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SEYCHELLES CHILDREN SAW LAST CARNIVAL WITH A DIFFERENT EYE AS NOTTING HILL CARNIVAL OF THE UK MADE THEM PART OF THEIR DELEGATION ON CARNIVAL PARADE DAY & ALSO MEET ISLAND S NON-GOVERNMENT ORGANISATION
ATP- arab tourism portal- Cultural Events continue to be a battle contesting patriotism with the island s culture, its cultural power and its cultural strategy is analysed by some in purely economic terms.
It has been proven, by even larger states than Seychelles, that some benefits of cultural events are often not measurable by in only economic means. Benefits derived by a country from cultural events helps to safeguard the only finer that brings continuity for a population because a people with no culture is short lived.
Today Victoria is seen as being not being the buoyant city it deserves to be after four pm when Government Offices closes.
Victoria will not move from its current state of affairs for example if the island’s culture is not showcased in every ways and means possible to help bring the needed life in Victoria which will also ensure that the business community of Victoria benefits from it.
This is the most common comment received from Cruise Ship visitors who walk through Victoria way past the four pm closure of Government Offices and often on Saturday afternoons and on Sundays.
Claire Holder of the Notting Hill Carnival of the UK is as much a giver as she fights for her carnival delegation to remain amongst the best in the world. Notting Hill Carnival is today recognised as the biggest carnival.
Claire Holder works hard to get her local communities to get as involved with the Notting Hill Carnival in the UK. In April on the occasion of the 5th Anniversary of the Seychelles Carnaval International de Victoria, Claire Holder and some members of her delegation met with members of some of the Seychelles Non-Government Organisations to discuss their take on their island’s carnival and to encourage them to work to take ownership of their carnival.
The Seychelles Carnival is one that remains open to the island’s local groups and many more organisations could use the event to get their own organisations more known and to increase the visibility of their causes.
The head of the Notting Hill Carnival met with Alain St.Ange, the Seychelles Minister responsible for Tourism and Culture following her meeting with the island’s Non-Government Organisations to discuss the points raised at the meeting. Minister St.Ange agreed with Claire Holder that more needed to be done by the Team Organising the Seychelles Carnival to get more local organisations involved in ways and means most suited to them.
"Seychelles stages an event that is today the biggest even organised in the islands. It is the only event that brings way over half the total population of Seychelles on to the streets of Victoria. It is important to continue to encourage more and more local organisations to see themselves in the event that is today galvanising the Seychellois in the spirit of unity beyond politics, religious and colour of the skin. The discussions we had with Claire Holder will be discussed by the Tourism Board with their Events Department in order to hear the voices of our island’s Non-Government Organisations" said Minister St.Ange.
At the last April Carnival in Seychelles a group of seven children of the islands saw their carnival with a different eye because they paraded as part of the world’s famous Notting Hill Carnival delegation. Their costumes were also flown in with those of the UK’s carnival troupe. These Seychellois children it is hoped will talk to their colleagues at school and with their siblings at home to discuss their very own impression of being past of one of the best carnival delegation in the only carnival parade that brings together all the very best carnivals and also that most popular ones.
Speaking about why delegations such as Notting Hill from the UK, the Brazil carnival, the Italy delegation, the Dusseldorf Carnival from Germany and the Indonesian Carnival are invited to be in Seychelles for the island’s carnival, Alain St.Ange, the Seychelles Minister responsible for Tourism and Culture said that if Seychelles wanted to have a cultural event that earn recognition from the Community of Nations it needs to ensure the best of the best are also in Seychelles for the event. "It is that diversity that brings the international press to Seychelles and it is such a drive that will move sleepy Victoria into the Capital City the tourism destination of the Seychelles deserves" the Minister said.
