Cedric Moss
09-10-03, - 11:00 PM
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Making Sense of 50 Cent
By Apostle Cedric Moss
The “One Love Festival Concert” has come and gone and many are still trying to make sense of it. The problem is, no matter how you look at it, the whole thing makes no sense.
Herculean efforts
The whole thing still begs the question, “Why?” Having first hand information that these individuals, Katrina Taylor (a.k.a. “Trina”), Curtis Jackson (a.k.a. “50 Cent”) and O’Neil Bryan (a.k.a. “Elephant Man”) sing explicit profane and obscene lyrics that would break our laws, promote and glorify the breaking of laws and the trivializing of criminal behaviour (prostitution, robbing, stealing, shooting, murder, physical abuse of women, drug use and drug trafficking), the Bahamas government still exerted Herculean efforts to accommodate and facilitate their live performance. And sadly, this accommodation and facilitation seems to have come at the price of embarrassing the acting Minister of Immigration, Mr. Shane Gibson, and the Director of Immigration, Mr. Vernon Burrows, who we are told refused the permits initially.
Perhaps there is something that the government can say that would help us to understand why. But, the silence continues and makes it even more difficult to make sense of it.
“Crimecert” or Concert?
I am still trying to make sense of how the authorities were able to allocate approximately 200 police officers, I am told, in crime-ridden Nassau to provide security at an event that was more like a “crimecert” than a concert. As reported in the press, officers were on stage guarding 50 Cent as he performed with simulated gunshots in the background.
This is so ridiculous it is still hard for me to believe it indeed happened and was allowed to happen by those who have been elected to govern responsibly.
Plastic Conditions
Having read stories covering the concert in three newspapers, it seems clear that the plastic conditions against profanity were broken by Trina and 50 Cent. One story said 50 Cent “cursed his way through his lively performance in Nassau over the weekend, but bleeped out his most offensive profanities in deference to local protesters.” Were Trina and 50 Cent arrested and charged as was promised by the authorities? No, they were not, and this is sad! Who now accepts responsibility for it?
It was also reported that many spectators “bellowed out the offensive lyrics which 50 Cent himself felt obliged to delete” and further reports that profanity and vulgarity were used by the other performers. I read the crime reports from the three papers and there was no report of people being arrested for profanity. If the reports are true, I have to assume that no police officer heard (or was offended) by 50 Cent, Trina, the other performers or the crowd. This is no doubt possible but not very probable. It confirms what others and I knew all along…the conditions were plastic and not to be taken seriously by the performers nor the police.
Profanity Holiday
The news stories confirm the exact kind of embarrassing outcomes that we were trying to prevent the Government from bending over backwards to facilitate. Our profanity laws are like our gambling laws…they are very rarely enforced…and that “profanity holiday” on Saturday, September 6, 2003 only further eroded them. It would be rather interesting now to see a police officer who stood indifferently next to spectators shouting profanity and obscenity at the concert try to arrest them for doing the same thing on Bay Street...“to the annoyance of a Police officer.” With selective applications of the law like this I am always amazed that some still wonder why we are such a lawless nation.
A Missed Opportunity
In my view, the occasion of the initial permit refusals would have been a wonderful opportunity for any of the Ministers of National Security, Youth & Sports, Education, Social Services, Health or our Prime Minister, The Hon. Perry Christie, to address the nation and acknowledge how readily available the music of these individuals is and state the government’s unwillingness to directly accommodate, facilitate and publicly endorse them and what they represent. Further, a challenge could have been issued to parents, young people and the general public to distance themselves from such lewd, low-grade entertainment choices that are unquestionably anti the good and general welfare of our social and national development.
Perhaps if…
Perhaps I could make sense of the government’s role in this event if Trina, reported to be a former stripper, was promoting a message against prostitution and sexual promiscuity. But to the contrary she promotes these in the most vulgar and obscene manner, and according to newspaper reports while here her performance remained true to form. Similarly, I could understand it if the message of 50 Cent’s lyrics were anti-crime, based on his own criminal past. But sadly, it is not and instead in graphic ways glorifies criminal acts of the most serious kind. And last, perhaps it would make sense if Elephant Man’s message was anti-drug use and drug trafficking. But regretfully, Elephant Man’s message is pro drug use and trafficking, and in the Bahamas we all know too well the national pain and shame these have brought and continue to bring to our archipelagic nation.
A Sobering Question
Even though the event is now past, I believe the government and all responsible Bahamians would be helped in considering future similar events by reflecting on this sobering question: Do the likes of Trina (prostitution and sexual promiscuity), 50 Cent (gangster, gun toting criminality) and Elephant Man (drug use and trafficking), and the publicly flaunted profanity and vulgarity at this event make for good governance and sound social and national development?
Apostle Cedric Moss serves as Senior Pastor at Kingdom Life World Outreach Centre. Comments and feedback may be directed to: apostle@kingdom-life.org.
