Sunday Brew — October 20, 2019
That RJR broadcasting talent Dadrian Gordon
When Dorraine Samuels shockingly departed the media scene earlier this year, Jamaica was left with a huge void to fill, as Dorraine’s voice would resonate across the landscape with a force that was unmatched by any woman on the airwaves.
But while the heartbreak of losing Dorraine remains, and will be around for sometime to come, happily, RJR Group entities, like RJR 94 FM and Television Jamaica, both of which Dorraine worked for almost exclusively, have projected a talent that in my estimation has achieved the broadcasting standards that Dorraine set, or, in some cases, has even surpassed them.
Her name is Dadrian Gordon. The general public can describe who is tops, but she is my favourite woman voice across the electronic media landscape. Apart from the sound of her voice, her pronunciation is flawless … the use of the vowels for emphasis easy to digest.
Hers is one voice that you would want to hear first thing in the morning near to you as you struggle to face reality of meeting an early appointment with the words: ‘Are you ready for a cup of coffee?’
Her voice is also one that makes you feel like you want to melt sometimes in cold places.
For now, Dadrian presents the news on RJR 94 and hosts the entertainment segment called E Prime during Prime Time News on TVJ. I suspect that more will be in store for her soon. Interestingly, I understand that she shares a birthday with Dorraine.
Now, the RJR Group cannot claim to be shiny all round, as there are voices there, including one woman, who makes you wonder if talent is in short supply. That individual sounds like when a croaking lizard finds out that its freshly laid eggs have gone missing.
Despite that I remain one of the true consumers of what some sections of the group have to offer.
Don’t adjust the Noise Abatement Act
There is one Jamaican out there who does not believe that the Noise Abatement Act should be amended.
As things stand, public events are not supposed to be held later than 2:00 am on weekends, and up to midnight during the week. To me, that’s fine. There is a practice now for people to go to parties at 1 o’clock and 2 o’clock in the morning, when they should be doing other things, productive or reproductive, or simply sleeping to be fit for the next day.
It seems ridiculous for a country like Jamaica which has been dogged by low production, and man hours lost by workers who are not energised to do what they are being paid for, to be now on the verge of giving more time to people to splurge, and in the process become less productive.
Why can’t people start attending such events earlier, so that they can be finished at 2 or before? How can people possibly be energised and become effective Monday morning if they attend an event Sunday night that ended close to 6:00 am Monday?
While clubs in countries as productive as the United States and Great Britain have their lockdown time, the open-air events are shuttered much earlier than in Jamaica. I remember going to pubs in places like London, Manchester, Nottingham, Birmingham, and Edinburgh in Scotland for example, and hearing some deep-voice men shaped like gorillas shouting between 10 and 11:00 pm: “Time gentlemen”, meaning that if you are in the middle of your drink, you should push to finish it and leave the premises.
We have to get stricter if we want to produce more as a nation.
Holness is ahead of the game
Andrew Holness, who happens to be Jamaica’s Prime Minister, is a smart man.
Last week, as news of the arrest of former Education Minister broke, Holness who had by then returned from a visit to South Korea, kept his cool and waited for the right moment to deliver the yorker length delivery. He chose the Area Council 1 meeting of the Jamaica Labour Party at the Girl Guides Association headquarters in St Andrew last Sunday to express his opposition to corruption of any kind, in his Administration.
Now, you can view this in more than one ways, one of which is that he is convicting Reid and company before their trial and he is throwing his former confidante under the proverbial bus.
But the greater issue is that Holness highlighted the word corruption. He proceeded to lash out against it and poked a finger at others who may be inclined to dabble in State resources, to resist the thought. So, in the same way that he moved swiftly to dismiss Reid from the Cabinet last March when the matter arose, he is now washing his hands of the former senator, at least in the public domain, and warning others that if they are accused of anything, not to look in his direction for green support.
The public does not know how he felt about the manner in which the police arrested Reid and the others, which was described by one minister as a Nicodemus type operation … no mention of it. I am sure that Holness will be like Courtney Walsh and do the prettiest ‘leave alone’ that you can find. It suits him. He will comment on the dastardly way that the police kicked up that man in Denham Town. But don’t expect a whimper about the style of the Reid arrest.