Dear Editor,
It has been observed now more than ever and it cannot be ignored any longer. It is important to note that the major role of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports for the promoting of the arts and culture of this nation has been placed solely in the hands of Hits and Jams entertainment.
The evidence has been very pellucid, that Hits and Jams entertainment group is the government’s favoured entertaining body when it comes to promotion of all sorts of things and the government puts the people’s taxes to this organization without fail.
This blatant government support has made Hits and Jams the leading entertainment group in dominating the entertainment industry by greed, selfishness and lack of consideration for others. This group is being used to distract the youths from the administration’s failure to address the multitude of issues that are plaguing the society, high cost of living, gross unemployment, increased crimes, untapped excesses and gross exploitations to name a few.
Editor, this missive seeks primarily to highlight and bring to the public’s attention a noteworthy observation with the hope it will be addressed with a great degree of seriousness and most urgently.
Ever since the Government of Guyana relaxed most of its COVID-19 restrictions, opening up the country, there has been a plethora of parties and more parties, some dubbed “Stink and Dutty” and “Baderation” and which were given permission and sponsorship by the government. Is this the culture the ministry endeavours to promote?
Just recently Hits and Jams held five major events during the independence weekend to launch their carnival bands, one of which attracted much negative reaction and caused the minister of Home Affairs to punish the artist for his craft and not the promoters.
Further, this group has on their calendar, sixteen days of events during the months September/October for cricket carnival, not to mention the other major events that we can expect before the end of the year.
As if that’s not enough, HJ is now seeking to take over the emancipation weekend with three major events over three consecutive days, Emancipation J’ouvert on July 30th at the National Park, Hawaiian Boat Cruise on August 1st, and most notably the return of the Jamzone summer break which has now been shifted to July 31st from its regular mid-August dates over the past years.
Editor it must be noted that none of these events to be hosted by HJ over the emancipation weekend has anything to do with the celebration or commemoration of emancipation.
This period is of significant importance to Africans and the people of African descent. The recent promotions on the agenda of Hits and Jams are offensive to emancipation; the so called emancipation J’ouvert that is being sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports ironically targets the young black audience who happen to be the biggest supporters of these events and this is worrying, since they only serve to promote drinking, frolics and exhaustion of the already limited finances that are available in the black community.
One would expect that as black promoters Hits and Jams would use their platform to help preserve and promote African history and Culture, and by extension empower the black community with knowledge of the past. They should use their platform to educate the masses as the Jews do in remembrance of the Holocaust but instead of doing that they are using it to exploit the black community for profits and distract them for the PPP government.
The question is why HJ would choose to host three major fete events during such a significant moment in our black history? Something they would never dare to do during any other ethnic celebration at any notable time of the year. Why haven’t they used their platform to help add significance to the emancipation celebration? The traditional Berbice Soiree and the August 1st emancipation celebration in the National Park as well as all the other communities’ celebrations will soon be extinct if the black community sits back and allows this to happen. It is obvious that the government has no significant plans for emancipation celebration in Guyana otherwise HJ would not have been encouraged to host such major events during this period but instead they would have been involved in planning for this as they so do for other events and ethnic celebrations, or maybe this is their version of emancipation celebration.
I therefore call first of all on HJ to reschedule these events that clearly seek to diminish and water down the emancipation celebration and to use their platform to support and promote the emancipation celebration. I call on the leaders of the black community to recognize this trend and speak out against it, I call on major sponsors to support more cultural events during the emancipation period, but more importantly I call on the black community especially the younger generation to recognize that these parties that promote only fun and frolics are designed to distract you from tapping into the real opportunities that are available here in Guyana.
I know that following this publication there would be major attempts to do damage control, but by now everyone has seen HJ for who they really are. Lest we forget earlier this year when HJ was all over the media under their St8ment Inc. brand for being awarded a major contract to build a school at Amelia’s Ward, Linden, they were quick to say that blacks are fighting down blacks, it is time now for us to examine the real modern day oppressors.
Shame on you Hits & Jams.
Yours in distress,
Anthony Cornwall BSc.
