Promotions company Irish and Chin is bringing the hit comedy "Serious Business," which features Keith "Shebada" Ramsay and an all-star cast, to Brooklyn and Queens on June 5 and June 6, 2010. Written by Paul Obeale and directed by Michael Nicholson, "Serious Business" is a top-rate, hilarious play from the Stages productions camp that follows in the footsteps of their Bashment Granny success.

Opening to rave reviews and sold-out performances in Jamaica, a strong buzz for the debut of "Serious Business" has now taken over the New York Tri-state area. Capitalizing on the formula of theater and dancehall, Irish and Chin celebrated sold-out stagings of "Like Father Like Son" and "Bashment Granny" in 2009.

"We think this is a great way of bringing Jamaican theater live and direct to consumers in the New York Tri-state area," says Garfield "Chin" Bourne of Irish and Chin. "With the amount of things going on in this world, everyone needs laughter some times."

The gut-busting punch of "Serious Business" will surely keep audiences in stitches. In "Serious Business," one pastor finds himself amidst controversy in the church, home and street. As problems unfold for the pastor, his hidden agenda may just get exposed. With the church as the play's backdrop, sheer laughter embodies the play from start to finish.

Tickets for "Serious Business" are available in advance at numerous ticket outlets (log on to irishandchin.com). The Brooklyn show will take place on Saturday, June 5 at Tilden High School (doors open at 7:00 pm/showtime 8:00 pm), while the Queens show will go down on Sunday, June 6 at York College (doors open 5:30 pm - showtime 7:00 pm).

On March 16, 2010, MP Dr. Peter Phillips questioned the Jamaican Prime Minister, Bruce Golding in Parliament about the relationship between the Jamaican Government and the US law firm Manatt, Phelps and Phillips. Does (or did) the Government of Jamaica have (or had) a contract with the United States law firm. Is (or was) the contract related to the negotiation of contentious extradition treaties. The Prime Minister categorically denied that there was any such contract.

Yesterday, May 12, 2010, after months of misleading the people of Jamaica, the Prime Minister, Bruce Golding admited in a statement to Parliament that in his capacity as leader of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), he gave authorization for Manatt, Phelps & Phillips to help lobby the United States on the extradition issue.

As quoted in The Gleaner, "I sanctioned the initiative, knowing that such interventions have, in the past, proven to be of considerable value in dealing with issues involving governments of both countries," the prime minister told Parliament. “I made it clear, however, that this was an initiative to be undertaken by the party, not by or on behalf of the Government."

I admit I am not a political scholar; I do have a difficulty understanding Mr. Golding’s two headed approach to this situation. Manatt, Phelps & Phillips could not have lobbied on behalf of the JLP party in this issue. They would have had to be acting on behalf of the Jamaican government. So why would the head of the JLP, Mr. Bruce Golding, be entering into a contract with them and not the head of the Jamaican Government, Mr. Bruce Golding. And who paid the bill of nearly USD50, 000.00.

I must say, today is a very sad day for Jamaica. If Mr. Golding truly believes he did nothing wrong, why didn’t he answer Mr. Peter Phillips on March 16, 2010 with the information stated on May 12, 2010 in Parliament. Does Mr. Golding think that all Jamaicans are idiots?  Not to mention his arrogant attitude which seems to suggest, ‘how dare we question him’. Someone needs to remind him that his responsibility as Prime Minister of Jamaica is to serve the people of Jamaica.

In the midst of all this, the extradition request involving alleged crime lord Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke has not been dealt with. Our children are being targeted and killed; in fact we have an average murder rate of 4 to 5 persons per day. Our civil servants, teachers, nurses, police etc are all restless. Our industries are all being sold, sugar, the airline, bauxite. We are a nation in crisis.

How are we to ever trust the leader of our nation again? Personally, I cannot.

