By Mel Cooke, Freelance WriterWESTERN BUREAU:
THERE WAS silence in the Port Antonio Suite of the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, New Kingston, last Thursday evening as Janice, AIDS activist and person living with AIDS, spoke at the launch of Roots FM's Sixth Anniversary show.
She spoke about removing the stigma from the disease, encouraged people to get tested so that they can stop the disease spreading and gave very chilling facts about the effect of AIDS, such as that by 2010 the number of orphans because of the disease is expected to pass 40 million worldwide.
She spoke as a person with an ailment, not a victim, saying that there are ways to refer to persons who have HIV or AIDS.
GENUINE PAIN
However, as upbeat as her attitude was, there was genuine pain when she said that there were persons in her own family who would not eat from her. In addition, she said, she has been to a prominent entertainer's home and, upon asking to use the bathroom, was taken to a half-finished side of the house and given a dirty facility to use.
Tony Rebel, chairman of Artists Against AIDS, addressed this last point when he came to the podium. "As an artist I want to give you a hug," he said to Janice, proceeding to do so, his tall, solid frame seeming to envelop, comfort and strengthen her much smaller one.
On Saturday, May 22, a cross-section of Jamaican artistes will give a collective hug to children living with HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe and Jamaica, when Roots FM's Sixth Anniversary show is staged. Already confirmed are Gregory Isaacs, Tony Rebel, Pablo Moses, George Nooks, The Mighty Diamonds, Louie Culture, Nadine Sutherland, Sabrina Williams, Lymie Murray, Abijah, Mutabaruka, Italee, Princess Menen, Natty King, the MultiCast Poets, the Kingston Drummers, the L'Acadco Dancers, Oakley Basic School, DYCR, Delroy Willis, Live Wya Band, and Gumption Band.
Gregory Isaacs also features on poet Joseph Current's AIDS is a Killa, a timely release included in the official proceedings.
The show actually anchors Musicians Week 2004, which runs from May 16 to 22, with the Mustard Seed Communities, who run the Dare To Care Home For Children Living With HIV/AIDS in Spanish Town, being the beneficiary charity in Jamaica.
Desmond Young, chairman of the Jamaica Federation of Musicians, spoke of the need to speak out on HIV/AIDS, "not on a one-time basis, but on an ongoing basis". He referred to safe sex songs by Buju Banton and Frisco Kid, noting that the artistes have always stepped up.
However, he also spoke about the promotion of child pornography, adding that "in Jamaica the exotic and erotic seems to be the rage and the young seem to have caught on to this new past-time."
Father Gary Ramkissoon, executive director of Mustard Seed Communities, emphasised the need for caring on more than a word level, saying that more hands and supplies were needed at the Dare to Care home.
RESPONSIBILITY
Tony Rebel also stressed collective responsibility: "We cannot just look at the artistes," he said, noting that at times an artiste may put up an illusion of prosperity.
"But there are some little Chiney people in Jamaica who give $50 million to a project up the road. You have some people driving through the city in panel vans who have it," Tony Rebel said.
Tony Rebel outlined that Protect Prepare, a song featuring 13 artistes, George Nooks, Morgan Heritage, Beenie Man, Nadine Sutherland and himself among them, has been done to strengthen the protection message.
Done at a cost of $2 million, it was produced by Tony Rebel and Ibo Cooper.
"Remember that when an artiste gives of himself he may not give of money, but he gives," Tony Rebel said.
CLOSING THE SHOW
DYCR gave of the poem Grandma, Italee rocked her strength and resilience and seven year-old Tanisha Cox did Psalms 23 in Jamaican language to take the official programme to an end, before Mutabaruka took over with Blakk Muzik.
