I’m frustrated, circumstances which seem to be stagnant and dormant frustrate me, even with the signposts signaled to actually make amends, these people still choose to feel they know what is best and things are just FRUSTRATING. Botswana's creative element, being art in all regards seems to be taken for granted, underrated to say the least. This is where my heart is, this is where I feel at home and ever effortless in what I do. Can we really say this 'industry' is growing? It’s quite demoralizing and depressing to be passionate about something that your country does not seem to appreciate its worth, because we all know that earning a living in this country has been established to be 'the formal path', going to school and earning a degree. That’s how you earn your living here, as for art, it’s rarely that you have continuous jobs or gigs to do, money is basically a damn hustle.... How are artists fueled to grow, how are talents nurtured here? To get sponsored by this council should not seem such a hard task, why should it? Yes, there is some that they do, but it is too far from being enough. We see the same acts every single year, and their growth is entirely small.Obviously more should be done. The shows might be expanding on the prizes and so forth they offer, but what about the participators themselves?? What happens to them? silence seems to rule as the answer for this. And please, can they drop the whole ‘we don’t have money’ story. We don't even have a school of arts for goodness sake. When we all know the money to establish it is there, money is just being used in other directions and art seems to be the furthest. Apparently the one in Oodi that was built is collapsing and it was never even opened( i dont know how true this is, but since we rarely get info in any regards to this, we shall take the little we hear into consideration) *sigh*.. The people who were appointed for runnings of arts and such (youth and culture) seem to be doing nothing. What are we saying as aspiring artists, if we want to change the situation? It’s like artistry is a hobby, and should not be paid for, even the 'resources' for it are overlooked to be needed. This is just depressing. Makes you want to leave this forsaken country! lol.. but seriously, something has to change. We know how already hard it is to make it in this industry, but the likelihood seems to be diminishing even further, and it looks like it is going to take a while for this to happen, im talking 'a period of years' while, by the look of things. so, should we package all the skills we have to fit in that time. I know I’m not the first person to say this, mention or complain if you can call it complaining. I just wish for people to stop blindsiding themselves to the facts in front of them. Art is not being given a chance it deserves in Botswana. Who should we talk to if we try directly talk to these people and still, stagnant waters. Patience, yes, it’s certainly a virtue. But some issues have been overlooked too much. I just think talent is immense here, the creativity is mind boggling. We just need to be seen beyond the shadows of doubt which has been covered over us, we are capable of incredible things. petitions if we may, to save who we are, art! we just can't always hope to work in order to finance our dreams. this should be a violation to nature's law. :)
