LIKE most if not all the other freelance columnists for this paper, for one reason or the other, I was not fortunate to be at the celebrations that marked its 20th anniversary. However, my best wishes are nonetheless sincere for the paper’s continued development. It is in this vein that I offer special congratulations to the Jamaica Observer team and especially its owner/chairman, Butch Stewart, for ensuring the paper’s survival and growth. Despite his apparent economic wealth, Butch Stewart’s success with the Observer cannot have been as easy an achievement, as many would understandably think, given the evidence of history. He fully deserves to blow his own trumpet as reflected in the paper’s banner headline the previous week that the “Observer has never wavered.”

I have not seen the most recent ‘media usage’ report but (leaving out the Sunday papers) from those previously published, this paper seems to have not only made significant inroads into the market, but the weekly paper seems to be growing at a rate (14%) that must be giving its 200+ year-old rival (23%) serious pause. I think that a different argument could be made to explain the difference in readership of the Sunday papers, but I leave that for another time.

In the second half of the 20th century, the Jamaica Observer was preceded by at least three attempts to establish and sustain a second daily newspaper to counter the Gleaner’s monopoly. These all foundered amid much heartbreak, not only for their publishers and staff but for the people of Jamaica who by then would have envied the reading public in our larger sister islands which were served by at least two or more daily newspapers. I was one of those who waited with bated breath for the appearance of the first edition of both the Daily News in 1973 and years later, the first Jamaica Herald (and inbetween those, ‘the Jamaica Rekord’). I recall going with my friend and media/communication executive Carmen Tipling to the Molynes Road headquarters of the Herald hoping to greet the first edition, armed with ackee and salt fish breakfast for our good friend the then Editor and some of his staff. We waited for a couple hours and eventually had to leave empty-handed. We were rewarded with an advance early copy much later that evening, but by then much of our excitement had dissipated. We were more guardedly optimistic by the time the Observer emerged on the media landscape.

National Hero Norman Manley must have been prophesying about the Jamaica Observer when he wrote in a Press Association of Jamaica publication in 1968 that the country “would one day achieve more publications representing different basic points of view, and competition between themselves.”

Given the demise of the aforementioned papers in the decades preceding the Observer, most Jamaicans would be forgiven for thinking that that day would never come. But the experiences of these other failed experiments may have contributed, even in some small way, in piloting the paper into a less hazardous path. There is no doubt that newspaper publishing intelligence operated at a much more advanced level in the 1990s, even though political biases are still reflected in consumer response. I well recall during the turbulent 1980s that there were many who refused to buy the Gleaner because of its perceived heavy pro-JLP bias. That helped in stimulating a receptive market for the Daily News and later the Herald. That factor alone, however, was far from sufficient to sustain the survival of those papers. But then, neither were the economic fortunes of their owners.

Today, there are many readers who resist buying the Observer for several reasons. Some of my friends and acquaintances confess that they hardly ever read my weekly column or that of other writers simply because of what they perceive to be a particular political bias by this paper. I have always considered this to be an unfortunate response to opposing media perspectives. This is the same type of response, both here and in the US, to some cable television channels, notably Fox and MNSBC, both of which show an allegiance to either the Democratic or Republican Party. While this type of response may be consistent with research findings about communication behaviour, suggesting that people tend to access media supportive of their own perspectives, such a response contributes to a measure of information deprivation that may otherwise help information consumers in arriving at more informed choices and positions. While there will always be much to criticise about this paper, there is much to be grateful about the realisation of Norman Manley’s 1968 prediction, and it is to be hoped that its Chairman can repeat his claim 20 years hence.

Another cause to celebrate

I was forwarded a story more than a week ago by a friend about an 18-year-old Canadian/Jamaican, Rashaan Allwood, who was out stunning the world of classical music in January while, according to my friend, the media focus on Jamaican youth was all about violence, and perhaps achievements in sport. Although belatedly, the Observer published this information as a ‘breaking news’ story on Monday this week, so no doubt many would by now be celebrating something else about Jamaica that is new and different and wonderful.

A first-year University of Toronto music student, Rashaan achieved a National Gold Medal from the Royal Conservatory for scoring 100 points, a perfect score, on a piano performance in January, the tops in Canada. The young pianist’s achievement is reported in Canada to have set the music fraternity there buzzing. He also won three categories at a subsequent Kiwanis music competition to add to a growing collection of medals and achievements.

Rashaan was born in Ontario of Jamaican parents Filmore and Joyce Allwood, who, based on reports, have played a significant role in his development as an awardwinning pianist. Happily, he seems not to have forgotten his Jamaican roots and reportedly has adopted a school in St Elizabeth, sending money he earned from awards to repair the school. Even when he was 16 years old he raised money from concert performances with his jazz band to assist disaster aid efforts in Jamaica, Haiti, Pakistan and China.

His piano teacher, Anna Fomina, said in a story published elsewhere, that she has turned out many outstanding students, but never before in her lengthy teaching career at the 25-year-old school of music did she produce a Piano Performance Associate Diploma (ARCT) student with a perfect 100 per cent mark. Although reportedly one of nine students awarded national gold medals for obtaining the highest marks in various musical disciplines at the Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) graduation ceremony, Rashaan was said to have stood out for his matchless perfection. “To get 100 per cent in that category is very, very rare,” said Jeff Embleton, the RCM’s publicity manager. “Getting that mark in the theory is quite achievable, but there’s a little more subjectivity when it comes to the practical and the allotment of marks. What Rashaan has done is remarkable and tremendously impressive.”

As Jamaicans, we sometimes make too much ‘song and dance’ about highachieving offspring of Jamaicans in the Diaspora, but maybe we have good reason in this case to celebrate Rashaan as another manifestation of what Professor Hume Johnson referred to in a recent presentation as Jamaica’s ‘soft power’ brand.