Vybz Empire
Have you ever seen a more disingenuous set of Jamaicans? Entertainer Vybz Kartel blames the society and says that music doesn’t influence people to act. OK! So he doesn’t believe that his music has an impact! Then why does he produce CDs? For his own pleasure? His comments are as honest as his skin is originally coloured, but I think this grandstanding is unbecoming of the bleachers. I always wondered why he called himself Kartel since he is only one man. But less puzzling is his first name, since he has constantly been having “vibes” with everyone; from Ninjaman, to Bounty to Mavado et al. He calls his clan the Gaza Empire, ostensibly with him as the Emperor.
The last two persons in charge of Black populated empires were Queen Victoria and Haile Selassie I, and he certainly is not Jah Jah! Even so, didn’t he claim ‘victory’ at Sting?
Gully god
On the other bank or hand is a young man who is monikered the “Gully god.” This is a youth who is apparently named after a watch that has no number on its face. The original word movado, means “always in motion.” But he needs to stop and think. He is no God and! Perhaps he doesn’t intend to “watch no face.” By the way, is he Mavado because it is one of those Jamaican misspellings and mispronunciations, such as; “flim” and “corporate” as “we live good,” or is it one of those Jamaican words such as “venticate?” Or is it from the Spanish malvado, which means evil?
A serious impasse has blown up between the followers of each camp and the Prime Minister on Sunday declared, “The gully-gaza conflict is just one example of the negative influences that destabilize us as a people and destroy our confidence in ourselves.” Is he real? How many thousands of Jamaicans died on the altar of JLP/PNP politics?
Plantation Legacy
Indeed, Vybz and Mavado are the products of the legacy of the plantation history. We know that the purported Willie Lynch Letter is a hoax but its instructions for the control of Blacks are absolutely true. The fictional Lynch, a White plantation overseer, writing in the 1700s, outlined a perfect divide-and-rule strategy that fostered baseless mistrust and hostility. This effectively kept the Blacks in subjection until the present. I don’t care if there were a real Willie Lynch, what is important is that his dictates are fact, “distrust is stronger than trust, and envy is stronger than adulation, respect or admiration. The black slave, after receiving this indoctrination, shall carry on and will become self-refueling and self-generating for hundreds of years, maybe thousand.”
Victims and Violators
Still, Vybz and Mavado are as much victims as they are violators. We have never been a united people, race or nation. It was division among us that allowed light-skinned Black Norman Manley to prosecute Marcus Garvey here and also keep him out of the Municipal council in 1929. Then we created two major political parties to deepen the sore and widen the chasm. Ghettos were created by the unequal economic development of the post-World War II period, but garrisons are the handiwork of the PNP and JLP, who like the plantation overseers seemed to have an interest in keeping the poor blacks ignorant, and uneducated, so that they could be controlled.
Our propensity to violence; anti informer culture and anti-gay sentiments are not recent phenomena but are direct consequences of our plantation experience. Look out for future postings as this will be explored and explained.
Furthermore, there were always isms and schisms in the music. Few remember that Prince Buster and Derrick Morgan had their vibes as well in the 1960s. As others sang Rude Bwoy lyrics in that era, Alton Ellis had the presence of mind to sing more lovers-oriented recordings.
Long Time Slackness
The slackness is not new either. Who remembers, Clancy Eccles’ I love you Fatty? Check General Echo, Welton Irie and Madoo who did sexually explicit songs of the 1970s and the 80s, Yellow Man was slackness king, Shabba Ranks’ Love Punany Bad and Needle Eye Pum Pum literally can’t dun. Go on You Tube and search for Buster’s 1966 Wreck a Pum Pum and see if it is any less graphic than Romping Shop, which I actually like very much. Did you know that producers in the past, and perhaps present, pushed entertainers to sing profanity? Ask early 1990s DJ Tumpa Lion, who did songs such as Tight like a virgin, A Di Glue Weh She Have and Yes Indeed. I interview him this week.
However, in an era when there are multiple sources of media; cable, ipod, mp4, CDs etc, our youngsters are constantly bombarded with positive and negative influences. Entertainers have powerful control over what people do especially the young and impressionable. These two DJs are doing exactly what we learned on the plantation and are behaving just like the overseers.
Violence Back at the Teacher
Hopefully they will come to their senses, have a reasoning and give a united front against the malice between them. This is so reminiscent of the pointless feud between Tupac Shakur and the Notorious BIG between 1996 and 1997. Just a word of caution to Vybz and Movado. Our little boys with guns live in the country that had the most slave rebellions per capita during the epoch of slavery. Furthermore the NYPD and LAPD, two better equipped police forces than the JCF, could not stop their murders. You think that you are both bullet- proof or immune in the murder capital of the world?
