First let me begin by congratulating Shenseea, Romeich, and their entire team for a successful album launch. What people see as an automatic response to a popular artiste took a lot of hard work to achieve, and I can’t imagine how she finds time to rest as I look in awe at the amount of work she manages to put in.

In recent times I have watched Spice and Shenseea both go above and beyond the efforts of those who pre-date them, including, but not limited to, myself. Neither of them is the product of luck or favour. Every bit of the success they have achieved has been earned several times over by the sweat of their brow.

On the morning of March 15 I got up intending to go to the launch event of Alpha, the highly anticipated first album of the young Jamaican artiste Shenseea. In light of an erroneously preconceived culture of bad blood among females I decided I would convey my well wishes in person as opposed to my usual social anxiety-inspired silence/absence.

I asked Romeich for the time and place and he supplied, adding that it was best to reach before 8:00 pm because it would be “blocked”. That translated to chaos in my mind as it dawned on me that this would mean my being around a lot of people, especially music industry people and journalists. I glitched, then laughed at myself as I messaged Romeich to tell him my attendance would be in spirit on account of my aversion to that kind of social event.

I went through the pictures and videos from the event and I was happy to see my fears confirmed in the best possible way. It was a great event, fellow artistes performed and the attendees got a treat from Shenseea herself.

Then lo and behold, among the celebrity and fan pictures, the increasingly conspicuously inappropriate wannabe celebrity politicians, who have had the Jamaican entertainment industry in a chokehold for two years, were seen partying without shame.

Included in the bunch was the Minister of Health Christopher Tufton, who keeps gaslighting the Jamaican population by telling them repeatedly they cannot gather on pain of death from illness, which seems to only be applicable when people engage in activities designed to preserve their sanity.

In one photo taken by another publication Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke, who reduced the entertainment industry’s loss of income to a cheap punchline in Parliament recently, can be seen with his head flung back and his mouth open a mile wide in mid laugh. Ministers Olivia “Babsy” Grange and Horace Chang were also in tow, as well as People’s National Party (PNP) Member of Parliament (MP) Lisa Hanna.

None of these politicians seemed concerned about a deadly virus as only Minister Grange sported a mask, but was not safely at home where they have been telling her Jamaican peers for nigh on two years that they should stay because they are “high risk”.

While these shameless politicians paraded their disregard for their own dictated propriety by basking in the light of one Jamaican artiste who managed to jump all the local hurdles new artistes face, the upcoming artistes who aspire to be Shenseea have been placed in an indefinite hover pattern, with no regard for fuel capacity or content.

Repeatedly we have watched Prime Minister Andrew Holness wringing his hands and pretending to be in turmoil over the inability to “come up with a plan” to reopen the entertainment industry; an industry which is only closed because he locked it; an industry which does nothing different from what his underling Floyd Green and friends were doing on a no-movement day dictated by him; an industry which is the sole income for countless Jamaicans and contributing income for almost everyone else; an industry which augments all the other industries in ways these unthinking politicians aren’t emotionally or intellectually sophisticated enough to fathom.

While they see fit to enjoy the entertainment of the industry, they have blocked those employed in it from making a living from it.

Can Andrew Holness credibly say he doesn’t know how to open the sector? Maybe he should consult his ministers Grange, who happens to have entertainment in her portfolio; Chang, who parties while the handle on crime seems to elude his grasp; Clarke, who has no trouble bussing a belly laugh in a party while people who previously earned from parties go bankrupt; and last but by no means least in this economic crisis created by COVID-19 measures, Minister of Health Christopher Tufton, who persistently gives information to members of the public that undermines their body autonomy and right to informed consent. He might not be as willing to reach across the aisle to PNP MP Hanna, but should he choose to exercise the necessary humility I’m sure she could give some pointers.

How did they manage to party in a time when partying is so ‘dangerous’? I’m sure I’m not the only member of the entertainment industry who wants to hear how such a feat was achieved. Did they employ a special protocol to enter the gates? Were they in an invisible bubble? Did they drink the Donald Trump-recommended Lysol while everyone else consumed alcohol? How did they safely carry out what other people have been collared up by the police for?

I continue to ask questions, as I’ve been doing for the last year, in the hope that at some point I will see an action which embodies a credible answer from these people.

Tanya Stephens is an international singer/songwriter and citizen of Jamaica.