Dear Reader,

If there are any of you who thought that the seat of power resided at Hope Road, then you had better think again. Not only did central government cede political power decades ago to emerging area leaders, it has now all but acquiesced to the supremacy of illegitimate popular rule.

There is something seriously skewed when a government, which is precariously perched on the edge of an economic precipice, uses the time and space of Jamaica House for a summit with two dancehall artistes. Unless of course, the government has more intelligence than we do about any national security risks associated with the Gaza/Gully feud, or as some persons are suggesting, it engaged in a deliberate ploy to distract the country from the bitter IMF medicine that is about to be dispensed.

If the meeting with the two popular artistes, Kartel and Mavado, was designed to lower the temperature as well as their influence, then the Jamaica House meeting had the opposite effect. In fact, I suspect that more people inside and outside of Jamaica will want to listen to, or buy their music if only out of curiosity about the Kartel/Mavado phenomenon. Before the meeting both men were already “large” within the dancehall constituency. Now, thanks to the government, they have become household names everywhere.

It’s going to be interesting to see the kind of music the two artistes will make after their meteoric rise from “inner city” to “inner sanctum”. We all know that sex sells, but I’m curious to see whether the influence of high-level politics will result in a shift in the lyrical repertoire of Kartel and Mavado.

What amazes me is that the prime minister doesn’t seem to recognise that there are two sets of dynamics operating here. One is about the enforcement and introduction of laws that prohibit any form of public indecency, whether on stage or in the lyrics, for which nobody is exempt, regardless of status or popular appeal. The other is the deep social divides in the country, both historical and current, that promote and fuel the Gaza/Gully phenomenon. As far as the latter is concerned, as creative as Kartel and Mavado are, they too are products of something they didn’t invent. The Gaza/Gully divide is a mere symptom of a deep and enduring social construct that has divided the Jamaican people into sects of various types, shades and colours — JLP versus PNP, charismatics versus evangelicals, uptown versus downtown — and the list goes on and on.

But even while the history and social constructs must be considered, the slackness and violence spewing from the mouths of the two artistes are totally unacceptable and should have been dealt with a long time ago, using the force of the law and the relevant regulatory bodies to ensure that, at the very least, the interests of

the most vulnerable — our children — would be safeguarded and protected.

I’m afraid that the argument about free choice and freedom of expression is going to have to be seriously examined. When a country begins to lose its moral centre and it’s every man doing what is right in his own eyes, then those basic tenets of decency and those universal values we all adhere to are going to be severely compromised, and that is exactly what is happening in Jamaica today. I’m afraid our country is now at the point where the people will have to be protected from themselves, however paternalistic that may seem.

There is a growing sense that the Golding administration has all but ceded power to popular culture and to the demands of the crowd. Not only has Mr Golding through his utterances given legitimacy to those informal empires of West Kingston, with their distinct and effective systems of social control, but his government also appears to be comfortable and complicit with how certain constituencies and individuals continue to blatantly disregard the law.

I was flabbergasted by the way Minister of Information Daryl Vaz described the so-called peace dance held in Tivoli a few Sundays ago which lasted until 6 o’clock Monday morning. When questioned on Nationwide why the event was allowed to continue beyond the legally prescribed time limit, Mr Vaz’s flippant response was that it was an annual event and the impression we got from what he said was that the momentous appearance on stage of the two feuding artistes, together and at the same time, was so important that the time the dance ended was insignificant. Not a word was mentioned by Mr Vaz about the fact that by 6:00 am school children are supposed to be on their way to school, or any other concerns about night noise.

Obviously, the peace dance in Tivoli wasn’t quite enough despite Minister Vaz’s assurance of its success. Days later, the two artistes were invited to Jamaica House to discuss the Gaza/Gully feud, resulting in a five-point agreement to wipe graffiti off walls and to break down others. As the country anticipated the results of the summit, there was no talk about the content of the lyrics or any potential censorship of slackness and violence in the public sphere.

There are still some Jamaicans who are under the illusion that the serious social and moral decline will be corrected through osmosis and that there is no need for stringent regulation. I want to encourage those Jamaicans to take a look around them and think again. The government, in particular, is going to have to examine its policy of rapprochement seriously with those forces which are anathema to common decency and hostile to the law, and decide whether it intends to govern the country or continue to cede its power to the growing informal empires.

With love,

bab2609@yahoo.com