If they had studied literature in school they would have learnt from MacBeth in the eponymic Shakespearean tragedy. “Bloody instructions which, being taught, return to plague the inventor.”
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Where the Truth Lies: Afri-con-nection?
Habari, bwana! habari, bibi (Greetings Sir! Greetings Mam!) That was Swahili, the native language of Kenya and Tanzania and it is in honour of the visit of Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete who arrived Monday accompanied by his wife Salma. It is always good to connect with our African brothers and sisters. This is especially significant since it is on the 90th anniversary of the inaugural voyage of the first ship of Marcus Garvey’s Black Star Line.
Yes! It was in 1919, November 23 that the Yarmouth, re-named the SS Frederick Douglass, set out to sea with much fanfare. Interesting it is to note that the vessel, full of hope of millions of Black people, was making a short trip down the Hudson River. Though not the driver, Garvey was the ‘pilot’ and great dreamer, who then said to his wife, “Close your eyes, Amy. Africa is on the other side of that line of fire in the sky.” How amazing it is that one can get a more lucid vision of where one is leading a people to simply by closing one’s eyes. Bet you that nobody in Jamaica remembered the historic occasion because the visit of Kikwete is more symbolic and diversionary than anything. As the president touched down I asked, “Habari yako, bwana?" (What’s your news Sir?)
Tanzanian Link
Our connection with Tanzania is not really based on a common history; none of our ancestors was taken from there via the transatlantic slave trade. Perhaps one might want to count the May 17, 1975 world 1,500 metres record set by Tanzanian Filbert Bayi at the Jamaican National Stadium or the visit of “Mwalimu” President Julius Nyerere on September 14 1974 and his second in 1998. Nah!
Kikwete will unveil the plan to overcome the present crises… Actually no! Not that president, we still have to wait a bit longer for that, he is simply inaugurating the masterpiece sculpture of Jamaican athletic legend, Herb McKenley at the said stadium. Why him? Then we understand that he is having a meeting with Tourism Minister Ed “American Airlines” Bartlett over “investment opportunities.” What investments? Possibly Bwana has a chair factory and he knows that we are in the market for J$77,000 chairs.
Island Hop
Just let us be honest! He is island hopping and decided to stop over in the Land of Black Green and Bolt, but just paused briefly on the ‘green.’ There is a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Trinidad that he is en route to. So he just stopped by to full his eye.
So it’s about camaraderie, hosted by the Prime Minister (PM), he is visiting Opposition Leader Portia Simpson-Miller, collecting a national honour, addressing Parliament and dining with the Adventist Governor General, while on his three day Sabbatical from active duty.
Personally, I would have preferred it have been Senegal President Abdoulaye Wade, since his countryman, IAAF President Lamine Diack, stood up in defence of Usain Bolt when he was attacked by IOC boss Jacques Rogge in Beijing.
Jamaica Better Off
But don’t get excited, Kikwete doesn’t have any money to give or lend us because Tanzania is far worse off than us.
True, it is a much larger land of 947,300 sq km compared to our just under 11,000. Its Mount Kilimanjaro at 5,895 metres makes our 2,256 metres Blue Mountain look like Carlos or Aubyn Hill. Its population is 41 million is more than 15 times ours. But size doesn’t necessarily mean better.
Languishing in the bottom ten percent of the world’s economies, its US$1,400 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita is a crumb of Jamaica’s US$8,600. It is heavily agrarian, with more than 40 percent of its GDP coming from agriculture, which earns more than 80 percent of its foreign exchange and employs 80 percent of its labour force. Jamaica’s economy is more ‘modern’ with 60 percent of our workers engaged in the services sector.
Never mind the difficulties that Health Minister Ruddy Spencer has been having in meeting the demands of health in Jamaica that have caused him to shave off his prosperity rim around his head. Tanzanians live an average 52 years. We are healthier and live an expected 74 years
Around 36 percent of Tanzanians live below the poverty line, almost thrice Jamaica’s. More than half of them are under the age of 18 as opposed to Jamaica’s median age of 24. Only 69 percent of them are literate and it is not necessarily in English.
Growth Despite Challenges
Yet, with all of these challenges, one of Africa’s poorest still managed to have a growth rate of 7.1 percent contrasted to Jamaica's -0.6 in 2008, the year when our Informed Minister of Finance (IMF) said there was no imminent threat from the global financial crisis. Maybe Tanzania can teach us something.
