Vote PNC! Ruel will be Minister!

what is wrong with Ruel being a minister? He is as bright, articulate and quite as competent of that minister in a dispute with him. The minister did not answer his questions specifically but went on a harangue about the criticisms as hate speech and that is stupid for him to do.

And a note to other Ministers, this is how you respond to JACKASSES.

Do you have any bloody shame left or you will forever be a HOE???

of ..... ???  

Foolish man, the PPP is in no position to antagonize anyone. If a minister diminishes his office by assuming a citizen, demanding answers, making assumptions is to be answered by presuming the citizen hateful then he is the poorer for it. But all of these fellows never had any experience in managing people before they entered office. One expects this tactless response.

Ask TI since he knows. In any event, what makes this fellow less competent than say ramotar? His race?

It is really Mr Nehru who is the BIG FOOL. 

Nehru Bhai, where is the letter by Mr. Ruel Johnson?

Johnson is one of the bright young men in Guyana today. These duncies in the PPP are threatened by bright young people. They do not take kindly to any kind of criticism. Whether it comes from citizens or external organizations. They will always lash out at critics instead of first analyzing the problem and finding solutions which can improve life in Guyana. There is always something wrong with individual critics or reputable organizations such as the World bank and Transparency International.

Doan forget, Johnson bLack, no suit and he got f'd up hair, so he musbe a badman.

The Culture Minister should get his house in order before he seeks to comment on who has nothing to offer to literary development

January 8, 2014
Dear Editor,

I am happy to see that, justifiably following the Minister of Culture’s red herring lamentations#800000;">on funding and the Caribbean Press, the parliamentary opposition has decided to focus greater scrutiny on Dr Frank Anthony’s stewardship of public expenditure under his control, the Press in particular.


Now I want to take the chance to focus on another aspect of the Minister’s recent press conference, the point where he states, “And some of the local people who have been criticising have nothing to contribute to the development of the literary art forms or the publications.”

As one of the people who has been criticizing his mismanagement of the Press, I can personally attest to the fact that neither the Minister nor his government, has absolutely any interest in working with willing stakeholders towards the development of the literary arts in Guyana.

The Minister might want to explain, for example, what happened to the Carifesta X (2008) Anthology of Poetry for which work was solicited in the lead-up to Guyana’s hosting of the event under his watch. He might also want to explain why there were no writers on the literary arts contingent for the Inter-Guianas Cultural Festival held in French Guiana last year. As for the Carifesta contingent, I was the only representative Guyanese writer there and I went on my own – it was only after I reminded organisers of an initial engagement for representation that I was, after arrival in Suriname, given a badge and space was provided for me to set up my books.

Interestingly enough, I was (having registered independently) the only Guyanese presenter at the Book Business workshops, the precise sort of session where one would expect that a representative of the Caribbean Press would have been happy to showcase Guyana’s supposed successes.

Unable to adequately defend his failure to stick to his promises to establish an editorial board for the Press, the Minister snidely asserts that local critics “have nothing to contribute to the development of the literary art forms or the publications.”


As the most vocal of said critics, I feel obliged to rebut this characteristic petulance and attempt at misdirection.  Firstly, I can remind the Minister that when he put out an extremely limited solicitation for submissions for a “national anthology of poetry” to be published by the Caribbean Press three years ago, I was the one who insisted as a prerequisite for my contribution that a national call for submissions be widely publicized and those selected be given workshop training, which I volunteered in meetings to undertake in order to ensure that what was published by the Press represented the best quality of what the country had to offer.

When the Ministry reneged on a promise to provide venues for further meetings to discuss the way forward, I arranged the venue at which the final meeting was held, subsequent to which the Ministry disengaged completely.

When the Guyana Prize held workshops early last year in a lead-up to the most recent awards, I voluntarily conducted the workshops on poetry and short fiction, and that is after the Minister tried to silence my criticism on the Caribbean Press by threatening to sue me for libel via a lawyer’s letter.  The participants in those sessions have asked for follow-up workshops, and I have long indicated my willingness to collaborate with the University of Guyana to voluntarily conduct these, but so far I have received no indication that there is any interest on the part of the university or the Guyana Prize Committee itself to move forward. I have since held several free private sessions with emerging writers, as well as a poetry workshop funded by a private entity.

