Barbadian education minister Ronald Jones wants to shut out Jamaican dancehall music from his country.Jones, who also holds the portfolio of human resource development, has said the heavy diet of dancehall artistes performing in Barbados is an overkill and doing more harm than good, the Jamaica Gleaner newspaper reported.
"Even though we share the same Caribbean space, it does not mean we have to welcome everybody. Vybz Kartel and Mavado can stay in Jamaica," Jones was quoted as saying.
The Gleaner said the statement came a day after the country's police commissioner denied the notorious Jamaican artistes permission to perform in Barbados.
The minister told the Barbadian NATION newspaper, "As a country, we must say enough is enough...This is Barbados. It must not go down the path of some other Caribbean societies.
"If reaching First-World status means we have to embrace all and sundry, then let us keep the status that we have," Jones told the Nation.
The education minister said there is a linkage between dancehall music and some of the aggressive behaviour by young people in Barbados.
"Barbados is becoming loud, and some of our people are becoming uncaring, uncharitable. There are places in the Caribbean that they don't want Barbadians to come anymore.
"There are planes in the Caribbean that don't want to transport Barbadians to and from here. What is that saying?
"It is saying that we are loud and aggressive, but it is part and parcel of the diet that we are being fed as a people and as a nation. People like the music, so be it. But we don't need the transplantation of all the negativity that comes around that genre of music," Jones said.
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