The Jamaica Star :: Entertainment :: Dancing, debt and death

Patrons dance up a storm at Rhythm and Booze, an Appleton Temptation Isle (ATI) party. - Krista Henry

It is now almost standard for many a performer to go on stage and, after (hopefully) making strong impact on the crowd, go into something about the crime situation. Then it is back to the party again.

Or, in a dance situation, the selector asks for some lighters or cell phone lights from "all who no like wha a gwaan inna Jamaica". Then it is back to the party again.

As many people as there are dying violently, on any given night in Jamaica, there are more parties around. This combination of partying and bloodshed has been going on for some time, and it shows no sign of slowing down. In fact, what with the street dances (some of which have fallen to the Noise Abatement Act), if anything, it is increasing.

Odd combination

It is a very odd combination, if we stop to think about it. Many times a situation does not strike you as strange because you live with it every day. But, if we really consider the rounds of parties and the rounds of ammunition that are taking lives all around, we will realise that this is a far from normal situation.

In addition, if the financial bind facing Olint and Cash Plus customers has had an impact on the paid party circuit, I have not noticed. From those costing a couple 'bills' to the all-inclusives, the parties are full, the people attending them are 'bling' and everyone seems pretty happy. Whether the dollar slides or the gas prices climb, it does not matter at all. It's party and concert all around.

There must be, of course, some sort of psychological reason for this dancing in the face of death and debt (for I am sure that many of the people on the party circuit regularly must be pretty broke, but faking while 'flossing'). The movie industry boomed in the USA during what they called the Great Depression, which was really some white people living a life normal for the black people. Escape into fantasy was key to maintaining some semblance of sanity for many and they flocked to the cinemas for just that.

Maybe that is close to what is happening in Jamaica today. Note the explosion in dancing, which is the ultimate, in terms of wild abandon, in Jamaican entertainment. It has double impact, the audio and the visual, so it can be argued that it is a double distraction.

And we can attribute a lot of the 'flossing' to remittances and the 'underground economy'.

So, instead of looking at the slew of parties and concerts as an expression of 'doan' care' about the murderous mayhem in the society, maybe we could look at it the other way - can't afford to care because it is just too depressing.