By John Mair
CWN Georgetown

CaribWorldNews, GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Tues. Aug. 26, 2008: St. Lucian-born born nobel laureate, Derek Walcott, has accused Caribbean governments of ‘selling our land like whores to foreign  investors.’

Walcott  took advantage of  the opening  literary session at Carifesta X in Guyana to slam into many targets, including the regional governments. He said many are selling off the region without demanding much in return. As he put it: `Prostitution is a thing called development.`

Walcott, who won the Noble for Literature in 1992, did not mince words. He called the land situation in his own homeland of St. Lucia an “obscenity of greed.`

`It is about bribery. It is about corruption,` he said, adding that huge hotels are being built by foreigners with no cultural or other gain being offered to local communities.

And Walcott urged governments to “tell these investors we need a theatre, we need a museum.`

`Right now we ain’t got nothing. The theatre in St, Lucia  is an abomination,` he said. As a sideswipe, Walcott related modern hotels to slavery saying that ‘at least the slaves did not have to smile.`

Walcott had been brought, reluctantly, to Carifesta, having condemned the whole idea in the past. He was still lukewarm
`Why is culture being celebrated when governments are to be blamed for continually depriving artists of necessary support,’ he asked? 

The top poet called for more scholarships, citing the example of the St. Lucian theatre student who would have to buy her own books in Trinidad. And he demanded more specific Caribbean government spending just on arts and culture. `We need simultaneous thinking. Bread and poetry at the same time,’ he added.

Walcott also engaged in a spirited exchange with Guyana’s President Bharrat Jagdeo, who had opened the session, on money for arts. Jagdeo pointed out his need for rational resource allocation on limited budgets. But Walcott swatted him away saying. `I am 78 and I have been hearing these arguments since I was fifteen.`

It was not a meeting of the minds although the two could be seen in spirited discussion later.

Carifesta X continues for another week in Guyana. Earlier, thousands of Guyanese turned out on the Georgetown sea wall for a stunning display of aerobatics by the Brazilian Smoke Squadron while twenty thousand showed up at a super concert featuring Dave Martins the night before.