I consider the lobby for Kingston to be classified a creative city an excellent move; however, I have some concerns:

1. Why isn’t there a lobby for Montego Bay as well? I know here in Montego Bay we understand what branding a city means. A branded city and a creative city needs to be people-centred and a part of a sustainable development project. It needs to emerge from and include the people of the country. It must include the upgrade of infrastructure to accomodate the visitors envisioned – from transportation services to attractions. We would need to be establishing creative spaces that celebrate fashion, music, dance, language, museums to celebrate this culture and history we like to speak of. Montego Bay is such a city and has such a strategic plan, the One Montego Bay Project, which the mayor of St James recently spoke of in the press. This city knows, in more than just a superficial way, about branding. So as you whisk off to Japan to speak of branding Kingston, I pray thee that you remember Montego Bay, as we can proivde evidence in a tangible way of how this parish can be packaged and branded as a creative city.

2. I know Jamaica wants the stamp of approval from UNESCO, and that it would look good on our profile and rÃ&Copy;sumÃ&Copy;, but how much of the requisite work or policy framework has been done in Kingston?

I also commend the establishment of an Entertainment Registry, but there, too, I have some concerns:

1. Is there enough respect for our music and its creators? How will the registry prevent exploitation? Will the registry aid in elucidating and illuminating that a lot is being swept under the rug, that not too many seem willing to address, like the fact that there is not much of a creative or music industry with regards to publishing, copyright and intellectual property rights beyond a few Kingston-based entities like the Jamaica Association of Composers Authors and Publishers and the Jamaica Copyright Licensing Agency?

2. How do the benefits of the registry extend to the small man, as this registry seems geared towards strong industry players, and structuring it as such lends itself to nothing but exploitation — no matter how good and noble the intention?

I know of a fairly renowned figure here in western Jamaica. He is both a music and creative industry player, as well as a columnist for the

Western Mirror – Hedley Jones – who is 98 years old and has been trying to organise the creative industry to no avail. I would like to know what’s being done in light of this information to secure pay, pension, some sort of union for musicians and entertainers. And I am not talking about those at the highest rungs of the ladder, but the “likkle mento and gerreh bands” and the people who play in the tourist industry — the ska players, the little live musicians — workers whose pay cannot presently make them a reasonable living.

What of the small sound systems; and what security and help will either the Ministry of Labour or the Ministry of Tourism provide to protect these men and women who give their lives and souls to the tourist industry and the entertainment sector, who who are being used, chewed up, spat out, and left to walk the streets of MoBay penniless, or be the topic of a where are they now or some memory lane article?

Please, I ask that you find some way to incorporate the small members of the industry who truly keep its wheels turning.