Balisiers on a Plane
I wasn’t quite sure what to think when I saw this story on the news last night. Yes the balisier is a flower - a pretty flower at that - and it makes up part of the flora of Trinidad and Tobago. However, the balisier is also the political symbol of the ruling PNM, which makes the situation a little dicey when someone decides to use the flower outside of the political arena. So when Caribbean Airlines, a national airline, employs the use of a balisier on some of the planes, I have to wonder who’s doing the thinking over there.
The plus (or minus, depending on how you look at it) is that both the balisier used by the PNM and the balisier used in this painting are true representations of what the flower looks like and not some over-the-top, Pablo Picassoesque artists’s interpretation of it. So you can say either that (1) the artist employed by Caribbean Airlines did not necessarily use the PNM’s symbol or (2) it’s the same balisier and that now that it’s widely accepted as a political symbol, it can’t be used anywhere else ESPECIALLY not on Government property.
If they had used the UNC’s rising sun symbol as opposed to a sunrise, now that would have been trouble. Clearly one is an artist’s interpretation of the other and it would be sheer madness to use the former instead of the latter.
Me? I’m wondering why the folks over at Caribbean Airlines would so willingly court the ire of a very divided society when it was oh so avoidable. They were bound to know that this was going to be a contentious issue. Why not use the Chaconia, our national flower, instead? The whole thing is neither here nor there with me, but I think that either someone wasn’t thinking at all or that they were thinking way too much. And the conspiracy theorist in this Manicou leans towards the latter. But say wha.
Poor flower. It never signed up for up for this bacchanal. It was happy just growing up in the forest being a flower. I guess that’s the price it pays for being pretty. No one’s clamouring to place a banana flower on plane or party - lucky it.
20 Responses to “Balisiers on a Plane”
By bandwagonist on Feb 21, 2008 | Reply
after reading the Newsday article i now realise what going on here…. its very similar to the Pavement excercise going on in Curepe… its called FRAUD…
U$16K and its in-house? i don’t understand why so much if it is in-house… CEO Saunders “…He said the repainting, design and decals (process of transferring the design on the tails), on each plane is currently being done in-house at the cost of US$16,000 each.”
and then they will have to pay somebody else to redesign for about ten times the amount… just for design…
I wonder when the last PNM administration, who let Ken Valley do all the bad work, didn’t envisage that they would have had to paint these tails… oh how i miss the beauty of the Steelpan that BWIA used…
By bandwagonist on Feb 21, 2008 | Reply
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/ca/Bwiauniforms.jpg
By Game well and truly over on Feb 21, 2008 | Reply
I am also a fan of the old steelpan logo. This is a travesty, and I don’t know which is worse: the fact that this will give Panday more “creeping dictatorship” ammunition, or the fact that he may be right…
By Game well and truly over on Feb 21, 2008 | Reply
I’m sorry, I can’t help it…
“I AM SO TIRED OF THESE MOTHAF&CKING BALISIERS ON THIS MOTHAF&CKING PLANE!”
By LaLunePress on Feb 21, 2008 | Reply
The Balisier, as a natural part of our biodiversity, does not belong to any PNM or any other organization (any more than the sun or the Trinity Hills belongs to the UNC). Are we going to condemn the plant or despise its very existence for that reason alone?
Its very true that a ‘national’ airline should not be seen to promoting a symbol even resembling that of a political party, but it is also obvious that whoever decided to put it there was fully aware of the likely reaction, and decided it was time to pull out some absurdity to attract controversy (bacchanal sells!). Maybe we should focus on trying to figure out what they are trying to distract us from.
Incidentally, I have a vague recollection of a party called the DPTT having a symbol with both a hummingbird and a hibiscus flower (both of which appear to be represented here). Remember, the political leader of DPTT on the leadership council of the UNC-Alliance, so it can be argued that in some form the main opposition party is also included. These things are just flora and fauna - nobody can own them, only use them!
By Ian on Feb 22, 2008 | Reply
LaLunePress: Weather you like it or not, the PNM “owns” this symbol. By using at as their party symbol it gets
published EVERYWHERE and so becomes synonymous with them. Same goes for the rising sun. If CA were to put a shell on their tail I’m sure the Shell oil company would object if it LOOKED similar to their corporate identity. This is because they OWN that symbol and it has become synonymous with them. This is INTENTIONAL. Unfortunately this leads to the unhappy realisiation that you CANNOT PUT the balisier (nor the rising sun for that matter) ON a NATIONAL airline. You can USE it anywhere else (however it STILL may be construed as political) and so that poor flower, owned by the PNM, cannot be used anywhere, ‘jus so’, the symbol it represents is too well known!
