It’s hysterical, how creative industry people are never on the same page to fight against ills in the arts industry. The profiteering in our creative arts industry is worth a national vigil. When will we march, hold a vigil to campaign against this ailing industry, like our forebears did for our rights to sovereignty.
There’s the issue about royalties that plagues our industry. Monies owned the ghanaian entertainer by music users, payola, sex per play and countless other hurdles. It’s a canker that needs eradication, and the earlier this generation puts their minds to the task the better. Since our forerunners failed in that endeavor.
Growing up we heard a lot about how rich some of our entertainment icons were. Daddy Lumba is an artist we all have great admiration for, some of us were fortunate to have had a working relationship with. He recently was in the news about disappointing his fans at an event in accra, by failing to deliver his usual sterling performance.
A lot took to social media lambasting him, saying if he’s sick, he shouldn’t have taken the gig. How is he expected to pay for medical expenses if he doesn’t take gigs? Elsewhere in the world, entertainers at DL’s level benefit from insurance and royalties, so hardly do they depend on gigs for survival.
Our entertainment industry is set up to fail and force the entertainer to retire broke after five years. It’s only by divine intervention that some old folks are still surviving.
Entertainment in Ghana belongs in a hall of shame.
What happened to exceptional entertainers and industry players like Daasebre Gyamenah, Ofori Amponsah, Kwadee, Lord Kenya, Papa Yankson, Jewel Ackah, Mark Jordan Amartey, Agiecoat, Goodies, Big Ben Production, Iddi Koko, Bob Okala and a lot more.
It’s sad and shameful to be part of an industry that doesn’t work. An industry that is built on lies, peacocks and show offs. How can we entertain our nation for years, and cannot pay school fees, utility bills and afford affordable homes? Most of us drive in borrowed cars and live with our mothers, depending on women and scam to survive.
We get little or no remuneration for what we do as professionals all because we haven’t take our craft seriously. Even ECG workers get pay and pension for unproductiveness, but the entertainer doesn’t.
I respect what some of my colleagues are up to, but sincerely they have missed the point.
Some say it’s an opposition ploy to unseat the incumbent. In the last elections, the entertainer wasn’t clever about dipping it’s hands in the politician’s pouch. They climbed stages, performed and campaigned in the open which resulted in lost of some carriers, so this maybe a smart plan this time around.
If so, I say kudos to the political strategist who conceived this dumb idea, and to my colleagues who bought into the idea, I say its sad. It’s a hypocritical approach to a dire national issue, but hey, what do I know! In politics morals don’t come to play.
We have failed to exhibit seriousness in our enterprise, and for a long time we have been taken for granted. Going on a #dumsor vigil won’t change that perception about us.
Are we offering a solution to the power cuts by demonstrating? Or it’s a political scheme? #dumsor didn’t start with this administration and won’t stop at their feet.
The power rationing issue is a genuine one plaguing the nation, and to play politics with it is sad. As entertainers If we are rooting for the right things to be done, we must first apply it in our illustrious circles. By mounting incessant pressure on our arts ministry, even if we have one, to set up proper and potent structures.
Yes indeed, constant flow of power is imperative to run our diseased industry, but it’s a quarter of our humongous problem. The critical issue we rather put on a back burner.
Presently Shatta Wale and Sarkodie are traveling the world, where will they be tomorrow. Socrates Sarfo had one of the best movies on the market sometime back, what has become of his production house? Bullhaus Entertainment manages one of the best artiste in the country now, where will we be in five years?
These are pertinent questions we should ask, bearing in mind our unpalatable industry.
It’s sad enough we have to travel our neighboring african countries to earn more. Nigeria has the worse energy crisis in the world. Can we compare or arts industry to theirs?
We need power as a people to run a profitable economy, but its a our national duty and responsibility to preserve it.
God help our homeland Ghana… #sikanhyira #magicalyear
Source: yfmonlineLawrence Asiamah Hanson
