Dancehall Artists Accuse Jamaican Gov’t Of Setting Double Standards By Lifting UK Travel Ban
Several Dancehall artists took to Instagram to express dissatisfaction with the announcement that Jamaica would not be extending the travel ban on the United Kingdom that was slated to come to an end on Friday, April 30.
The ban was instituted as part of the measures under Jamaica’s Disaster Risk Management Act (DRMA) to curb the spread of the UK variant of the COVID-19 on the island.
The stars took exception to Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett’s statements relating to the significance of the lifting of the ban, in which he said it would enable the “critical gateways of Heathrow and Gatwick airports, to have transit for passengers coming through and who are fully compliant with health and safety protocols required for international travel”.
Baby Cham posted a video of police officers drawing down on a party in St. Andrew and referenced the statements made by Bartlett, pointing to double standards which he said was being set by the government to facilitate wealthy tourism interests.
“The tourism board and the hotels/resorts cried that their business is dying, so the government is opening the country for them on May 1st to save their pockets!! promoter, djs, entertainers, corner shops and the people of the country have been crying (to deaf ears) that they too are dying – but the government has imposed stricter “lock down” on them!! who are you working for? who put you in power??” Cham noted.
“Will you police the hotels and tourist the same as you police the people?? lockdown,” he added.
Cham recently released a track dubbed Lock Down on Usain Bolt’s Clockwork riddim, in which he criticized the Andrew Holness administration’s handling of the containment measures which he said were disproportionately affecting the poorer classes of people in the country.
Stacious was among those in disagreement with the reopening.
“Keep it closed‼” she stated flatly, before being confronted with a dissenting Foota Hype, a big proponent for the reopening of the country who, seemingly happy for the announcement, asked her: “@therealstacious y him fi keep it closed?
Also expressing dismay was university dance lecturer Orville Hall, of Dance Expressionz.
“Wi open to England but police get green light fi lock up people if dem breach di DRMA. big up unnuself,” he said sarcastically evoking a response from outspoken Reggae/Dancehall songstress Tanya Stephens who declared: “@orvillexpressionz government madness. You know how as NWA pave the road NWC come dig it up?”
Over on her own Instagram page, Tanya peppered the government, sarcastically pointing out for the umpteenth time what she has described, once again, as their duplicitous behavior.
“Then those indisciplined corner shop big Jill oil buying poor people going to spread their filth and cause a spike again. Let in more people, just keep the poorer locals imprisoned. Let the British party with staycationing locals all night in a hotel but my corn man down the road might soon haffi start peddle his ass for a meal!” she wrote.
Two weeks ago, Stephens, a Billboard-charting artist, had accused Prime Minister Andrew Holness of being hypocritical and unfair, claiming he had turned a blind eye to the fact that wealthy residents who were flouting the DRMA with impunity, were not being carted off to jail, as opposed to poor Jamaicans elsewhere on the island.
The St. Mary native had also upbraided Holness, blaming him for failing to, among other things close Jamaica’s borders at the outset of the pandemic, instead allowing those she described as “the privileged” to wantonly enter the island.
The It’s a Pity singer, on another post, re-emphasized that the lock-down measures were inhibiting Jamaicans of a lower socio-economic class from earing a proper living, reiterating her initial stance made last year in an expletive-laced monologue at the outset of the pandemic.
“I’m not saying there should be no measures I’m saying the classism, hypocrisy, convenient bouts of sobriety, economic discrimination are not measures to end covid. They are measures to further marginalise poor people,” she said.