It’s been four years since the National Parang Association of T&T (NPATT), has not been able to stage its annual parang competition because of lack of funding. And now the organisation is saying that this is putting the parang season in jeopardy. Public relations officer for the organisation Michael Lezama said in an interview on Tuesday, in the 43 years the association has been celebrating the cultural activity, this year has been the worst with regards to funding.
“We have not been able to even begin preparations for our annual flagship event, which signals the start of the parang season, And it is mere weeks away. This event is held between the months of September to December each year and culminates with a competition finals in the middle of December,” said Lezama.
He added the association has even had to scale down on the number of schools entering the national primary and secondary schools parang competition because of insufficient financial support.
“We are not even going to have a preliminaries or semis, we will just host a one-off event to accommodate them this year,” Lezama said.
He said the competition finals had been suspended since 2010 because of poor funding, and it was expected to be held this year, but there has been no change in the financial situation.
He added the association began experiencing financial problems in 2010. According to Lezama the association formerly received a subvention of $1 million from the PNM Government. It then went down to $500,000 when Winston Peters became the Culture minister under the present Government and now they currently receive a subvention of $120,000 from the same ministry which is now headed by Dr Lincoln Douglas.
Added to this, he said corporate sponsorship has also been coming in very slowly.
“We are really in a tight situation and it does not seem to be getting any better,” said Lezama.
To help itself the association has embarked on a series of fund-raising events which began with an Easter boat cruise held in April and a weekly Friday night parang lime held at its headquarters in Arima. The Parang Association will stage a parang concert on September 27 at Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s followed by a parang boat cruise in November.
The figure needed for the association to pull off a successful parang season is in the vicinity of $3.5 million. Lezama said this is to facilitate the junior parang competition which will cost $335,000, the senior parang festival at a cost of $1,971,000 and $310,000 is needed for training and development.
Lezama said, however, the association has requested less than half of its projected budget from the ministry which will total a sum of $1,456,000. But since they presented the budget to the Ministry in April, there has been no response.
He said the subvention of $120,000 which the association received on August 4 will be utilised to defray its operating expenses such as utility bills, stationery and allowances.
Lezama said the lack of funding has affected many stakeholders, including the parang groups who can no longer get appearance fees, the vendors who make some income during the parang season at the various parang events and most of all the association is unable to take parang to the various communities at its 13 venues across T&T.
“I am saying this should not be. We are calling on the government to assist the association in bringing this cultural commodity to the national community. Parang will always be alive but for it to reach hits fullest potential, it needs the right funding. Everything else seems to be getting funding. This is our culture, why are we turning our backs on it,” Lezama asked.
“It is our hope that our request for a meeting with Dr Lincoln Douglas would be entertained soon,” he added.
• People who wish to assist the Parang Association can call 355-5645 or 772-2901.
