There was a time not so long ago when if an entertainer was onstage 'chatting' foolishness; bottles would rain down on him like a plague from hell. It doesn't happen that much anymore - only at Sting - but it should have happened last weekend when Bounty Killer and Mavado were on stage in Montego Bay 'bigging up' the Stone Crusher gang that, in recent times, has been responsible for a number of murders in that part of the country.

In fact, some of those bottles should have rained down on many in the audience who did not vehemently protest the so-called 'Poor People Governor' giving shout-outs to gunmen who have been making life hell for poor people in Montego Bay and many western communities and helping to give poor Jamaica a very bad name internationally.

As for Mavado, he is fast developing a reputation of being criminal-minded if not straight up ridiculous. Wasn't it earlier this year that he and Kartel were involved in some petty squabble that eventually led to the shooting up of a studio or something like that? Now, here he is, giving much respect to these parasites preying on hard-working folk and helping to keep tourists locked away tight inside the all-inclusives. What is he trying to become, the gunman's governor? The way I see it, he needs to make up his mind on what he wants to become, a gunman or a deejay. He can't be both.

Manager needs a mind

And his manager needs to get a mind, period. Apparently, he communicated to STAR reporters this week, the day the story about his charge's unfortunate per-formance was published, that the STAR has done his client harm. Yeah, like it was the STAR that told him to go up on stage and open his blasted mouth. Apparently, Mavado's manager also claims that crime is the Government's problem, and he is supposed to be the manager. Need I say more?

But you know, I can't really say I am surprised by Bounty Killer. For so long he has been so anal about being from the ghetto he forgets that he has become a wealthy man deejaying about how hard life is there, like we don't already know. When I say this, I am not saying that now that he does not have to worry about where the next meal is coming from that he should forget the struggles of those who continue to suffer, but Jesus man, try sending an uplifting message every now and then. Give the people some hope, not more despair. There really is no need to be 'cross and hangry' anymore.

What I am surprised about is that bMobile hasn't already dropped him and his gunman hailing lyrics like a bad habit. I wonder what they're waiting for. In fact, we should all drop him: stop buying his CDs and stop attending his shows. Maybe then he will get the message that more than enough blood has been spilled and more than enough people are grieving the loss of loved ones slain by the Stone Crusher gang.

Lacking courage

In all of this, however, I am perhaps most disappointed in the audience members who said and did nothing. As usual, we seem to lack the courage to take a stand against things we know to be wrong. Well, at least when it suits us to because the very next night during Carnival blow out, Mon-tegonians were busy chasing down some gay men who were guilty of nothing except trying to have a good time. And no, I have not suddenly become a gay advocate but I say this on the assumption that gays don't go around killing people with high-powered weapons, do they? And because they don't, they had to be running faster than Carl Lewis Sunday night to avoid being beaten to pulp. As it was, some of them were not so fast.

The way I see it, in the wake of all the hundreds of murders we have endured so far this year, the unfortunate death of the Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer on Jamaican soil, and the island's burgeoning reputation as the murder capital of the world, a title we could well do without, if anybody should have been running for their lives last weekend it would have been Bounty and Mavado, because they are the ones who really deserve an ass whipping, they and that bloody Stone Crusher gang they are so keen to be nice to.

Send comments to:

shearer39@gmail.com