PM Says Free Concert Is To Reward Residents For Their Hard Work

24

Prime Minister Gaston Browne has sought to offer yet another justification for the controversial One Nation Concert to be staged this weeked.

The prime minister told Pointe FM on Saturday that the concert cost the state 300 thousand dollars last time it was staged.

A similar sum is expected to be spent this year.

Browne told critics of the event that “the One Nation Concert is a fixed item on our calendar of events.”

He added that it is “very very important to bring people together to socialise.”

“I made the point some time ago that man shall not live by work alone but by entertainment too,” the country’s leader told radio listeners.

The concert free concert has been strongly criticised as a misplaced priority for the nation.

Many point to the fact that the festivals commission cannot meet its current obligations to creditors.

However, Browne inists that the event is necessary to reward residents for their hard work in 2018.

“There are many individuals who would have worked hard throughout the year and contribute to economic growth and development. The least the government can do to say thank you to those individuals for their contribution to the 5.3 rate of growth, is to have some event in which the mass of people can participate.”

Performers are expected to come from abroad for Saturday’s event but the prime minister said he was disappointed that one week before the event, the festivals commission did not release the names of the performers.

Advertise with the mоѕt vіѕіtеd nеwѕ ѕіtе іn Antigua!
We offer fully customizable and flexible digital marketing packages.
Contact us at [email protected]

24 COMMENTS

  1. What utter rubbish is this. Why not use this money pay the public workers their back pay and they can find their own entertainment. It’s not the government’s responsibility to entertain the people. Its this type of blatant money wasting that needs to end.

    • If you think that is all he said when speaking about this one nation concert you need to wheel and come again. He went on to say that the numbers are showing born Antiguan are in the minority, so to prevent tribalism we put on these concertes to keep the people united. This Puppet Master knows his people he knows all they want is Ham and Turkey, jam and wink up while the country looks like a ghetto. They don’t care if they live in squalor.

      • @Knight in Shining Armour, I couldn’t have said it better. My heart bleeds for my dear Antigua & Barbuda.

      • Could it be the reason why is building them new houses so they could improve their standard of living. Like in Boobey Alley.

    • Exactly rewarding them with a concert is rubbish. The ppl dem want dem back pay. Reward dem for their hard work with back pay. Not only that I am very sure that the majority of ppl that will attending the concert never worked a day in their life

  2. Reward people for their hard work by paying them
    this is another creative enrichment scheme, no one know who performing for how much and whey the money gone
    who getting contracts and will be paid before the carnival contractors

  3. I can only pray my people wake up after reading this masterpiece by the poet Juvenal.

    “Bread and circuses” (or bread and games; from Latin: panem et circenses) is a figure of speech, specifically referring to a superficial means of appeasement. As a metonymic, the phrase is attributed to Juvenal, a Roman poet active in the late first and early second century AD — and is used commonly in cultural, particularly political, contexts.
    In a political context, the phrase means to generate public approval, not by excellence in public service or public policy, but by diversion, distraction or by satisfying the most immediate or base requirements of a populace by offering a palliative: for example food (bread) or entertainment (circuses).
    Juvenal, who originated the phrase, used it to decry the selfishness of common people and their neglect of wider concerns. The phrase implies a population’s erosion or ignorance of civic duty as a priority.

    • That will only happen when the UPP is in government, because they do not know how to run the country

  4. What an insult to the people. Post Office court house and all these other problems with money shortage and this is what the world ass is offering.

  5. Hmnnn it’s a good thought, getting people to socialize, but if there is monetary issues etc., then not the right thing to do. Remember all work and no play, made Jack a dull boy. Food for thought my dear.

  6. Treasury is unable to pay festivals commissions service providers because of lack of funds, yet still money can be found to pay outside artist. Then you want to Tax $1500 on a local individual doing a small event . Vodo economics.

  7. Sorry PM Browne, even though I support you in general, I cannot support this concert and never have. There is no way to justify the government using taxpayers money to pay for a concert while salaries, back pay, and pensions are outstanding. There is simply no justification for this. Please let this be the last year this concert is held.

  8. Y’all nah get vex enuff yet!!!
    This idiot is gonna be in power
    another decade cus it’s the
    world boss running tings!!! Look ah
    ppl go dey dis concert..That’s the
    approval he needs and will get!!!

  9. “So let me get this you are giving us a free concert for our hard work. Why not do like St. Kitts and give us double pay. Since the country has so much money why not fix a road or two or better yet inject it towards educating our young people. Here is another suggestion as a former Stanford worker why don’t you give us the money for the severance pay you say we will not get. I’m sure that money would be injected back in the economy and not in another nations economy.

  10. This is the nonsense y’all do with our hard earned money police and fire stations are deplorable, some were to be demolished since the 90’s. Y’all have promised a raise in pay over 10 yrs now and still nothing. This is what y’all scam police and firemen out of their backpay for? What about the infrastructure? What about friars hill rd? While drivers complain I’ve walked on it and gotten migraine and back pains! What about our pensioners? They have needs also? Look into bettering life for the disabled! You putting our hard earned money into the pockets of people who don’t have to worry where their next meal comes from while the people you depend on to keep you where you are, we are suffering. And na y’all bout tax, As soon as y’all give us something it is taken back in taxes!

  11. I can understand the PM wants to do something nice but I agree with all the comments made. Do something productive with the money where you can see the reward but when you go and waste it like that what are you reaping in the end? Just a little pleasure for a while and the it’s gone. Listen to your people. Take the good advice. What kind of Steward are you with the people’s money? Think before you spend.

  12. Maybe the government should call a Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving, followed by huge revival meetings with Chritian evangelists sharing the Gospel with the whole nation. Bring in the best preachers and gospel singers in the world, anointed of the Holy Ghost. What a day of rejoicing that would be. It would bring New Life to the entire nation. Let it be. Let it be. It’s revival time. Clean up the whole nation.

Comments are closed.