The controversial filming of a music video at the Kingstown Cemetery on Saturday ““has nothing at this point to do with Ralph and the ULP,” says Cultural Ambassador Rondy “Luta” McIntosh, the mastermind behind the political video that was being filmed.
He denied that the ruling Unity Labour Party was involved in the filming, as claimed by the main opposition New Democratic Party.
“They did not hire me to do it, they did not send me to do it, it’s me,” McIntosh said on Hot 97 on Monday.
The filming has generated some controversy and McIntosh said that the wrong location of the grave, rather than his video shoot, was to be blamed for the family not burying the deceased on Saturday as planned.
In a Facebook post on Saturday, the NDP said:
“Today, while a family is trying to bury a loved one, the ULP was busy filming an election advertisement in a holy cemetery. Where is the sympathy and respect for those who are mourning or lost family?
“This is disrespectful, wrong, and sacrilegious. The ULP MUST apologise publicly for turning grief into politics.”
However, McIntosh rejected this as untrue, saying:
“Now, everything about that is totally wrong; every single last thing.”
He admitted that the video was a political one, and said that he did not pitch the idea with the ULP, but would complete it then offer it for sale to the party.
Meanwhile, in a press statement on Monday, the NDP demanded that the ULP apologise for “their disgraceful act in filming an election advertisement in a holy cemetery in Kingstown.
“In the video, released on Facebook, the ULP’s Cultural Ambassador, Rondy ‘Luta’ McIntosh, along with volunteers of the ULP are seen filming around a gravesite. The same volunteers (dressed in ULP red berets) are then seen stepping over recent graves for the filming,” the NDP said.
The party claimed that the filming of video “delayed a funeral which was taking place at the time — with the family of the deceased having to wait to use the hole that was dug to accommodate the coffin of their loved one, which was instead used by the ULP for filming purposes.”
The NDP quoted its chairman, Daniel Cummings — who is also MP for West Kingstown, where the cemetery is located — as calling on the ULP “to apologize to the families of those who are grieving for their loved ones buried in the cemetery, for the disrespectful, wrong and sacrilegious act carried out, by their agents, on their behalf.
Cummings said:
“This is another example of how low the ULP has fallen after 19 long years. They must apologize immediately to the loved ones buried in the cemetery.
“Cemeteries are sacred places where families and friends mourn together. They are not spaces for desperate political games.”
“We cannot afford another five years of this disrespectful, shameful and sacrilegious behaviour. No nation’s government should take part in such a vile stunt.”
Is this another example of freedom on expression? A gentleman is alleged to have stoned a church when the worshipers did not behaved in a manner that suited him. Then another group behaved in a certain manner at a funeral in church in Georgetown when a politician entered and was asked to speak. Again, I ask the question were these instances freedoms of expression? I recall many years ago an effigy of a loosing political candidate was hanged and buried. Is this a symbol of a yellow political party being buried before an election? The NDP needs to leave ‘stupid stuff’ alone and focus on what it needs to do to win government.
They are all part of the ULP worthless dirty dog brigade, so Gonsalves has to be held accountable.
It is Luta that has to take the heat for this one – not the ULP!
It is his trade, so he must be held accountable for the “parade”.
Let’s give him the licks so he come better next time.
Money ain’t everything, a simple attribute like “RESPECT” makes the man!
Dear HP, nasty and dirtiness attracts people with like minds
Wrong doing can never be right, and sin always has its pay day and its not going to be a good pay day.
Grace, the ULP leaders specialize in trying to make wrong appear right. Gonsalves in my view also often attempts to make right wrong.
Voting in the UN to support rogue nations like Venezuela and Iran is an attempt to make wrong right.
If we want to stop it we have to get rid of him and them, vote them out.
This stunt has everything to do with Ralph and the ULP!
Pro-ULP Propaganda results in what person and what party staying in control of this country?
Some Vincentians are indeed very gross and sure lacks decorum! They are their own jailers in their inappropriateness on the behalf of their rulers. The primordial primeval behaviour of this bunch demonstrates just how vulgar their primitive grossness runs.
Something a better education and thorough training in good etiquettes would have no doubt solved. Very sad! Very sad indeed for those who lacks etiquette and has equally poor decorum.
Quoting Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls; “People who learn primarily from reading and principally communicate through writing generally possess a highly developed internal world, a more refined sense of self-control, and a greater sensitivity to honouring social boundaries.”
When you have a scum leadership they attract scum followers.
He would not do it without some encouragement from ULP