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January has come and gone and it was certainly no boring month.
Where to start? Okay, so Dancehall Queen Spice planned a school tour, but harsh criticisms from the National Parent-Teachers Association Jamaica (NPTAJ) and some church people caused it to be cancelled. Notably, other interest groups, such as the Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society, (JCHS) have weighed in.
President of the NPTAJ, the fearless Stewart Jacobs, told THE STAR last week that “Spice does not have the moral authority to go into a school where young females are, or even young men are, to speak - period. He added, “Spice should only be allowed in a school to pick up or drop off her child, [or] to witness a member of her family graduating.”
Turning his attention to the schools, Jacobs said, “No principal or school board at any level should allow the likes of Spice in their space. … Any principal who allowed Spice in their schools to speak to their children, [means] the fibre of our society is eroding even faster, and it scared di hell outta mi.”
JCHS Advocacy officer, Phillippa Davies, speaking on Nationwide at Five on Thursday, gave Spice, whose real name is Grace Hamilton, some homework:
“I hope that Miss Hamilton will see that is much grace for her and hope that she would indeed be that vehicle … that voice ... that amplifies the good message, not only for her public, but also for herself.”
Spice’s ‘Ohhhh No School Tour’ kicked off one week ago at the Waterford High School in Portmore, St Catherine. She said her aim was to “empower young adolescents through advocacy of self-worth”.
The Tape Measure singer has since done a massive press tour about the cancellation and even met with the education minister, the culture minister and representatives from the church.
US Visa for ‘Teacha’
Spice Rampin’ Shop partner, Vybz Kartel, co-headlined last week’s top entertainment news with her. Kartel got back his US visa on Friday, and by Saturday he landed in Florida, on his way to attend the 67th Grammy’s at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. We imagine that from now it will be “shows after shows, after shows” for the in-demand dancehall artiste.
Tiktok Refugees
With a ban looming over ‘Chinese app’ TikTok since last year, January was decision month. In anticipation of a ban, truck, bus and boatloads of US TikTokers packed their belongings and migrated, causing a tsunami of refugees to descend on not just any app – but a bona fide Chinese app, RedNote.
You couldn’t make this up.
Here are some of the headlines:
‘Chinese rival app Xiaohongshu is overwhelmed by ‘TikTok refugees’ in US’
‘TikTok refugees are pouring to Xiaohongshu. Here’s what you need to know about the RedNote app’
‘Over half a million ‘TikTok refugees’ flock to China’s RedNote’
The back story is that in March 2024, US lawmakers passed legislation requiring Chinese company ByteDance to sell off the viral video-sharing platform within six months or be banned from US app stores and websites. The concern is that ByteDance could be used for spying. TikTok is classified as a Foreign Adversary Controlled Application under the law.
So TikTokers simply migrated to another Chinese app ... you couldn’t make this up.
On January 20, newly inaugurated President Donald Trump signed an executive order delaying the ban by 75 days.
Deepseek Ai
The release of China’s new AI-powered chatbot app DeepSeek rocked Silicon Valley, causing chip-making juggernaut Nvidia to lose almost US$600 billion of its market value last Monday.
It is recorded as “the biggest one-day loss in US history”.
“On Monday, DeepSeek took over rival OpenAI’s coveted spot for most-downloaded free app in the U.S. on Apple’s App Store, dethroning ChatGPT,” CNBC reported last week.
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