Actually yes! Only 23 percent of its GDP is owed as national debt. Check Jamaica, 116percent and still going strong. As Prime Minister Bruce Golding stated on Sunday in a lukecold address to his party’s annual conference, “We are not doing enough to earn enough. The little money that we have is not being spent as wisely as it should.”
This is what you get when you have a country that has 2.7 million cell phones; one per person. Even the Great Land of Farrin the USA has only 270 million. One out of every ten Americans has no phone. Poor Tanzania has only 15 million cell phones; almost two out every three have no cell phones. Our problem is that we chat too much and can’t pay for it.
See! the distraction intended by the PM did work because it made me leave the critique until this column was out of space. Truth is, there was not much to comment on and we await the sliding signing of the agreement with the IMF before I retire. No! Not that aforementioned MF, the International Monetary Fund, I mean.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
I am Speaking at ...
July,8, 2010 Travellers Resort, Negril; Rusea's Awards Function, 7:00 pm
July 9, 10:30 a.m - 2:00 p.m. Broadcasting on "Hot Line" on RJR 94FM . It's RJR's Birthday so the programme will be special.
Remember the Hotlink between 12:30 and 1:00. Squeeze from WVIP 93.5 Link Up Radio and I take calls from the Tri-State area. Ask me anything! It is where "The truth comes to live and the lies come to die."
Call 876-9262178, 876-9268631, 876-9267615. From North America call 1-888-317-2347
Email: tayloronblackline@hotmail.com
Facebook: Orville Taylor Blackline
July 9, 10:30 a.m - 2:00 p.m. Broadcasting on "Hot Line" on RJR 94FM . It's RJR's Birthday so the programme will be special.
Remember the Hotlink between 12:30 and 1:00. Squeeze from WVIP 93.5 Link Up Radio and I take calls from the Tri-State area. Ask me anything! It is where "The truth comes to live and the lies come to die."
Call 876-9262178, 876-9268631, 876-9267615. From North America call 1-888-317-2347
Email: tayloronblackline@hotmail.com
Facebook: Orville Taylor Blackline
Monday, November 16, 2009
Where the Truth Lies Nov. 15-21, 2009
Well, it took this for me to finally open my mouth after a year of being pushed through the backdoor by my former editor. Actually, no backdoor was involved but I was still pushed. Now, the push is to speak because speech may be silvern but my silence won’t be Golding.
Being terminated and trying to avoid controversy is something many can empathise with. Getting the pink slip is oftentimes an affront to one’s manhood, especially when the employer gives a queer and quaint pretext, that is as transparent as the female underwear that bears the same name. The Commissioner, Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin joined Bank of Jamaica Governor Derick Latibeaudiere and they have been put on the horse and shuffled out of town. A military man, Lewin is accustomed to being given marching orders, but this is ridiculous.
Latibeaudiere
That ‘Latty’ has been dismissed in not in dispute, although it is in disrepute. What is strange is not even the text of the Prime Minister’s (PM) speech but its pretext. The Governor was terminated because of his ludicrously large paycheck, a whopping "$38,363,360 plus a fully maintained car, entertainment expenses, medical and life insurance, guaranteed pension and all other benefits to which non-contracted service employees of the Bank are entitled." I would have been comfortable if he had indicated that the dismissal was for misconduct. With all the legal minds in the party and the expertise of all the trade unionists, could not even one of them show him how to trump up some charge or make a dismissal for misconduct stick? Insubordination could work. Didn’t the Minister of Fine ants (MF) - which must really be biting now, - mandate him to lower interest rates? Whatever is the case and however iron-clad the contract is, all contracts can be terminated summarily for misbehaviour.
Where there is misconduct, then the employer only has to pay emoluments and leave earned and not a red cent more. Since no charge of impropriety has been proffered then it must simply be that the governor and the government did not take tea. Given the breach of contract, the government is liable to pay Latty all of his unearned salary and buy out the contract. A hell of a price to pay for dissent. Bye bye Missa Latty Mi Bwoy! Take care Mr Incomaptibeaudierre. Now, the Driver has engaged the new brain, Brian Wynter, the son of Hector, late-labourite and journalist. We may be a tropical country but Wynters do come after false.
Commissioner
As for the Commissioner, he had “taken significant steps to stamp out corruption within the Force. He must be commended." Said the Prime Minister(PM).But not enough to control crime. So, it was not his act of commission but one of omission. The Ommissioner was dismissed. Come on! On October 12, the PM went to the direct employer of the Ommissioner, the Chairman of the Public Services Commission and complained that he "had lost confidence in the ability of the Commissioner to deliver the results that the country required." Bredren! It is at that stage that the real dismissal took place. In law we call that a constructive dismissal because all of Jamaica knows that when the PM tells the PSC that it does not want the employee, he does not relent. Section 5 (5)(c) of the Employment Termination and Redundancy Payment Act states that an employee is dismissed if “he is compelled, by reason of the employer’s conduct, to terminate that contract without notice.”