While the University of Guyana has shown no indication of engaging either myself or any of the other Guyana Prize winners in post-Prize activities, I am currently in Germany where I three weeks ago conducted a workshop/discussion on “Locating Guyanese Literature” at the University of Heidelberg, during which I spoke about the emerging talent that exists in Guyana although hidden from the rest of the world or even the region due to the poor literary development infrastructure.  I have a reading/presentation at the university on the 17th where I will both speak on the work of Martin Carter and about the emerging literary talent that is available in Guyana.  I will do the same at a poetry festival in Amsterdam on the 30th. Subsequent to my presentation in Suriname during Carifesta, I was approached by a European arts group to co-curate their literary festival in Amsterdam later this year, and out of my six emerging talent recommendations from the Caribbean, two are resident Guyanese.


I’ve repeatedly volunteered my engagement with the Caribbean Press, both in terms of helping to develop a sustainable operational framework as well as actively participating in the development of emerging talent to be published by the Press, to no avail.

It is therefore not that critics of the Minister’s mismanagement have nothing to offer – it is that the Minister in particular and the government in general have consistently found ways of evading actual progress on a literary development environment while funnelling millions of dollars into mechanisms that have a great deal of fanfare and nothing of substance in this regard.  Consider, for example, their refusal to move forward on as basic an issue as adequate copyright legislation, and the state sanctioned and sponsored textbook piracy fiasco of 2012.

Then there is the issue of the complete lack of respect shown to people who still insist on engaging in literary activity despite the negative environment established by the government.  I publicly queried months ago the absence of official Guyana Prize certificates for the winners of the last awards (boycotted by the entire cabinet including Dr Anthony), and neither the Guyana Prize Committee nor the government had the decency to respond privately or publicly.

A month ago, the Minister of Culture was featured smiling for the cameras handing out trophies at the award ceremonies for the National Drama Festival; however, to date many of the persons involved, from playwrights to actors to service providers have not been paid, reminiscent of a similar situation after Carifesta in 2008, the difference being that the festival is privately sponsored by Digicel.  The only reason that this situation hasn’t erupted is due to the environment of fear that the PPP has infused this society with, so that while anger at the nonpayment has flared on social media, those affected are hesitant to publicise as basic a thing as their right to remuneration from the ministry.

While the Minister is hopefully cooperating with a parliamentary probe into the operations of the Caribbean Press, he might also use the opportunity to get the rest of his house in order before he seeks to comment on who has nothing to offer to literary development in Guyana.

Yours faithfully,
Ruel Johnson

There is no real assistance for theatre in Guyana from the Ministry of Culture

January 14, 2014
Over the past few days there has been a lot of ‘brouhaha’ about the functioning of the National Cultural Centre (NCC). Having produced approximately 200-odd shows at the centre since 1981, each year producing one of the longest running shows, I have decided to have my say.
The Minister of Culture on two public occasions, within the last three months and on other occasions, complained about the centre losing money and that it cannot sustain its operations because, he claims, of its low rentals. The  Minister, however, fails to present all the facts.
What he does not reveal is that the rental is but a fraction of what the centre charges producers and a small percentage of the real income of the centre. Perhaps the Minister has not been properly advised by his Permanent Secretary.

I would like to state some figures that my company and other theatrical producers pay to use this facility.

The NCC charges a $80,000 flat rental for the entire building, including 27 staff seats in the back of the auditorium which the Ministry of Culture and NCC staff use to invite their families and friends to see your show at no cost and the 14 or 16 ‘VIP’ seats in the balcony front which we are not allowed to sell and are used by the administration to seat their friends and families or anyone else who needs a free seat to your show.

