It all boils down to individual responsibility. Violence will continue long after we have left this earth. Unfortunately violence is use by every culture or society from the beginning of time until now to physically obtain from others whatever their desires after words/diplomacy have failed. Gangs use violence to obtain money and power/recognition. Politicians use violence eg. WW2 and The Persian Gulf War to promote their ideals, religion uses violence to transmit their messages more forcibly, 9/11, bombing abortion clinics etc. Will violence ever be eradicated? I sincerely hope so and soon? Will education and equal economic opportunities help? It certainly will. 50 cents and his ilk are not our problem. Our problem lies in the fact that too many of our children, especially our young men leave school unequipped for any meaningful role/jobs in life. These young men become frustrated when they see the blatant hypocrisy evident in our society from the pulpits to parliament. Young men grow tired and resentful of the politicians/religious leaders in our communities easily growing fat of the public while their kind have to struggle for the few crumbs which happens to fall from the pie of opportunity. Salivating for ill-gotten riches by others, young men in particular resolve their frustrations through anti-social behavior or listening to rap music. I am not condoning gangster rap, but the inequality is something we should consider when formulating plans to combat the problems of youth violence. Maybe we should blame community leaders who proclaim 'principles don't put food on the table'. Or we should blame the 'All for me baby' mentality displayed by our politicians. Maybe our judicial system is corrupt or selective in its prosecution and punishment of individuals. Maybe we need a social revolution to awake our leaders from their stupor to the realization their promises ought to be kept. Denying individuals the right of choice and association is not the way to resolving this problem but open communication, understanding and perhaps compromise, otherwise we will never over overcome this obstacle.

You know we can find many persons or reasons to blame why we are experiencing what some might percieve as social decay but ultimately when you point that finger to blame others for your problem four fingers are pointing directly back at you. Maybe the christian council and its adherents should think about this some more.

Most of us seem to be on the same page in terms of the identifying the problems of our close-knit society.

I agree with your post that there are many problems in our overall communities, but the real problem lies with continuing to perpetuate ideas and ideals that contradict our moves towards a positive and better life for all.

Again, no one is blaming 50 cent for society's problems. You have to admit though that it is hypocritical for us to say that we are against violence, but yet we allow our kids to actively have a role model that preaches and LIVES violence; or that we are against rise in teen pregnancies, but yet we allow our daughters to emulate a former prostitute.

We must be consistent in our messages to our youth, whether we consider it to be entertainment or not.

this whole issue cracks me up as a teenager. adults need to stop blaming everything BUT the youth themselves. every argument i hear is "johnny did this because he saw it on tv" well who's fault is it really? yours because you didnt teach said child the difference between right and wrong and left them to their own devices. i listen to all rap, and i have his cd but i dont sit on blocks, i dont smoke marijuana or anything of that nature proving that music does not dictate ones life and inlfuences everything about them. at the teen scene finals i remember one of the rap contestants talking about robbing someone with his own glock but i dont remember any member of the christian council voicing their opinions. i remember all those years with jamz fest they had other rappers over without any incident but just because 50cent is a globally recognized entity people find reasons to object...in closing they should allow 50cent to have his concert in peace because people are responsible for their own actions..he controls no one.

I think that the government should stop this concert. bacause i feel that the police is not the only one's with guns out there

meaning that were there is a concert the promots violance and guns there will be voilance and guns

has i visit a frend who works in tourism today .there was talk about a hitman that is already over here waiting on this rapper called 50cents our poor police officers doing this show any thing can happen to them and if this person get kill in nassau then what .were not ready for that . This is a serious thing that we bahamian's should not take lightly.

little Boy you and take a horse out for water but u can't make him drink. on this note i say to u that yourfolks told u watch be you still turn out like a lil fig tree.Grow up first become a man sit ,look and learn .and may is u just read a little then that will prevent me from seeing u in my court room some time

was that a joke or something? were you coherent at the time that was written? no insult or anything but that was scattered and barely made sense. so if you can, would you please edit it or re-write it?

Firstly, I must say that I do agree with the Christian Council.
I am an 18 year old Bahamian college student and i do listen to 50 cent, yeah i like his music and sometimes it gets me "krunk". But to say why I like his music, I really dont know. One day i sat down and listened to his lyrics and it was devastating the way he spoke about women, guns, drugs etc. It was like I was blind and now I can finally see! I feel like the Christian Council is only looking out for the youths in our country. Yes, other rappers have come in and out of our country to perform and everytime a gangsta rapper comes, the crime rate increases and our prison seem to get crowded. Some of the young men (I DID SAY SOME) in our country are not mature enough to handle a concert such as this. All they think about is being a "gangsta". Don't get me wrong but 50 cent is not the only artist I disagree with, it is also Trina; listen to her lyrics, its sick and RAW!!!

I dont know why people would want to 'worship' or look up to 50 cent in the first place. People, are you forgetting that he was convicted of selling drugs? Did you know he had a 16-year old girl hiding his drugs in her undies? Why oh why do you respect him? He got caught cause he tried to sell to an undercover cop. Yea, keep telling yourself he`s some sort of genius or hero. Furthermore, to people who go around shouting or saying "gggggggg-G-unit": STOP IT! You are not a member of it and I have no idea why you would want to be associated with such upstanding citizens.

Another thing is that the young people feel as though the adults are trying to control our lives but thats not it. They are looking out for us. I read an article about this whole issue in the Nassau Guardian, and a young lady said that she wants to go to the concert but she is afraid for her safety. My lawd people, if you have to be scared for your safety then maybe thats a hint!!!....ding ding ding...yes the concert may be a hazard to your safety and the safety of many other Bahamians!!