Mani: This WAS intentional but LONG b4 the artist worked on this plane tail. . . Williams KNEW what he was doing when he made the Balisier the PNM symbol. . . you can’t HELP now but associate it with the PNM! So its ok to use it on the plane but in OUR minds it represents the PNM, nice huh?
Game well and truly over: Very funny! That one was a hoot!
By TBLP on Feb 22, 2008 | Reply
The Balisier is a part of the PNM’s brand and it is simply not appropriate for the logo of the Caribbean Airlines. There are countless alternatives. This is adds fuel to the intrigue, ole talk and bacchanal that our brothers and sisters consider so gripping. Pity they could not just do it right the first time and not waste our people’s time and money.
By GB on Feb 22, 2008 | Reply
http://thumbprints.co.tt/spade/graffiti.php?street-art=spade-heil-santa-monica-02
By trini gyal on Feb 22, 2008 | Reply
I wonder how much money they bribed Francois Pariseau in order to put the flower on the airplane? I don’t care what anyone says - there are many other things which represent Trinidad & Tobago than the balisier.
<a href=”http://www.idletribes.com/node/4832 /”Read article here”
By IanR on Feb 23, 2008 | Reply
You have been awarded the highly prestigious “E for Excellence” award in blogging (otherwise known as the latest blogosphere meme). Seriously though - I thought your blog worthy of recognition.
By Ian on Feb 23, 2008 | Reply
Trini Gyal: You seem to forget. . . this ISN’T about T&T anymore. . . this about the Caribbean. . . we always seem to forget that BWIA (even though it was TOUTED as a Caribbean carrier) is a T&T run operation. However in this case the CA people WANT it to be seen as MORE Caribbean and Less T&T. . . so a Balisier in Jamaica means nothing to them like it does for us, but we are so bold-faced to think that by putting the Balisiser on the tail of the plane is ‘representative of T&T’ It NOT representative of T&T its representative of the Caribbean!
By Karel - Caribbean Public Relations on Feb 23, 2008 | Reply
It’s not just a flower, the balisier has become a very strong, highly recognisable brand. While the airline says it was simply using symbols that represent the Caribbean, it just really isn’t smart to use a symbol that is highly associated with politics.
And yes, Government and political party, theoretically, are supposed to be different mechanisms, but in our two-party system (it still is one in the minds of majority of people despite the COP), the fact is that the ruling party is the Government and vice versa.
When a company is partly state-owned, it really is smarter to avoid this sort of scenario. I mean, the word “duh” should have come to mind when thinking that there would be public outcry about the use of the balisier on Caribbean Airlines’ tail.
By Withheld on Feb 23, 2008 | Reply
Aren’t there close to 200 types of Heliconia? Why is the PNM one they had to pick?
By bandwagonist on Feb 23, 2008 | Reply
bcause is PNM country…
By Jill on Feb 25, 2008 | Reply
yeah, PNM totally killed the baliser.. I saw a trini flag on the Caribbean Airlines plane i was boarding, isn’t that enough? Or is our flag PNM too :S And dey prob out of money so they can’t change the thing either *rolls eyes* better than patrick’s big ol face on de plan i suppose.
By Parmeshwar on Mar 6, 2008 | Reply
The Balisier has been a symbol of oppression and racial discrimination of Indian- Trinidadians for years since the rule of Dr Eric Williams. To have a symbol such as this painted on a national Carrier where over half the population of T&T have endured Psychological trauma with regards to that symbol it is very distasteful. Yes It’s Caribbean Airlines but my damn taxes go towards paying for that and it’s hard earned Trinidadian Dollars!
By bandwagonist on Mar 6, 2008 | Reply
steups… ^
By Shivonne on Mar 7, 2008 | Reply
why steups?
By bandwagonist on Mar 7, 2008 | Reply
i had to steups cause out of all the arguments i just dont see race as a related issue…
i’ve never experienced the ‘psychological trauma’ associated with the balisier
By Shivonne on Apr 9, 2008 | Reply
^I never used to understand that POV myself, especially as someone whose identity is not wrapped up in her ethnicity, until I became good friends with older persons as an adult. It’s clear to me now that the ‘psychological trauma’ is quite real to many people.