Making Sense of 50 Cent
By Apostle Cedric Moss
The “One Love Festival Concert” has come and gone and many are still trying to make sense of it. The problem is, no matter how you look at it, the whole thing makes no sense.
Herculean efforts
The whole thing still begs the question, “Why?” Having first hand information that these individuals, Katrina Taylor (a.k.a. “Trina”), Curtis Jackson (a.k.a. “50 Cent”) and O’Neil Bryan (a.k.a. “Elephant Man”) sing explicit profane and obscene lyrics that would break our laws, promote and glorify the breaking of laws and the trivializing of criminal behaviour (prostitution, robbing, stealing, shooting, murder, physical abuse of women, drug use and drug trafficking), the Bahamas government still exerted Herculean efforts to accommodate and facilitate their live performance. And sadly, this accommodation and facilitation seems to have come at the price of embarrassing the acting Minister of Immigration, Mr. Shane Gibson, and the Director of Immigration, Mr. Vernon Burrows, who we are told refused the permits initially.
Perhaps there is something that the government can say that would help us to understand why. But, the silence continues and makes it even more difficult to make sense of it.
“Crimecert” or Concert?
I am still trying to make sense of how the authorities were able to allocate approximately 200 police officers, I am told, in crime-ridden Nassau to provide security at an event that was more like a “crimecert” than a concert. As reported in the press, officers were on stage guarding 50 Cent as he performed with simulated gunshots in the background.
This is so ridiculous it is still hard for me to believe it indeed happened and was allowed to happen by those who have been elected to govern responsibly.
Plastic Conditions
Having read stories covering the concert in three newspapers, it seems clear that the plastic conditions against profanity were broken by Trina and 50 Cent. One story said 50 Cent “cursed his way through his lively performance in Nassau over the weekend, but bleeped out his most offensive profanities in deference to local protesters.” Were Trina and 50 Cent arrested and charged as was promised by the authorities? No, they were not, and this is sad! Who now accepts responsibility for it?
It was also reported that many spectators “bellowed out the offensive lyrics which 50 Cent himself felt obliged to delete” and further reports that profanity and vulgarity were used by the other performers. I read the crime reports from the three papers and there was no report of people being arrested for profanity. If the reports are true, I have to assume that no police officer heard (or was offended) by 50 Cent, Trina, the other performers or the crowd. This is no doubt possible but not very probable. It confirms what others and I knew all along…the conditions were plastic and not to be taken seriously by the performers nor the police.
Profanity Holiday
The news stories confirm the exact kind of embarrassing outcomes that we were trying to prevent the Government from bending over backwards to facilitate. Our profanity laws are like our gambling laws…they are very rarely enforced…and that “profanity holiday” on Saturday, September 6, 2003 only further eroded them. It would be rather interesting now to see a police officer who stood indifferently next to spectators shouting profanity and obscenity at the concert try to arrest them for doing the same thing on Bay Street...“to the annoyance of a Police officer.” With selective applications of the law like this I am always amazed that some still wonder why we are such a lawless nation.
A Missed Opportunity
In my view, the occasion of the initial permit refusals would have been a wonderful opportunity for any of the Ministers of National Security, Youth & Sports, Education, Social Services, Health or our Prime Minister, The Hon. Perry Christie, to address the nation and acknowledge how readily available the music of these individuals is and state the government’s unwillingness to directly accommodate, facilitate and publicly endorse them and what they represent. Further, a challenge could have been issued to parents, young people and the general public to distance themselves from such lewd, low-grade entertainment choices that are unquestionably anti the good and general welfare of our social and national development.
Perhaps if…
Perhaps I could make sense of the government’s role in this event if Trina, reported to be a former stripper, was promoting a message against prostitution and sexual promiscuity. But to the contrary she promotes these in the most vulgar and obscene manner, and according to newspaper reports while here her performance remained true to form. Similarly, I could understand it if the message of 50 Cent’s lyrics were anti-crime, based on his own criminal past. But sadly, it is not and instead in graphic ways glorifies criminal acts of the most serious kind. And last, perhaps it would make sense if Elephant Man’s message was anti-drug use and drug trafficking. But regretfully, Elephant Man’s message is pro drug use and trafficking, and in the Bahamas we all know too well the national pain and shame these have brought and continue to bring to our archipelagic nation.
A Sobering Question
Even though the event is now past, I believe the government and all responsible Bahamians would be helped in considering future similar events by reflecting on this sobering question: Do the likes of Trina (prostitution and sexual promiscuity), 50 Cent (gangster, gun toting criminality) and Elephant Man (drug use and trafficking), and the publicly flaunted profanity and vulgarity at this event make for good governance and sound social and national development?
Apostle Cedric Moss serves as Senior Pastor at Kingdom Life World Outreach Centre. Comments and feedback may be directed to: apostle@kingdom-life.org.