowe, the GCC Chairman, described the study as extremely important.''
Hopefully, with the conclusion of the work by Dr. Nurse, we would have better direction on who we could partner with; and how we can partner with them and expand the pool from which we typically would get contributions for Spicemas,'' said Dowe.
Sen. Gill expects the study to provide concrete data that could be presented to government and the private sector, inviting them to further invest in carnival.
Carnival is not an investment to central government. And so, too, the private sector partnership with us is an investment in the Grenada economy, rather than an expenditure,'' said Sen. Gill.
We believe that as a festival, there is no other economic activity that trickles down to the ordinary man and woman in Grenada as much as carnival does.''
Spicemas 2011 culminates on August 8 and 9 with two days of jump up on the streets of Grenada.
In the view of Dr. Nurse, Jab Jab is the big drawing card'' of Spicemas.
The Jab Jab rhythm in Grenada is possibly the best Jab Jab rhythm,'' said Dr. Nurse. There is nothing like it. In Trinidad, we have something similar. But, in Grenada, it's at its best rendition.''
The initial phase of the preliminary data collection by Dr. Nurse is expected to run until the end of August.
Photo Credit To Vibes Grenada
