Fiasco of the year 1999
I would like to give my humble views on what I consider to be the FIASCO OF THE YEAR in our beloved Trinidad and Tobago. The idea came to me when I saw what took place on national television with the Millennium Expo. Immediately I began to shortlist some events that would give that venture some stiff competition and found out that none could even compare or even enter into the category of the Miss Universe 1999 beauty show or pageant. This fiasco turned out to be the mother of all fiascoes and I would attempt to provide some info for giving it top billing.
The promoters first claimed on television it would not be costing the country one cent, and that the benefit to us would be in the region of around 800 million TT dollars, when in fact the real cost to us citizens was around 100 million.
They promised us that all of our hotels would have been overfilled, so much so that a floating hotel would be needed to accommodate the volume of visitors, which of course did not materialize.
They said it was all about the small man and a big market place was set up in the Savannah for him/her to benefit, which collapsed.
All the promoters of the event claimed publicly that over 2.5 billion people would be watching the event and that two months after the contest, thousands of tourists would be visiting our shores monthly just like Hawaii, which callers on talk shows exposed instantly as lies.
When questions were asked about the always unrealistic and unattainable promises, one of the promoters said that citizens should rise up against the journalist. who dared sheepishly question how public funds were being spent.
Our country would be known around the world as a result of the millions and millions being spent on the show, which would be a comical statement if it was not so tragically true.
When the event was over with and the enormity of the fiasco was apparent to all and sundry, in less than 24 hours the promoters closed down the company responsible for the show.
Can you imagine millions and millions of taxpayers dollars spent and the instrument of accountability closed down so quickly. Now it seems that none of the promoters of Miss Universe 1999 wants to be associated with that gigantic faux pas. Nobody is claiming it as a feather in his or her cap, or as a good done for the country. Better yet as an example of our tax dollars working for us. However, with a reported price tag of 100 million TT dollars we as citizens still do not know the exact sum of money spent on the event. A broad estimate was given that did not include the vast sums of money spent by TSTT, T&TEC, WASA and other organizations. More information was promised and it is obvious to all with the closing of the pageant company so quickly, something was being forestalled.
Be that as it may, there are still some outstanding questions that needs to be asked, for eg.
With such enormous sums of money to be spent, did anybody remember to do a feasibility study or provide a business plan to the owners of the money [I doubt that the Small Business Company would have approved that venture, also the World Beat Music Festival shindig].
Why did our local people repeat Mr. Trump's sales pitch to the very end that 2.5 billion people would have been watching the show when at no time in the history of the event has viewership ever been over 12 million.
Why didn't our highly paid Tourism industry officials, and the promoters of the contest check Mr. Trump's claim that Hawaii 's tourism improved tremendously after hosting the previous show. They might be surprised to know that the Hawaiian Tourism Authority posts such information on their website and the figures showed an actual decline for the months that Mr. Trump was claiming thousands upon thousands were visiting the island because of his show. What about Namibia before that?, and the many losses that they suffered.
Did we as a nation, come to such a sorry pass because of a round of golf and did we really believe that hosting an American produced event on local soil would have brought droves of people to our shores, when Barbados, Jamaica, Cuba and the Bahamas, have been developing lucrative industries minus very very expensive one night stands.
So it is without any hesitation I would like to proclaim Miss Universe 1999,the fiasco of the year, the Millennium Expo pales in comparison.
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