Keeping the love in Trench Town
The entertainment fraternity was well-represented at the One Love Jamaica Concert, held Saturday at the Tony Spaulding Stadium in Trench Town.
However, crowd response was not as enthusiastic. Claude Sinclair, whose Big Stone Productions promoted the event, estimates 800 people attended the free peace initiative, including Member of Parliament (MP) for the St Andrew South constituency Mark Golding, leader of the Opposition People’s National Party Peter Phillips and Lisa Hanna, a senior member of the PNP.
American motivational speaker William Hollis King addressed the audience.
“The show went very, very, very well. The attendance was high in the evening hours but the influx of people was affected by a shooting in the Mexico area of Arnett Gardens earlier in the day,” Sinclair told the Jamaica Observer.
Ironically, the One Love Jamaica Concert was held to call awareness to runaway crime in Jamaica which resulted in just under 1,400 homicides in the country last year; with 166 from St Andrew South. The police report that over 120 murders have been recorded this year.
Nature Ellis, Fred Locks, Mikey General, Torch, Vijahn, Bongo Herman, Lorna G, and Mr Pike were some of the artistes who performed. Yellowman and Natty King supported the effort by attending.
Though he and his team did not get the numbers they were looking for, Sinclair is happy with the “100 per cent love” that permeated the Tony Spaulding Stadium and is planning similar events across the island.
St Andrew South, which encompasses the areas of Arnett Gardens and Mexico, has a history of gang and political violence, going back to the 1970s when its MP was Tony Spaulding. According to the police, 166 people were killed there last year.
Last Monday, Kevin Clarke, a member of the Peace Management Initiative, was killed in the area. Police are still investigating the incident.
