- Contributed Machel Montano
Balford Henry, Senior Staff Reporter
WE have been looking through the annual Budget since Thursday to find out what kind of allocations have been made for the entertainment sector, but it seems that with the severe cuts in spending, the sector is again neglected.
JAMPRO, which falls within the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Technology says its $170 million budget will provide direction this year for investment and promotional programmes focusing on five market sectors, including entertainment (film and music).
But where is the funding.
Bear in mind that, of the $170 million, $135 million is to pay its staff, $17 million is for their travelling expenses and subsistence and $16 million is to cover other housekeeping expenses, like utility bills!
That Ministry, however, has been given $11 million for the administration and management of the Jamaica Intellectual Property Office (JIPO), whose aims are to foster respect for intellectual property rights, the use of Jamaica's intellectual property system and the exploitation of intellectual property information.
The Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC), which falls under the Ministry of Local Government, Youth and Community Development, got $27 million, about $2 million dollars less than last year, to assist in identifying, unearthing and developing talents through the Festival-related events.
But, guess what! About $15 million of that is just to pay employees and the rest is for housekeeping bills, like utilities and property rental.
The only non-housekeeping provision is a $10 million allocation to repair its administration building.
So, it is quite obvious that there is no support from the Government this year for entertainment which is another setback for the barely surviving sector.
Machel Montano in Jamaica
Machel Montano, who has been playing a very significant role in experiementations with various Caribbean genres to produce a more common regional sound, will be in Jamaica later this month for carnival.
Mr. Montano, who first brought soca to national TV audiences in the United States in 1986 when he appeared on the popular Star Search talent show, has worked effectively with Jamaicans acts. These include Bounty Killer, Shabba Ranks, Buju Banton, Garnett Silk and dancehall producer Dave Kelly.
Jamaica Carnival's Byron Lee made the announcement last week that Mr. Montano will play a major role in the process of fusing soca/dancehall/reggae at its soca-calypso tent this year, along with with Beenie Man and the Shocking Vibes Crew.
Mr. Lee admitted that when he started out in 1990 with the local carnival, he realised that he was imposing another culture on the Jamaican people, "but I wouldn't have been a Jamaican, if I didn't try to bring to my country, some of that happiness I see carnival brings to other people."
Now that he has passed on the major responsibilities of staging the annual event to a younger generation of his family, they have accelerated the experiment, which will be one of the highlights of this year's carnival.
Tamika Reggae Awards
New York's Legacy Entertainment last week announced plans to stage the 13th annual Tamika Reggae Awards on May 22, inside the Manhattan Center's luxurious Hammerstein Ballroom.
According to Legacy, they remain steadfast in securing the participation of all top artistes, nominees and special guest performers in reggae and to fine-tune the event.
The nominees were chosen from submitted sale reports, New York reggae charts and a committee, including various representatives of the industry.
