Pornography di budding business in Jamaica, man

ON A damp, chilly night at the beginning of the rainy season, a throng of hedonists crowds the stage at a popular nightclub in the Corporate Area to watch live sex onstage.

This is one of several exotic clubs that have mushroomed across the island in recent years. Patrons go to witness the production of pornography. Tonight is one of those nights....

"What can you expect when we are not producing anything, whether it be in the agricultural sector, the manufacturing sector or in education. Even socially, we are disintegrating. There are hardly any opportunities, so this is what our young girls, and some young boys too, get involved in, these anti-social activities."

... It is the "poor, uneducated and miseducated-educated" young girls who are most likely to end up getting involved in the industry, based largely on the fact that women have a higher rate of unemployment than males....

"A just pure hardship an sufferation mi go through. Mi father don't tek care of mi, an mi madda was not the kind a woman who go out an' fen fi har pickney dem. All she do is just stay home and depend on man fi mine har but them neva care 'bout we.

"So, basically, I grew up on my own, and started working from mi about 13. When I was growing up, I didn't have anyone to talk to. As the oldest brother, I always have to go out an' find work an' tek care a di younger one dem, a so my life did set up."

"I was sitting in the audience and she was on the stage dancing, and she asked me to come and have sex wid har up there," he said. "At first, mi did feel 'fraid but mi go up an' do it (had sex) an' a so mi start."

Pleased by what he saw, the club's owner struck up a halting conversation with him and, within several months, Morrison was performing regularly at the Chocolate Nightclub. And, except for a six-year break, he has been earning a living in pornography ever since....

'Matrix', who sells pirated videos in downtown Kingston, says that the industry is growing rapidly: "Fram dem film Yard Grine, a pornographic film, dem jus' start pop up ova di place."

Steve, another downtown vendor, agrees that the industry is growing: "People dem caan get enough, as dem come, dem gaan," he related.