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PHILIPSBURG – Minister of Youth and Culture Silveria Jacobs is looking at ways of increasing youth participation in calypso in a bid to preserve the art form in St. Maarten.
“We are looking at ways to increase youth participation by offering workshops in writing calypsos and the like to keep that art form alive,†Minister Jacobs said at the weekly Council of Minister’s press conference. This comes against the backdrop that participation in the youth calypso competition during Carnival is declining.
On that note, the Minister also spoke about the safety of children during their involvement in Carnival festivities. “I know this created quite a bit of discussion as well in terms of the ages of the young people that they are allowing into village for shows. Some of my concerns were also centered around young people taking part in some of the jump ups. That has become common place,†the Minister said.
Meanwhile, Jacobs said the government is looking to develop an agreement with the St. Maarten Carnival Development Foundation (SCDF) to determine the level of support from government to the festivities.  “In the future we would sit and actually discuss an actual SLA between government and the Carnival Development Foundation to be able to put agreements in place as to what we would like to see – the culture of St. Maarten promoted – as we felt that Carnival has become another music festival,†she stated. She said government is not able to restrict SCDF from doing what they are doing with Carnival, but government provides funding to promote the festivities outside of St. Maarten.
