QUEEN Ifrica and Duane Stephenson have been confirmed for the third annual Virgin Islands Nice Peace Concert, scheduled for the territory of St Thomas on November 28.

Singer Pressure Buss Pipe, who is from the territory of St Thomas, is main organiser for the event which takes place at the Crown Bay Marina.

He said crime remains a big problem in the United States Virgin Islands (St Croix, St Thomas, St John) which are owned by the United States.

“It’s not a genocide kinda homicide but you have a lotta youth sitting ‘roun’ doing nothing but create problems,” he told the Jamaica Observer. “The show help bring some positive vibes.”

Last year’s show featured Peetah Morgan of Morgan Heritage and hip-hop group Rock City who are also from St Thomas.

Pressure Buss Pipe, known to Jamaicans for the 2007 hit song Love and Affection, performed on both shows.

The crime situation in the USVI is dire. Last year, the travel publication, Cruise Law News, rated it the “eighth most dangerous cruise destination in the Caribbean”, adding that there are “way too many guns, drugs, robberies, and murders to pretend the USVI is a place for a family to vacation”.

There were a record 66 homicides in the USVI in 2010; 49 in 2011 and 59 in 2012. Those statistics, according to the St Thomas Daily News, makes the islands “one of the world’s deadliest places on a per-capita basis”.

— Howard Campbell