I'm Vere Palmer
| Age | : | 70 Plus years Old |
| : | skeckpalmer@hotmail.com | |
| Website | : | www.skeckpalmer.com |
| Phone | : | 1 416- 286- 8245 |
Early days of Caribana 67
In 1966 two committees were established to plan an event to celebrate Canada's Centennial. The board of Governors was led by Alban Liverpool and the Executive committee was led by Sam Cole.The committees came up with a plan of staging a Carnival festival to accomplish their idea of the celebration. That was the beginning of Caribana in 1967....For most of the people involved it was an easy task because many of the them were from islands where Carnival was part of their culture. The city Mayor Dennison was so impressed that he asked the group to stage the event again in 1968.One article stated Cole was the one who sent a letter to the mayor asking for permission to stage the event. The same article later had Cole being asked by Mayor Dennison to stage the event again in 1968. However Cole's name didn't appear on the list of directors for the new organization called "The Caribbean Committee for Cultural Advancement". Cole was never heard from again throughout the entire life of Caribana and some time later people from both committees came together and formed the new board chaired by Alban Liverpool.
Caribana 67
I played MAS in Whitfield Belasco band in 1967.
I was part of a group that went around Toronto to advertise the festival at several malls. Alfa King, Whitfield's brother was responsible for promoting the festival at the malls and that's how I got involved.Some years later as a member of the St. Vincentian and the Grenadines Association of Toronto, I was selected to become a member on the Caribana Board. Those days all islands had the opportunity to send representatives to sit on the Caribana Board. Sometimes there were close to 20 board members. Romain Pitt when asked in 67 why so many board members replied, "So that there will always be people around to carry the torch, when others leave the organization".
CCC Caribana survived for several years, until the early 80's when Harambee hi-jacked the organization and made several changes, including a reduction of the number of people on the board from various islands. The system of island representation and participation was gone and the Caribbean community lost interest in Caribana.. Harambee members believed they had the answer to move the festival forward. However they got rid of the events that helped to keep CCC afloat with little help from the three levels of government. Ironically, all three level of government were making millions from the visitors who came for festival from the UK, US, The Caribbean and several South American countries. ...Some of the South American countries tried to get involved, but were never given the opportunity to become a member of CCC and TMBA (Toronto Mass Band Association), which was established some years earlier. CCC - Caribana problems started once TMBA was on the playing field. The local news media also got involved and was very critical of CCC. Of course there were problems but instead of being critical in a positive way that would help CCC to get out of its sink-hole due to a lack of any form of funding from the governments. The city started to draws back on deals that once helped CCC to pay its bills at the end of the festival. Very little money was left and members had to use their own money to start the festival each year.Many people including the members of Harambee believed CCC board members were stealing thousands from the organization. It wasn't until they took control that they saw the cheques to some members were repayments for the loans they gave each year to start the festival. Harambee did apologize for spreading those false rumours, which it probably picked up from the local media ranting.
Then Harambee had no money in the cupboard and went to the government, cap-in-hand for funding. That's when the CCC problems began. All the new players saw an opportunity to seize control of the festival after several boards were unable to give accurate and transparent account of the government funding. Then in 2005 -2006 the city handed the festival to another group FMC.
And just like the Harambee group the new group believed it had the answers to the festival's problems because of government funding. FMC tried to use the festival as a business entity. Carnival in the Caribbean is a free cultural entity where folks get the opportunity to play Mas and enjoy themselves. Of course governments make millions from the festival, but give very little to the organizers. Incidentally, it took several years for FMC to use the same back-door it took to come in and left by the same route.
The Caribana Website
Today I am involved in building Websites after I was challenged in 20002 - 2003 by Dalma Hill, to obtain a Website for Caribana (The Caribbean Cultural Committee). This happened after I pointed out that Caribana should be on the Internet where many of its followers were congregating.
...I went with Dalma and Dennis Renwick to a lawyer's office in Brampton. The lawyer was involved in TRADE MARK issues. After a few minutes talking the lawyer left and came back with a receipt that had a site www.caribana-online.com issued in my name. On our way back I pointed out to my companions that it won?t be easy getting folks who had already registered Caribana.com, .ca, .net and others to release them.
However I was able to retrieve caribana.ca from a youth after his farther told him to release it. I registered .ca for CCC using the organization registered number. I also sent a memo to the active board indicating all the advantages that can be derived from the Website. Many board members were not ready and didn't believe me when I explained to them that Caribana can use the Internet to communicate with its audience, sell tickets for its events and be an advertisement vehicle for many businesses in the Caribbean community. I had a meeting with Dalma, but the board went into a lock-down and I was totally ignored.This new board didn't last long and Cariban- CCC lost government support months after.
