Di Genius Sparks Laughter After Commenting on Quarrel Between Jamaican MPs
Music producer Stephen Di Genius McGregor sparked a flurry of laughter after he expressed dismay and sarcasm at a quarrel between Jamaican Members of Parliament Everald Warmington and Anthony Hylton during a sitting of the Lower House of Parliament on Wednesday.
“Wow. Members of Parliament behaving like this… they must be listening to dancehall 😮,” he stated on a post on the Star’s Instagram page following a video post of Warmington shouting at Hylton, rebuking him while calling him a quashie lawyer, after the Opposition MP Hylton made a comment that seemingly infuriated him.
McGregor’s comments appear to be in relation to the Broadcasting Commission of Jamaica’s (BCJ) directive issued for an “immediate ban on the playing of music that, among other things, promotes or glorifies lottery scamming, the use of the illicit drug Molly, and illegal guns.”
Following the announcement, the GPP producer had said the move was not only a futile effort to curb crime, but also pointed out that the focus will now be on Dancehall music, with other genres with violent content left to be played unfettered.
Di Genius’ pinned comment was also met with laughing emoticons from Dancehall artist/producer Demarco and mock rage from a seemingly amused Skatta Burrell who declared: “Yute mi aguh call Yu Fawda enuh 😠”.
Warmington was responding to the speaker of the House Marissa Dalrymple Phillibert’s reprimand of Members of Parliament for their absence and habitual late-coming by some members, while likening them to unruly schoolchildren waltzing in after 2 o’ clock, the official start time of the session, causing the meeting to almost be aborted due to a lack of a quorum.
While explaining that he was not among the time-wasting Members of Parliament as he was always punctual, arriving at the House usually an hour before the 2:00pm start, Warmington seemingly overheard Hylton make a remark which he found offensive.
“Don’t you ever dare do that again!” he shouted across the hall at Hylton.
Amidst the Speaker’s calls for him to calm down, Warmington continued his verbal onslaught, adding: “Anybody can say that except a quashie lawyer so don’t you do that again.”
A seemingly embarrassed Hylton fanned off Warmington who declared that the only place he belonged was within the Riverton City Waste disposal site, Jamaics’s largest landfill, which is located in his (Hylton’s) constituency.
“The only place you fit for is Riverton City, the dump, so don’t you ever do that! Disrespectful and rude!” Warmington shouted.
The rebellious Warmington then, as he did last year during another sitting of the Parliament, labelled Hylton a “quashie lawyer”.
Quashie, which is African in origin initially meant “the slave of Ayisi” but later evolved during the slave trade to mean “a country bumpkin or someone stupid. A black man who is gullible or stupid.
Warmington had first referred to Hylton as a quashie lawyer in October last year, while claiming that he had never won a case in court.
After he was reprimanded by Deputy Speaker of the House, Juliet Holness, for his conduct and asked to withdraw the statements, Warmington had declared that he would not withdraw the statement unless Hylton could show evidence of even one case which he had won in the courts.
There were other readers who, in commenting on the exchange between the two parliamentarians, expressed the same sarcasm as the Cyaa Friend Again producer.
“Is the ban on dancehall music affected the MP. BCJ see what you’ve caused… look at the influence on our youth coming from parliamentarians… this needs to be banned,” one amused commenter wrote in response.
Another added sarcastically: “These are the people dat saying younger generation are ignorant and blaming the music well guess these guys only listen BOB Marley and BERIS 😂😂.
One woman, in referencing the BCJ’s banning of songs promoting the party drug Miolly noted on Facebook: “Jesus you hear all this, no sah. Whatever molly be, look like a it serve for refreshment in the house.”