The Youth Coalition for Transformation (YCT) is calling for the general public to support a boycott of the Hits and Jams (H&J) Production’s Jamzone Summer Break 2012, while accusing the promoters of taking a backseat in recent promotions to avoid scrutiny.
“Hits and Jams has decided to either omit their names when advertising events or coming under the pretext of other organisations. Jamzone, on the other hand, cannot be hidden and as such we would like to urge the Guyanese public to boycott Jamzone as it would send a clear message to the government and the organisers that we mean business. We will not support any entity whose sole purpose is to give the illusion on behalf of the government that all is well with Guyana because we can bring international artistes to Guyana,” YCT member Nia Phil said at a press briefing yesterday.
Tabitha Saravo, also a member of the YCT, explained that while they encourage conservative spending, they are not asking the public, and especially the youths, to stay away from all social events but only those which are promoted by H&J team or the Kashif and Shanghai organisation. Both promotional organisations were targeted by the initial YCT boycott calls in the aftermath of last year’s elections over their past association with the ruling party.
“Conservative spending doesn’t mean you don’t enjoy yourself, it just decreases the amount of enjoyment that you have. Not because you go to an event, it means you are spending lavishly. There are ways in which you can go to an event—that is not put on by Hits and Jams—and you still spend conservatively. You don’t have to stay in your house and read a book every weekend,” she said.
When quizzed about her justification for encouraging the support of upcoming productions apart from that of H&J, Saravo said youths must have fun but must do so more wisely. “We are saying Hits and Jams boycott is on, so we are not going to any of their events that at the same time don’t mean you cannot have fun. You decide what you need to go to and the rest you save that money. We cannot tell people don’t party.
That is insane. Young people need to go out and they need to have fun… The whole boycott issue is that the reality is the majority of Guyanese really don’t have the money to be spending all the time, every weekend. We are suggesting that people use their money wisely,” she explained.
It was also acknowledged that members of the Guyana Youth and Student Movement (GYSM), the youth arm of the PNC, have indicated that they do not intend to support the boycott call. In response to this, Saravo stated that everyone has a choice.
“YCT is an NGO. We are independent of the PNC, APNU or any other organisation that comes under the APNU. We make our own decisions… and… we came up with this. Everybody has their role to play. If GYSM feel as though they don’t need to heed the call then that is their position, we can’t tell them anything about that,” she said.
When asked about the small businesses and the ways in which the boycott would affect them, since Jamzone benefits them in some ways, Saravo affirmed that some sacrifice must be made before bigger changes are seen.
“We are aware that persons who may be our supporters may be hurting if the call goes through but we believe that the bigger picture is sending a message. Not only will they hurt, but other stores who are closer knit to the government will be hurting and once they are hurting we will see some changes. In the long run, it will benefit everyone even if in the short run it hurts some of our supporters,” she stated.
With regard to conservative spending, Saravo said this call will continue until the government recognises that Lindeners cannot afford a raise in electricity hike.
“There’s 70% unemployment and we are of the belief that before there is a hike in electricity or a hike in any other bills, things need to be set in place for economic development in Linden. So what we are hoping for and what we would like to see is instead of pushing an electricity hike to the Linden community, find ways to develop the community economically. Once that is done and there is need to increase the electricity then there is no problem but we can’t ask somebody who is not getting any money in the first place to pay more money. It doesn’t make sense. Where are they getting the money from?” she questioned.
She noted that after consultations with members of this community, it was realized that many of these persons truthfully cannot afford the hike.
“They (Lindeners) are also very much adamant that the reason behind the electricity hike is because Linden did not go for the PPP in the last election,” she added.