On another note, why are we so eager for him to come anyway, our economy is not profitin from this event. The only people making money are those hosting this event and 50 cent along with the other performers. Maybe the Christian Council is going a bit over board and yes they do have their own issues to worry about, and yes everything that 50 raps about is already here in the Bahamas but think about it this way, do we want things to get worst? Do you want to see young men killing more of each other cause a song says so? Do you want young men to know how to rob the right way and get away with it? Do you want more young ladies running around trying to sleep with all type of males because they have this and that?.......People think about everything...analyze it carefully...and if u dont see what i see along with the christian council and the adults then i guess your are not mature enough as yet, grow up and get it together!!!!!


----Island_Belle

Violence only ends where it has begun. Violence did not start with 50 cent or any other artists. As people of colour the struggle for our culture is not just in America :usa: or the Bahamas :bahamas: , it is around the world. As long as anybody shall live, hurdles will have to jumped over or crawled under. Violence cannot just end at church with the False Prophets of God. Violence cannot just end with people making promises they can't keep.Violence does not end with a little bit of people making a difference. Violence begins in the home form the depictions of the outside. :titongue: If people do not establish the difference of right and wrong then how can anybody else can. Music is universal and so is struggle. But before you can just judge any child, you first must judge the village it was raised in. Because it always take a village to raise a child. I am only 17 and if anybody was ever perfect, somebody please show me an understanding of how music is the blame of violence. If MUSIC is the BLAME then every person on this EARTH must be CORRUPT or a HYPOCRITE. :mad:

Violence only ends where it has begun. Violence did not start with 50 cent or any other artists. As people of colour the struggle for our culture is not just in America :usa: or the Bahamas :bahamas: , it is around the world. As long as anybody shall live, hurdles will have to jumped over or crawled under. Violence cannot just end at church with the False Prophets of God. Violence cannot just end with people making promises they can't keep.Violence does not end with a little bit of people making a difference. Violence begins in the home form the depictions of the outside. :titongue: If people do not establish the difference of right and wrong then how can anybody else can. Music is universal and so is struggle. But before you can just judge any child, you first must judge the village it was raised in. Because it always take a village to raise a child. I am only 17 and if anybody was ever perfect, somebody please show me an understanding of how music is the blame of violence. If MUSIC is the BLAME then every person on this EARTH must be CORRUPT or a HYPOCRITE. :mad:

Not to diminish the fact that some of what you are saying is true (e.g. music is not the blame, not entirely at least and it take a village to raise a child), I would have to add that certain types of music do affect Black culture. There is a reason certain artists should be censored or even banned.

When I used to listen to certain rap and hip hop artists on a continuous basis years ago, I must say that those were some of the most rebellious times of my life. The sh_t that I used to get into with me and my crew was close to criminal in nature. We used to cuss everyone in sight who didn't like what we liked. We tried to sleep with any female who passed by and treated these girls like "b_tches", because if the millionaires who were singing the rap songs could, then we thought we could too. We used to stay ready for a fight, cause all of us were "boys" and if any one of us got into some trouble the rest would help to kick whoever's @ss happened to mess with one of us. What makes it worse is that I used to hide this type of behavior from my family, they never knew what I was getting myself into so they would allow me to listen to whatever type of music I wanted.

Who were my crew's role models at that time? DMX, Jay-z, Tupac, Biggie and the list goes on...You see the trend?

The problem with some young Black rap artists is that they do not attempt to show any sort of respect for each other in their songs. If a rap artist ever called one of my sisters a "b_tch" in front of me, I would beat him silly. Violence you see, it is in all of us, but we should not market it to the masses as if it is something to be glorified. It only continues to dumb down the minds of our youth.

If a female wishes to be openly called a "h0" and a "b_tch" or if they like to hang out with guys who carry guns or knives and fight all the time, I would say that something is seriously wrong with them. Obviously they do not know that verbal abuse is only one step away from physical abuse. Obviously they do not have any self-respect for themselves when they know their man is sleeping with other “b_tches” ‘cause he got “h0’s” in different area codes (can you say HIV?). Obviously they have never seen someone get shot or stabbed in real life, as blood is pouring from the person and they flutter about on the ground in shock. This is what is being talked about in some of these songs. This is what some in our community are trying to stop by banning these modern day “role models”. The funny thing is that the rap artists that do make sense and approach things from a more intellectual level rarely get any true publicity. I mean, who listens to Mos Def or Roots?

I don’t listen to rap or hip hop that much anymore because the ones getting all the publicity just seem like they came up with the song in five minutes, decided to put a nice beat to it, burned the track to a cd and sold it. If it was entirely up to them, we would have a nation of thugs and “b_tches” who only know how to cuss and party all the time as well as how to drive a nice car with spinning rims. And what about your statement of violence begins in the home from the depictions of the outside? I agree entirely. The problem lies with all the young, single BLACK mothers out there partying, whose man has babies with 3 or 4 other women, cusses or threatens her in front of the kids, who is never around cause he’s always out on the block with his boys and who can buy a new set of rims, but then tells the mother that he doesn’t have any money to give her for the children. Yeah, what an excellent Black role model! :sarcastic:

The Gov't shoudn't have a right to stop any concert, that's why there is a separation of church and state. All individuals have a right to do or be apart of anything as long as it is within means of the law."Congregating" to hear music is not one of them. Just because I dont like something ( I dont like 50 cent), that doesnt mean that I have the right to infringe on someone else's right to watch something or somebody. You cant allow a few people to dictate who and who shall not enter, if that was the case, then why is the Bahamas a democratic country anyway. The reality is that the gov't needs to concern itself with more pressing issues, not this. The role of the Christian Council should be the business of the church and saving souls not the business of the gov't.