We are heartened by the recent opening of the Jamaica Music Institute (JAMIN) in Trench Town, a community that for too long has not benefited fully from its rich contribution to popular Jamaican culture.

Older folks will recall that Trench Town was home to many of this island’s exponents of popular music, the most famous of them being Mr Robert Nesta Marley, who played a major role in introducing the world to reggae.

In fact, it could easily be argued that Mr Marley immortalised Trench Town in his classic No Woman Nuh Cry, the song that is usually the first mouthed by foreigners at the mention of the name Bob Marley.

The upshot is that foreigners who are in tune with reggae, whenever they visit Jamaica, are normally eager to go to Trench Town where a fitting tourist attraction — Culture Yard — centred on the life and works of Mr Marley has been established.

The opening therefore, of this new JAMIN venture — a recording studio with a state-of-the-art C24 digital recording console — will no doubt redound to the benefit of the residents of Trench Town and Jamaica in general.

For we are told by the Reverend Don McDowell, the manager of Music Business Technology Trainers, that this studio will be Jamaica’s and the Caribbean’s first international certification laboratory in the use of industry standards and Pro Tools software.

According to Rev McDowell, the studio will consist of six workstations on which sound engineers will be trained. He also made the point that the music institute will not only enhance employment prospects and increase knowledge for music producers and technicians, but will bring people into the community, thus assisting in erasing the perception of Trench Town being a dangerous place.

And given the penchant of international artistes specialising in reggae music to seek authencity, we are confident that overseas music producers will want to use the studio facilities here, thereby bringing us vital foreign exchange.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Jamaica Violence Prevention, Peace and Sustainable Development Programme deserve high commendations for this venture as it represents a deepening of the efforts by a number of agencies to reduce violence in communities that are susceptible to extreme bouts of volatility.

If, through this project, the authorities are able to save just one life, or prevent one youngster from sliding into the ultimately unprofitable world of criminality, the venture would have been worth the investment.

We expect, though, that given Jamaicans’ love for music and the fact that the industry can indeed provide a decent livelihood, the people of Trench Town and neighbouring communities will make use of the institute.

In that regard, we anticipate that the residents will protect the facility and regard it as their own.

We also hope that this institute, once its success is proven, will be replicated in other communities where social intervention programmes are in great need, in order to further stanch crime and violence that have already wrecked too many lives.