Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, Gail Teixeira, is asking the populace to give the National Mashramani Committee five years to bring the Mashramani festivities to a standard comparable with similar festivities elsewhere.

Delivering the main address at the Mashramani 2002 prize giving ceremony at the Umana Yana last Friday in Kingston, she said "give us five years" to bring the Mashramani festivities to a high standard, and by the year 2005 the committee will begin to fulfil that promise.

Stating, "we do not define" Mashramani as carnival, Teixeira said that Mashramani was a uniquely Guyanese festival celebrated in various ways from one end of the country to the other. She noted that Mashramani was not only an occasion to celebrate after a successful cooperative effort, and pointed out that Mash was a way of healing for the nation and an occasion to display national pride. Highlighting the pride with which Guyanese waved miniature Golden Arrowheads this year, she said that the recent Mash Day could have been described as a Guyana `Flag Day'.

The improvements seen in costumes and in some other activities were credited by Teixeira to the workshops and seminars in costume design, calypsos and steel pan conducted by experts in the various areas from neighbouring Trinidad and Tobago.

Announcing that the team that worked on this year's Mashramani celebration will continue to work on next year's Mash activities, Teixeira said that the group would take a two-month recess and reconvene planning for next year's activities by June month-end. The Mashramani Secretariat will remain at Middle Street. This year's Mashramani activities were launched in October last year.

Evaluating this year's Mash activities, the minister said that the committee took the decision to work on the marketing of Mashramani, especially among overseas-based Guyanese, with the local tour operators. The one million Guyanese in the diaspora, she said, could fill all the local hotels and help to keep Mash going each year.

Other decisions taken by the committee included strengthening Mashramani among the private sector and encouraging the development of entrepreneurial skills in the production of costumes and other paraphernalia including craft items for sale at Mash time.

In terms of encouraging private sector sponsorship, she said that the idea of bringing the business sector on board was not to ask for charity but to show them how "Mash is business".

A decision has also been taken to reintroduce Mash Nite next year to encourage designers in the production of large costumes.

Noting that the crowd this year was one of the largest to ever witness a Mash Day and Float Parade, Teixeira said that the issue of crowd control will be re-examined so as to allow for free movement of costumes as well as to keep the route accident free.

Because of the time spent on the road, Teixeira said that children under 15 years of age should not be allowed to be part of the costume bands. They should either be on a vehicle on the parade, or they should not be in the parade at all, she said. The Costume Band and Float Parade was too long and stressful for children, she said, and they should really take part in the Children's Road March coordinated by the Allied Arts Unit of the Education Ministry.

Apart from the winners of the Mashramani activities, a number of organisations, companies, media houses and individuals were honoured for helping to make this year's festivities a success. Among those honoured were the coordinator of the National Mashramani Secretariat, Lennox Canterbury, and two media houses, the Guyana Broadcasting Corporation and CNS Channel 6. Both media houses were cited for outstanding coverage of the Mash activities.

Among the traditional sponsors honoured were Fernleaf Milk Powder for seven years of sponsorship, Demtoco, Banks DIH and Omai Gold Mines Ltd.

Among the new sponsors were Demerara Distillers Ltd, Computer World and the Pan American Health Organisation, Alfro Alphonso of Charity, Pomeroon who sponsored a regional calypso competition, the Allan Fenty Cook-up show, the Guyana Today show, the Guyana Red Cross Society and Don Gomes of Schuler and Gomes Optical Services as a Mashramani activist. The Lions Clubs of Upper Demerara, Berbice and Georgetown, which also kept gates at the various activities in Georgetown, Linden and Blairmont among other venues were also honoured for services rendered.

Those receiving prizes were the winners of the adult and youth calypso competitions, the steel pan competition, illuminated buildings competition, the masquerade competition, the children's road march and the costume and float parade. (Miranda La Rose)