I knew nothing about building Websites and had to hire a Chinese tutor who came to my home to help me construct the first OFFICAL Caribana website. Once the site came online in 2003 and was bombarded by visitors from more than 100 countries world-wide (run your mouse over the stats to increase the size) then a new board came after me for the site.
The hits were from all UE countries, China, India, Russia, South America, Africa, the Caribbean islands and several other nations. The number of visitors to the site started to draw attention from some boards, who wanted to take total control of the site. I offered to work with some boards, but they were not interested in working with me.
There were other people and groups inside and outside the organization looking at my ideas and work. One such group was Club Crawlers who took all the ideas I pass on to several boards and use them. It even rented caribana.ca, when it saw the number of visitors to the site from several countries, to perform some of its actions and events (hijacked from my emails to CCC boards). Later it obtained the rights to trade mark "CARIBANA? and has held on to it for several years. Presently its website includes links to Caribana.
I have been working with and on computers for over fifty years. Initially I was not hooked on computers even after I bought an apple PC for my children. It was later I got involved with computers, bought several PCs, got exposed to programming and educated myself on using the computer for home use.
HTLM5 Language
Dreamweaver Programming
CSS3 Language
Video Compilation Specialist
Photographic Journalist
C# Programming
Build A PC From Scratch
These Videos all tell stories of Carnivals
Many islands and nations in the Caribbean and South America, especially those where slavery was rampant, have carnival celebration as part of their culture. Some islands came on board later than others after they realized the events increase tourism and generate much needed money to their economy. Over 90 percent of participants playing mass are women. This is one area where women out-number men. Of course the guys are still around, but with cameras to snap every bum they get their eyes on.
Calypso/Soca are presented in different styles by young artists in the islands. Ragga Soca is the drawing card attracts Millenniums Youths in large numbers that are almost 100 time bigger that the calypso competition. They are just as involved and worked-up during most performances, as are many of their parents at the calypso events. Many Ragga Soca songs are based on wine and grind than on community events. The emphasis is to ?wine on something?. Something seen in the parades with many young girls dressed in G-string.
Large crowds attended performances by Arrow, Sparrow and other outstanding artists with some of the best Calypso/Soca songs during the twentieth century. Arrow performed in many countries and drew large crowds to his events. There are two calypsos sung and known worldwide ? ?HOT! HOT! HOT!" and ?WHO LET THE DOGS OUT?. Arrow was also one of Caribana?s favourite artists who performed at several events on Center Island. He passed away several years ago, but has left a legacy in the Calypso/Soca environment.
These Videos all tell stories of Caribbean Carnivals
August 5th 1967 was Caribana first street parade. Many people still believe this was the greatest parade presented by the Caribbean community in this city, this province and this country. We are grateful to the Watson family who recorded this historical event so the descendants of the Caribbean people would always remember how their culture was introduced to this city, this province and this country. They will also notice how very little was done to improve the cultural and living standard of the Caribbean community for more than 50 years.
Wherever there are Caribbean style carnivals there are still many old-time calypso tents, which drawn folks between the ages of 55 to 65 who do participate and jumps to some calypso and music that are catchy and sometimes based on political or other events in the area. This video shows the audience singing along with the entertainer and having a ball. I encouraged the SVG calypso organization to move around calypso tents to villages and towns, to keep the culture alive. They are also calypso tents for the youths between the ages of 10 to 17.
Many islands and nations in the Caribbean and South America, especially those where slavery was rampant, have carnival celebration as part of their culture. Some came on board later than others after they realize the events increase tourism and generate much needed money to the economy. Over 90 percent of participants are women. This is one area where women out-number men. Of course the guys are still around, but with cameras to snap every bum they get their eyes on.
Videos of Several 2000 Events
OCAP tried to promote calypso tents but failed to make it part of the Caribana festival. NYC and several Caribbean islands had artists that produced songs that became road march in many carnival parades in North America, the UK and most of the Caribbean islands. The young lady in this video performed at a tent in Toronoto where the Juice Man was MC.
One of CCC ? Caribana most famous events was the Caribana Queen Show. Thickets for the show were sold out in the US months in advance. FMC made several attempts to recreate an event like the Caribana Queen Show. The cost to attend this show was $100 plus close to five time the cost to the Queen Show which was $20 plus, yet it never generated the funds to cover the cost.
One of OCPA last successful calypso competition involved calypsonian Structure. His performance was fantastic and the topic for the song was both excellent and historic. Structure won every category with his presentation. It never made it to the road on Caribana day, but no song produced in Canada, except ?Who Let the Dogs Out? by Anslem Douglas made it out of the studio.