It was therefore very reasonable for the Admiral to salute, turn to the right and and "fall out!" by penning a letter of resignation three days before meeting with the PM on October 23.
My concern is that we now have an acting Commissioner, who had the crime portfolio, that led to us seeing the rear of the Admiral. What is the message that is being sent? Is it that Hardley was tying his hands or was the seaman being prevented from consummating his duties. I don’t like it because could pit police against police, especially since the “Commissioner Designate” vaulted six of his seniors to get the position. Owen Ellington is a good man who deserves all of our support in this war on crime, I just hope that the Prime Minister and crew give him a free hand and not feel that he can be vulnerable to his every behest like a marionette.
The Dust Unsettled
On another note, all wait with ‘baited’ breath as Uncle Sam asks for another of our own and it's not to join the army. People can say whatever they want but it is my opinion that too many of our citizens have been hurriedly shuttled out to the USA without enough been done to secure their rights. Haste makes waste. In any event, did not the indictment report that the individual did conspire with others to import and did, according to their evidence, bring guns into Jamaica? If that is the case shouldn’t we ask for them to be extradited to us? And why should we put US before us? Any way, let’s see how the dust settles.
In the meantime, threats have been allegedly made against Jamaican media houses over their reporting of the extradition request. It is unclear if the threat came from a credible source,since many enthusiasts will make ill-advised statements of the sort. If the short man is as smart as we think, it would be out of character to do so. Both the Gleaner and my employers, the RJR Communication Group have taken it seriously and have "beefed up security." Okay! I know that both locations are not easily accessible to the public, but how will the employees be protected 24/7? Me! I want two dogs, bullet-proof vests and two honest policewomen.
Understandably, General Secretary of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), Chief Apologist, Karl Samuda has rejected the reports, declaring, "We're a civilized party and a civilized country and we must get away from this rumour mongering and rying to create havoc in our country. There's nothing of the kind ... dismiss it as abject rubbish,"
Nevertheless, while I am inclined to doubt that it was an "authorised" threat, the lingering question would be, "How would Samuda know?"
Opaque Transparency
Finally, we have slithered further down the ranks as Transparency International dropped us from having a Corruption Perception Index (CPI) of 3.1 last year to 3.0 this year. Graded out of a possible of 10, the higher the number, the less is the perceived corruption. Like the Jamaican Dollar we have fallen unabated since 2003 when the CPI was at 3.8 and the country was ranked 57th on a list of 133 states. Now, Jamdown is 99th out of 180 nations.
Well, with a Junior Minister who allegedly took bribes while a serving bureaucrat under a previous administration; another who needed thousands of free light bulbs to brighten his economic future; a former ruling party that got an improper contribution from an international firm and now two female jurors or juresses who might have tried to obtain a bribe under duress and several members of the constabulary facing criminal charges, what do you expect? By the way, can you imagine a Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP, who lets off a co-accused scotch-free, without explanation,to turn him into a guiltless crown witness, then has the gall to seek majority verdicts instead of the present unanimous?
Oh! THe PM has "encouraged the police to act, despite the political ties of anyone believed to be involved in corruption." Talk and substance are not the same.
Being terminated and trying to avoid controversy is something many can empathise with. Getting the pink slip is oftentimes an affront to one’s manhood, especially when the employer gives a queer and quaint pretext, that is as transparent as the female underwear that bears the same name. The Commissioner, Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin joined Bank of Jamaica Governor Derick Latibeaudiere and they have been put on the horse and shuffled out of town. A military man, Lewin is accustomed to being given marching orders, but this is ridiculous.
Latibeaudiere
That ‘Latty’ has been dismissed in not in dispute, although it is in disrepute. What is strange is not even the text of the Prime Minister’s (PM) speech but its pretext. The Governor was terminated because of his ludicrously large paycheck, a whopping "$38,363,360 plus a fully maintained car, entertainment expenses, medical and life insurance, guaranteed pension and all other benefits to which non-contracted service employees of the Bank are entitled." I would have been comfortable if he had indicated that the dismissal was for misconduct. With all the legal minds in the party and the expertise of all the trade unionists, could not even one of them show him how to trump up some charge or make a dismissal for misconduct stick? Insubordination could work. Didn’t the Minister of Fine ants (MF) - which must really be biting now, - mandate him to lower interest rates? Whatever is the case and however iron-clad the contract is, all contracts can be terminated summarily for misbehaviour.
