NO GENESIS FOR MOBAY

WESTERN BUREAU:

Authorities have rejected an application for a permit to stage an event from the organisers of the annual gospel show, Genesis.

Staged at midnight on New Year’s Eve in Montego Bay, St James, for the past 30 years, the much-anticipated Youth For Christ production was expected to be a well-attended celebration with approximately 20 local and international gospel artistes, including Marvia Providence, Prodigal Son, King Authur, Disciple, Yvonne Cohen, and Warrior Angel slated to perform.

“We have to cancel because we did not get a permit and we dare not go above the law,” said head of the Jamaica Youth For Christ Montego Bay Chapter, Barrington Sergeant.

“As usual, we applied to the St James Municipal Council for an amusement licence, and we were instructed that such a licence cannot be issued during the state of emergency (SOE),” he added.

Nonetheless, Genesis will go on as planned in Kingston. It will be held at the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre, starting at 5 pm on New Year’s Day.

At the same time, the team for Genesis Montego Bay will be partnering with the Urban Development Corporation (UDC)’s Fireworks Festival New Year's Eve with an hour of gospel entertainment dubbed 'The Genesis Hour'.

There have been a spate of SOEs in St James, with the first on November 8. The measure was in effect for two weeks.

It was extended on November 22nd for two weeks, but the announcement was not made until Friday, December 8, for another two weeks.

Since then, there has not been any other announcement for SOE or curfews in St James.

Nightmare for production team

Experienced events promoter Kamal Bankay said cancellation after such meticulous planning can be a nightmare for the production team.

He also suggested that the financial impact would depend on the stage of the planning.

Meanwhile, at around the same time, the Urban Development Corpopration’s (UDC) Fireworks on the Waterfront will take place in Montego Bay at Harmony Beach Park.

Members of the Christian community are also disappointed with the authority’s unwillingness to be a bit more flexible for the four-hour event.

“Unfortunately, some level of grace could not be offered to the organisers, just as how it has been given in a few instances for others during the states of emergency,” said a senior deaconess from a popular Pentecostal church who asked that her name be withheld. “I attended an event recently in Montego Bay during the heightened security operations, why then could they not offer the same courtesy to an event that has been incident-free for its 30 years of existence?”

Councillor Leeroy Williams, chairman of the St James Municipal Corporation and mayor of Montego Bay, believes the popular event was affected by the uncertainty of the Government’s plans for continued use of the SOEs.

“When we give people permission and it doesn’t work out, then there is a problem because you have to refund their money and all that, so I think we were reluctant to approve an amusement licence at the time of the application,” Williams said.

He explained that the process involved several agencies, including the police, public health, the fire brigade, as well as the municipal corporation, making it almost impossible for a reversal of the decision.

‘Blatant inconsistencies’

However, Reverend Godfrey Francis, pastor of the Webster Memorial Baptist Church based in Granville, is convinced that the decision is ill-advised.

“There are some blatant inconsistencies in our society that don’t work well for society, these things eventually produce a harvest, and it can’t be a good harvest,” Francis said.

“The things we do today have implications for tomorrow [and] when the society is structured like this if justice isn’t evident, the society will pay very dearly for it.”

According to Reverend Francis, clear and positive signals must be communicated at all times.

“Our policymakers need to be very careful and conscious about the signals they are sending,” he said.