I want to understand why the government of Jamaica has yet to plan to mark International Reggae Day. But we always pay homage to every other International Day on the calendar.
And to my surprise, only one Media House mentioned IRD in an article. You would think that an occasion paying tribute to one of Jamaica’s most renowned products would excite the government and the Media Houses. But as my late grandmother used to say, “A king does not have any honor in his own country.”
Throughout the years, Jamaican music has always reflected the plight of the people, whether it is ‘Time Tough’ by Toots and the Maytals; or Israelite by Desmond Decker, which speaks to the Jamaican people’s hard times at a particular juncture. And Prince Buster’s Judge Dread, which advocated long sentences for criminals. The music has always highlighted Jamaica’s problems.
In the late seventies to early eighties, when political violence was the order of the day, and illegal guns were everywhere, artists like Leroy Smart gave us ‘Ballistic Affair’ and ‘Badness Does not Pay.’ And a decade earlier, Desmonder Decker gave us Shanty Town, which spotlighted the criminality in West Kingston.
Still, Jamaica’s music is not one-dimensional, and it does not stand still. It keeps evolving. And it calls things as it sees them. It is the pulse of the people.