Nuff Love

 

                            

Since the eighties, dancehall music has retained its popularity in Jamaica, which has now allowed creative elements involved with the music to make more money than ever before. Djs, studio engineers, mastering specialists and producers are all now reaping the benefits of Dancehall’s recent economic value. But also through that time even more economical opportunities have been created through dancehall like with the creation of the “dancer”. Musicphill, a selector and writer for BACKAYARD magazine, in an interview with me, explained “If a man have a hot song out deh. Him a go need dancers fi carry ‘im off. Fi gi di ting a vibe. Dem dancer a get money fi be inna video or be on di stage when the artiste a perform.” Dancers themselves have now become entities that earn and contribute to the economy. They now go on tours by themselves, promoting the newest dance craze or making paid appearances at various locations. Actual dancing within the dancehall space has now taken on such importance that now according to Sonjah Stanley-Niaah in her book Kingston’s dancehall: a story of space and celebration, “if one is crowned a dancer—in an event such as the dancehall queen competition or through continued exposure at dance events—one becomes like a god. And, indeed, if you cannot dance, you are a lesser being.”

Another fairly recent phenomenon is cable television stations such as HYPE T.V and RE T.V, which are run solely on advertising dollars; dedicated to reflect images of the dancehall to viewers, whether they are based locally or overseas. These stations create employment and also inadvertently created a void which was quickly filled by production of local music videos. Those video directors import or rent cameras and lighting equipment specifically for the shoot, plus hire staff for editing and post –production purposes. They also rent locations and hire hair and makeup artiste, stylists, food merchants and transportation. Musicphill also mentioned the emergence of the mix CD industry. “If a man want a music him a go buy it and provide employment fah dem (the CD merchants). I remember back inna Cassette Jones days, he provided employment. When him a go mek a cassette or a CD him a check di printer. Him have somebody weh design the cassette, people waan buy supp’im weh mark Cassette Jones pon it. Dem nah guh buy di cassette if it just mark S90 pon it. So him a pay the designer and di printer.”

Reggae and Dancehall acts, such as Richie Stephens and Capleton, have been recently using their money or their influence to give back to local communities. They sometimes promote an event themselves with a vision of using part proceeds to help schools, health or activity centres. Artistes themselves create employment by hiring often times people from their communities to work with them. These jobs range from important ones such as tour manager, cook or chef, security to more obscure ones such as cell phone holder and head spliff builder. These artistes also sometimes carry on overseas tours with them young youths on a form of apprenticeship which teaches them about the music business first hand. Many a dancehall/reggae act have been themselves “apprentices” who were taught the trade by older acts. Some artistes like Shaggy for instance use their earnings to create their own record labels. This will have to be run like any formal business complete with accountants and lawyers to handle the legalities.

Artistes also influence the economy by initiating consumer trends. The dancehall space itself responds to the prompting of its artistes, especially when it comes on to fashion. Local acts have been known to endorse certain types of clothing which in turn causes said clothing to become quickly unavailable. Local artistes will also wear the clothes of local tailors, fashion designers and dressmakers. When a local designer secures a sale to an artiste, they are guaranteed not only that sale but hundreds of possible new costumers as a result of the exposure gotten by the clothes worn.

The various sound systems around the island also contribute to the economy of the nation. John Constantinides as writes in, The sound system: contributions to Jamaican music and the Montréal dancehall scene: “With respect to the human element of a sound system, several roles can be isolated which are necessary for a proper performance. These are: sound man (or box man), selector, mixer (or disc-jock), and deejay. Some sound systems also include dancers as part of their performance, but the core roles are the four listed above. The sound man (or box man) role involves the setting up and maintenance of the physical sound system. The selector (or selecta) chooses the records to be played. The mixer (or disc-jock) simply refers to the role of stringing or mixing together various records in sequence.”

This is an example of only four of the main employees of the sound system. The sound system also needs to be transported so it either hires or own trucks to carry its equipment. Some of the major sound systems across the island such as Stone Love, Rebel T and Renaissance, have also built up local conglomerates that employ their own secretaries, booking agents and public relations officers.

Read more »

You know there are not many holidays that I really support, for example I'm not exactly a fan of Valentines day as you would realize if you've read my previous posts on the topic, I'm also not a fan of thanksgiving day either, not because I'm not american but because the entire premise of the day is a lie as none of what is celebrated on that day actually happened, the same goes for halloween and essentially any day that is nothing more than a reason to get people to spend money randomly throughout the year. These commercial holidays are all about spending and as such get much of my ire. However there are some days which to me do require a great amount of celebration and pizazz, Mothers day is one of them.

You see mother's day is a day where we celebrate the women in our lives that decided to walk around with what essentially starts as a parasite for 9 months, and then walk around with that parasite for another 2 or so years before it can somewhat manage itself. And then you have to monitor that same parasite for another 16 years before you can finally release it into the world to fend for itself, sometimes you also get more than one parasite to take care of. I make it sound really simple but it really isnt, I know this because I've been around alot of mothers and seen the different levels of crap they have to go through... it ain't pretty.