In addition to the basic rental of $80,000, the producer pays a surcharge of 20% on all ticket prices, the rental of bars (even though you are competing with the vendors at the main entrance who do not pay a  cent), for the printing of tickets, a charge for the use of your video camera to film your own show, for rehearsals (only one rehearsal is given at no cost), for ushers, for front of house staff and security (additional required to secure the patrons’ vehicles) on a nightly basis. Calculated on ticket prices of $2000, $1500 and  $1000, and a full house, the producer pays approximately  26% of the gross income to the NCC  plus 16%  VAT to the GRA. Altogether 42% of the producer’s gross income for each night is paid over to the government.

From the remaining 58% , (and the producer has to hope for a full house)  the producer has to pay the following: – fees to performers and production team; publicity; cost for  building set and props; costumes; makeup and hair; royalties; photocopying; rental of rehearsal space; transportation; photography; videography and refreshments before realizing a profit.
Given all of the above, the producer has to hope for sponsorship from the private sector and a good audience turn-out to make it.

The fact is that there is no real assistance for theatre in Guyana from the ministry. Producers cannot take the risk of staging serious dramatic productions for fear of going into the red, as I have often experienced. Hence, comedies are the only option producers have to keep the theatre alive at the NCC. The grand mega concerts, bringing in foreign artists are given waiver of VAT under the pretext of tourism. How many tourists come to Guyana to see these shows then take a holiday to see our flora and fauna?

A word to the Minister: If he wants the NCC to be financially self-sufficient, then he should introduce a policy for allocating production dates which give priority to profitable productions for the centre. It is not rocket science to figure out the productions that bring in huge income to the ministry’s coffers. Ensure that these productions are given good dates, such as weekend nights, especially Saturdays, which are premium nights.
Inexplicably, over the last few years, the centre has penalized producers renting the theatre on holiday nights by imposing punitive charges like overtime for all NCC staff working on the production, that includes security, maintenance and cleaning and technical staff.

The Minister needs to make up his mind either to have the NCC run as a business or subsidize it as a state-run institution used for a number of governmental and national events which do not bring in an income and then have the private producers feel the squeeze by the imposition of excessively high rental and other costs to pay for the ‘freebies.’

The sound system has also attracted public comment and it continues to be a sore point. Patrons paying their hard-earned money for tickets cannot enjoy a show because they cannot hear. This has been happening for years even when the sound system was new because of the technical incompetence of the staff. The lights have suffered a similar fate for the same reason. Productions have suffered from the technical staff not doing their jobs. Lights are turned off or on at the wrong time ruining a scene in spite of lighting scripts provided by the production for rehearsals.

I have travelled and been to theatres all over the world. You can dress up or dress down as you please but at the NCC, every night patrons have to be hassled by a ‘dress code’ rule for a theatre that cannot provide proper sound, lights and an operating air conditioning system. We need to get our priorities right. The current AC unit has collapsed and plans are afoot to replace it but when? We continue to lose audiences over these issues. I have seen families of 5 or 6 persons spending $10,000 to $12,000 on tickets having to return home because one member is wearing a denim pants or a track shoes in the group. These theatre-goers will not return. They are being driven away by an antediluvian policy.  Which world are the creators of these foolish rules living in? This is the 21st century.

I fully support the observations of the artists of the Drama Festival (letter in press on January 13) and feel it is time for professional respect to be shown to all performing artists.

I close by giving kudos to the ministry for the National Drama Festival in which I participated and now have the pleasure of being a judge and the National School of Drama in which I am a tutor. I hope the standard and level of these two much needed programmes improve with the years and help to advance the quality and standard of theatre in Guyana.  It should be mandatory for all staff of the NCC to attend the Drama School or recruit new staff from the school.

I have written numerous unacknowledged letters, left many unreturned phone messages and suffered cancelled appointments over the years in an effort to sit down and discuss these matters with the Minister. I remain at his service should he wish to draw on my experience.

Yours faithfully,
Gem Madhoo-Nascimento
Managing Director
GEMS Theatre Productions &
GEMS Inc