Restructure Debt or Culture Will Evaporate
August 11, 2009
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In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Germany was the world's cultural and industrial epicenter....until its government drove the nation into too much debt and the bankers cut it off from credit. Unless we restructure our debt soon, we are heading into a path not too much different than Germany in the early twentieth century.....
We are beginning to see the arts shut down across the nation as finances run dry.....
Organizers for the Birmingham Heritage Festival planned this weekend in Linn Park have canceled the event, citing financial problems that left them with budget shortfalls and an inability to pay for city permits.
"We were faced with many obstacles that we were not able to recover from," Lawrence Walker of the Ascension Event Management Group said tonight in a prepared statement. "We would like for the public to know that we did have contracts on all of the artists that were advertised and we did fall into budget shortfalls due to an investor pulling out at a late hour."
Artists including Keyshia Cole, Angie Stone and Chaka Kahn were billed as performers at the R&B festival.
Walker in late July asked the city of Birmingham for a $300,000 30-day loan to finance the festival. Walker said he turned to the city after exhausting all other financial options and having a major backer pull out. He said MillerCoors, Jack Daniels and Coca-Cola were tentative sponsors who had not yet signed contracts.
Walker at the time said about 18,000 tickets have been sold and the city's money would be used to pay for festival acts.
While some council members sympathized with Walker's plight, the group refused to front city money for the event, just days after City Stages had filed for bankruptcy. City Stages received $550,000 from the city, including $250,000 days before the gates opened.
Walker said he decided the best thing to do was end it now.
"We wanted to end in a fashion that would prevent us from reliving the mistakes of City Stages," he said. "We hope to recoup from this loss."
AS THE PRIMARY DEALERS ARE NOW THE KEY BUYERS OF OUR NATION'S DEBT....IF THE BANKERS CUT OFF OBAMA......GUESS WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
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