The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune. 

Baha Men founder Isaiah Taylor along with Bahamians who have a keen interest in PM Perry Christie’s brainchild Junkanoo Carnival are anxious to know who will be the lead act at the imported foreign cultural event.

The usually unctuous Gold Rust administration has remained mum in calling names due to ongoing negotiations with several international entertainers.

Bahamians, by and large, have been left to speculate, while The Punch tabloid has published rumours alleging that the government has inked a $2.5m deal that will land pop singer Rihanna in The Bahamas to be the lead act at Junkanoo Carnival.

Who is Rihanna? Robyn Rihanna Fenty, a self-professed Devil-worshipper with an impressive net worth at $140m, was born in Saint Michael, Barbados, on February 20, 1988. Rihanna, along with other entertainers of her ilk such as Justin Bieber, Beyonce, Jay-Z, Eminem, Britney Spears, Usher, Katy Perry, Lindsay Lohan, One Direction, Taylor Swift, the Kadashian sisters, Drake and Chris Brown, are appealing to a massive demographic, particularly in the United States, whose citizens have a ferocious appetite for unwholesome entertainment.

Her tumultuous relationship with her erstwhile beau, Chris Brown, was well publicised in the tabloid and paparazzi media. Rihanna has sold over 150 million albums worldwide. She has earned eight Grammy Awards, eight American Music Awards, 22 Billboard Music Awards and two BRIT Awards.

In 2012, Time named Rihanna one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. Her experience performing at the Babardos 2011 and 2013 Crop over Carnival Festival is in all probability the motivating factor behind the Christie government’s aggressive push to bring her in to perform at Junkanoo Carnival, if The Punch’s rumours are accurate.

Strutting her stuff in scantily clad bikinis, Rihanna’s vulgar, racy antics at carnival on the streets of Barbados would have caused even sexpot Pamela Anderson to blush. Is this what this administration is willing to expose the young people of this country to?

And where are all those God-fearing PLP parliamentarians who sit around the Cabinet table every Tuesday?

If it is true that the Gold Rush administration is prepared to fork over $2.5m of the Bahamian taxpayers’ hard-earned money to the already mega-rich Rihanna to perform for just several days, this will be further evidence that this administration is woefully out of touch with grass root Bahamians, especially those who reside in the poverty-stricken community of Farm Road – an area PM Perry Christie has represented for 38 years.

This is a community which is encumbered with many social and moral ills. It is unkempt and criminally infested.

While we have already crossed the threshold into the 21st century, some Farm Road families are still using slop buckets and living in substandard housing.

Former PM Hubert Ingraham spoke of his plan weeks before the 2012 general election to eradicate outdoor plumbing in the over-the-hill areas, during his walkabout in Bain Town and Grants Town. As was the case in the ghetto community of Garden Village in Grand Bahama, Ingraham and his entourage were accosted by an uncouth rabble of PLPs, led by several current members in the Christie Cabinet.

The grassroots who made complete fools of themselves by accosting Ingraham at the rumoured behest of the PLP ministers who were present at the walkabouts, have been left all but abandoned by them.

Those politicians who they made fools of themselves for no longer have time for them. They are too busy living high off the hog. The rumoured $2.5m can go a long way toward addressing the outdoor plumbing dilemma in Farm Road.

It would be an epitome of squandering public funds if Rihanna is given this immense sum. It would also mean that the Farm Road MP, whose tenure has spanned nearly four decades, has his priorities in the wrong place.

THE WHISTLEBLOWER

February 22, 2015.