Where there is misconduct, then the employer only has to pay emoluments and leave earned and not a red cent more. Since no charge of impropriety has been proffered then it must simply be that the governor and the government did not take tea. Given the breach of contract, the government is liable to pay Latty all of his unearned salary and buy out the contract. A hell of a price to pay for dissent. Bye bye Missa Latty Mi Bwoy! Take care Mr Incomaptibeaudierre. Now, the Driver has engaged the new brain, Brian Wynter, the son of Hector, late-labourite and journalist. We may be a tropical country but Wynters do come after false.
Commissioner
As for the Commissioner, he had “taken significant steps to stamp out corruption within the Force. He must be commended." Said the Prime Minister(PM).But not enough to control crime. So, it was not his act of commission but one of omission. The Ommissioner was dismissed. Come on! On October 12, the PM went to the direct employer of the Ommissioner, the Chairman of the Public Services Commission and complained that he "had lost confidence in the ability of the Commissioner to deliver the results that the country required." Bredren! It is at that stage that the real dismissal took place. In law we call that a constructive dismissal because all of Jamaica knows that when the PM tells the PSC that it does not want the employee, he does not relent. Section 5 (5)(c) of the Employment Termination and Redundancy Payment Act states that an employee is dismissed if “he is compelled, by reason of the employer’s conduct, to terminate that contract without notice.”
It was therefore very reasonable for the Admiral to salute, turn to the right and and "fall out!" by penning a letter of resignation three days before meeting with the PM on October 23.
My concern is that we now have an acting Commissioner, who had the crime portfolio, that led to us seeing the rear of the Admiral. What is the message that is being sent? Is it that Hardley was tying his hands or was the seaman being prevented from consummating his duties. I don’t like it because could pit police against police, especially since the “Commissioner Designate” vaulted six of his seniors to get the position. Owen Ellington is a good man who deserves all of our support in this war on crime, I just hope that the Prime Minister and crew give him a free hand and not feel that he can be vulnerable to his every behest like a marionette.
The Dust Unsettled
On another note, all wait with ‘baited’ breath as Uncle Sam asks for another of our own and it's not to join the army. People can say whatever they want but it is my opinion that too many of our citizens have been hurriedly shuttled out to the USA without enough been done to secure their rights. Haste makes waste. In any event, did not the indictment report that the individual did conspire with others to import and did, according to their evidence, bring guns into Jamaica? If that is the case shouldn’t we ask for them to be extradited to us? And why should we put US before us? Any way, let’s see how the dust settles.
In the meantime, threats have been allegedly made against Jamaican media houses over their reporting of the extradition request. It is unclear if the threat came from a credible source,since many enthusiasts will make ill-advised statements of the sort. If the short man is as smart as we think, it would be out of character to do so. Both the Gleaner and my employers, the RJR Communication Group have taken it seriously and have "beefed up security." Okay! I know that both locations are not easily accessible to the public, but how will the employees be protected 24/7? Me! I want two dogs, bullet-proof vests and two honest policewomen.
Understandably, General Secretary of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), Chief Apologist, Karl Samuda has rejected the reports, declaring, "We're a civilized party and a civilized country and we must get away from this rumour mongering and rying to create havoc in our country. There's nothing of the kind ... dismiss it as abject rubbish,"
Nevertheless, while I am inclined to doubt that it was an "authorised" threat, the lingering question would be, "How would Samuda know?"
Opaque Transparency
Finally, we have slithered further down the ranks as Transparency International dropped us from having a Corruption Perception Index (CPI) of 3.1 last year to 3.0 this year. Graded out of a possible of 10, the higher the number, the less is the perceived corruption. Like the Jamaican Dollar we have fallen unabated since 2003 when the CPI was at 3.8 and the country was ranked 57th on a list of 133 states. Now, Jamdown is 99th out of 180 nations.
Well, with a Junior Minister who allegedly took bribes while a serving bureaucrat under a previous administration; another who needed thousands of free light bulbs to brighten his economic future; a former ruling party that got an improper contribution from an international firm and now two female jurors or juresses who might have tried to obtain a bribe under duress and several members of the constabulary facing criminal charges, what do you expect? By the way, can you imagine a Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP, who lets off a co-accused scotch-free, without explanation,to turn him into a guiltless crown witness, then has the gall to seek majority verdicts instead of the present unanimous?
Oh! THe PM has "encouraged the police to act, despite the political ties of anyone believed to be involved in corruption." Talk and substance are not the same.
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