First of all theres the whole removal of Social life that these mothers have to go through to care for their parasites (well the good mothers), no alcohol, no excessive partying, the bladder being reduced to nothing more than a tea cup (no I mean the actual size of a tea cup, not those giant cups you get from starbucks or wherever you get tea... I'm not a tea person), and the cravings, I guess they are brought on by the hormones but I remember my cousin waking up at 11 am to make festival to soothe her cravings.

And then there is childbirth... I dont even have to go into how much of a pain this is, its actually indescribable, well except by Bill Cosby who stated that it's the same as pulling your bottom lip over your entire head.

And then after the child (i'll stop saying parasite) is born where you have to deal with a child that has the innate ability to find danger even in the safest conditions possible. Then as the child gets older this danger is matched by the fact that the child also becomes a dust magnet, if you dont believe me, put a child in full white in a clean room, any clean room... give him/her an hour and then I guarantee you will wonder where the child obtained mud, grass, and what looks like wine stains, this is doubled if its a male child.

Really and truly though I am over simplifying just how much mothers have to go through, and I believe we should all be thankful for the fact that our mothers decided to stick it out and gave us life and love. I know the kind of child I've been (lets just say... a trouble maker), and I can imagine that dealing with me was no simple task. So all in all I have to first say thank you and happy mother's day to my mother (I already gave her her present). And also I have to wish a happy mother's day to all the other mothers in the world who have done so much for us all.

If we were to look back a year or so in the news we would've been bombarded with the news that the government was planning to implement a fuel tax. Later on in the year we would learn that there was gonna be an additional tax on the previous tax as a way to fill the coffers of the government so they would be able to fix the roads. Yes it was explicitly stated that all the money collected from fuel taxes would go directly into a road maintenance fund (not necessarily of that name). Because of this I guess Jamaicans were not subject to a repeat of the previous gas riots which essentially drew all production to a standstill for around 2 days, when the previous government tried to charge a tax on fuel.

However not to my surprise all of these promises by the government were nothing more than just that... promises. The government has come out and stated that the fuel tax money will not be used to build the roads, but will instead be used to fund a loans from the chinese government. It was also added that if the parish councils wish to have their roads fixed, instead of the government dipping into the revenue from the fuel tax, they (PC's) will have to dip into their own pockets and pay a total of J$306 million to the Parochial Revenue fund (PRF). A figure which will matched by a US$100 million investment from the Chinese.

Taking money from the PRF is going to weaken the local spending that is keeping a lot of people afloat. Contrary to the government's belief (or I should state in my opinion the government's belief) if you take the money from the parish council you are taking money which could be used in community building, feeding the poor, clothing the poor etc., there is so much more that could be done with the millions of dollars which will be taken from the Parish Councils than to build roads. Road building is not the only job of the parish council, there is so much more that could be done.

According to the article published in the gleaner:

Ivan Anderson, chairman of the St Ann Parish Council and mayor of St Ann's Bay, confirmed that the mayors had agreed to the position in principle.

"It has not yet been ratified. We will take it to the council next week because it is something that the minister has asked us to sell to our councillors and we don't know if they will all agree because our PRF would be significantly affected," Anderson said yesterday.

But Colin Fagan, the opposition spokesman on local government, said the local authorities were wary of the minister's offer to share US$15 million of the Chinese loan among the councils.

"The councillors are worried about giving up their monthly subventions for the next four months without any binding commitment from the prime minister, the Cabinet or even a discussion at the level of Parliament," Fagan said.

He contended that parish councils have been burnt by the fuel tax, which was introduced last year to help with the repair and upgrade of infrastructure.

According to Fagan, the parish councils only supported the fuel tax, announced in the 2009-2010 Budget, because they were told funds would be made available to the councils to repair parochial roads.

“Ministers Montague and (Mike) Henry (transport and works minister) must tell us what happened to the gas tax money before the parish councils make any decisions," Fagan argued.

A statement which I completely concur with as we really do deserve some form of explanation. But alas, there are just some pieces of information which it seems the public is not privy to.

Now of course there is the positive that, ok the chinese are investing in Jamaica, and it seems (only seems) that the roads might be fixed. But there is also the issue of, why is the government lieing to us constantly about their plans and what they have done. If the government had stated outright that they intended to use the tax to pay for debt servicing, then I am positive that this would be accepted by the Jamaican public as a reasonable explanation. Instead we are fed these lies about what they plan to do knowing full and well that they have no such real intentions.

 

I do believe it is time for a real explanation though, we cannot keep being treated as if we are idiots.

Sweat soaked bodies emerged from the metal and glass doors still vibrating from the sound of the music. Exhausted patrons with broad smiles gravitated to the cool climate outside the once packed Mingles nightclub that hosted the first international edition of Good Times last Friday.

Local originators of the blockbuster Good Times party series, The Quorum and New York based promoters, Irie Jam Media, partnered to secure the necessary documents to export the brand to the USA.

"New York has a large Jamaican population, it was a natural choice for the first party overseas," explained The Quorum executive member, Jerome Hamilton. "We knew lots of people visit Jamaica for Good Times, it was time to take Good Times to them," he added.

And take Good Times they did. The Good Times signature feature - the best , most popular music from the 19somethings cunningly mixed with minimal talk - was ably delivered by FAME FM's DJ Kurt Riley. "The Party Animal" moved effortlessly between genres to the delight of West Indians in New York as evidenced by the gyrating and screaming of Good Times party lovers. Not to be outdone, Irie Jam Radio DJ's Dubmaster Chris and DJ Roy mixed it up for the crowd in total enjoyment of the Good Times concept.

Since it's release last week, Tanya Stephens' album Infallible has been the proverbial talk of the town. The lyrical maverick's seventh studio album has been found to be nothing short of intense, inspiring and ofcourse littered with witty innuendos. The artiste says, "When I write, I try to stay true to the emotions I know people feel when they go through particular situations. There's nothing a listener hates more than an unrealistic situation. I hope my fans love what I have to offer on this project." The 18-track free album which was released by the independent label, Tarantula Records, already promises to be ranked among some of Tanya's best work, with songs ranging from the somber, Still Alive, the suggestive Bury A Bone and Siddung Pon It to the more emotive Just For Me - there's something for everyone on the album. "I like variety. That's how I grew up. I lived in a home where every kind of music was played and now, that's something that comes out in my music," said the artiste whose most compelling work spans the early 90s to the present, with hits such as Yuh Nuh Ready Fi Dis Yet, It's A Pity, Boom Wuk, These Streets and more. "I hope everyone will continue to download and play the album because it's free and this is something that I wanted to do for the fans for showing their support through the years, and I want to say thanks to everyone for showing so much love since the album's release," she said.

Brixton 02 comes alive on June 19th 2010, when Reggae Lovers Rock artist Stevie Face hit the stage alongside veterans Coco Tea, Barrington Levy and Freddie McGregor in London, England. The show which is billed ‘The Reggae event of 2010,’ is the inaugural launch of the annual Uprising Music Festival. Stevie Face has won favour with various promoters throughout the UK and Europe since the release of his chart topping hit single “Tell it like it is” followed by his critically acclaimed top selling album of the same name. The album was voted, “Best Reggae Album” in the UK and continues to be a top seller there as well as in several territories worldwide. After making an impressive first performance at Brixton 02 in February 2009, Stevie has not been to the UK since and instead opted to continue promoting his album. One year later, the anticipation for his return has heightened and Stevie Face is confident that his UK fans are in for a treat he says, “The timing could not have been better and allows for a solid delivery of my album that the fans so obviously approve of.” News out of London is that the buzz from the advertisement of the event has sent fans young and old scurrying to get tickets to this monumental event. On the other hand, Stevie Face’s fans are said to be excited about seeing this sensational artist, as many were disappointed that he was not invited to a Valentine Day showcase held earlier in the year especially after having such a big album released in the UK. Face has this to say to his fans, “the idea is to give a performance my fans will never forget and I pledge to pull out all the stops to ensure that each and every one gets their monies worth.”

Today I had the pleasure of checking out for the first time the Prep School Championships. This is not to be confused in anyway with the High School level boys and girls championships, no instead this was an event for the kids. As a matter of fact, most of the competitors today ranged from ages of 4-10 being the oldest... and to be honest that is just a guess because I am pretty sure no competitor was above age 7. However this competition did highlight a few things to me regarding Jamaica's love of sports. But I'll talk about that later.

First of all the environment of the meet was, hot... and no I am not talking only about the fact that everybody there sweated until I am sure we all lost around 10 pounds just being there, instead I am talking about that these children were literally ready to race (well, most of them were). There were at least 20 schools there all clad in their school colours and all eagerly cheering on their athletes as they participated. Also I must say if you have never heard upwards of 200 children all cheering, then you would be surprised to know that there are some things in life which can annoy you to know end without even trying.

The piercing shrill of the children's voices were also joined by the shouts of teachers, parents and coaches (yes I said coaches), who were all trying to control the athletes and line them up to run. There was basically pandemonium around the track also as children began to run wild in their usual selves, but this did not make the day any less exciting, just a bit confusing, but this is to be expected, after all we are dealing with children here.

The events that were being participated in were things like lunch kit races, math races, relay races, sprints, and potato races. Just to give some clarification, the math race was essentially a race where the athlete had to run a short distance (roughly 10 meters) to a math book that had a problem in it, they had to solve the problem, and then pick up the book and run to the finish line. So there were two things involved, math genius and speed. The lunch kit races involved running to pick up 3 items placed roughly 5, 10, and 15 meters apart, and then placing them in a lunch kit which was at the start line, however you can only run with one item at a time (so you ran back and forth 4 times). Once you had packed your lunch kit you had to zip it up and run to the finish line. The potato race was the same thing as the lunch kit race, only with an open bucket instead of a lunch kit, so the challenge here was actually keeping things from falling out of the bucket.

These races were quite competitive and you could see that these kids had gone through weeks of preparation as they all had different strategies for tackling each of these events, also do not think for once that the coaching staff were taking this as a joke, they were all very serious. The level of competitiveness among the parents, teachers, and staff was quite obvious as they shouted their encouragement and showed their disappointment if they lost. However the kids seemed to not care either way... except for those kids who just really didn't want to compete, and made htis known by literally crying instead of racing. However I must say I believe good fun was had by all. The only thing missing was the media, who I guess did not see this as a major enough event to cover, but I think a photographer or two would have been in good order.

However when I stated that something in Jamaica's love of sports was highlighted to me, I was referring to our competitive spirit. I have also known Jamaicans to be competitive people, after all we are number one at everything, whether we like it (sprinting) or not (murder rate). But I really didnt believe I would see that level of competitiveness coming from chidlren, who while they were mainly there to have fun, still fought hard to win, there were a number of come from behind victories that made me realize this as well.

However as I stated before, this was certainly a fun experience for me, I think I'd like to be present at next year's staging as it was very exciting, and great fun was had by all.

On the cost side, FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association)requires that the World Cup host country provide at least 8, and preferably 10, modern stadiums capable of seating 40,000 to 60,000 specators. For the jointly hosted 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, each country offered to provide 10 separate stadiums. As neither country had a large existing infrastructure for football, South Korea built ten new stadiums at a cost of nearly $2 billion, and Japan built 7 new stadiums and refurbished 3 others of at least $4 billion. According to Executive Director of the Cricket World Cup, Ali Bacher, R500 million, South African currency, (US$66,719,578.89) was spent to bring the 2003 edition to South Africa while the upcoming FIFA World Cup in that country dwarfs that figure by some margin with the South African government spending over US$6 billion on stadiums, roads, airports and other projects.

When our region the Caribbean was about to host the Cricket World Cup in 2007. The Jamaican Minister of Finance, at the time, Omar Davies disclosed that the Caribbean Community (Caricom) heads of government decided to host the event because of the additional benefits expected to come to the region and not in terms of straight economic and financial analysis. He even quoted potential losses in the region of US$95 million, with the Jamaican government spending US$105 million and only expecting to earn US$10 million in revenue from the event. I don't know about you but I feel that this kind of financial hit for a third world country's economy, like Jamaica's, would be devastating. Numerous sectors of government will have to be neglected and the people of the country will continue to suffer in the form of increased taxes for years to come in order to help balance the budget. Three years on from the event and you see exactly what this commentator was afraid of. What benefits could you honestly say that Jamaica and her people got from the event? Forunately next week I will put forth the speculated benefits and allow you to decide if actually hosting a name tournament actually helps the conutry or countries it is staged in in the long run.