Dear Editor,

I recall having a discussion with a brother from Manchester in recent months. Each time I made a statement he would go to Google.

In another discussion, trying to contradict my statement regarding the year when the earliest ganja medicines were produced in Jamaica, this person went for Google and said, “See it here in a journal.” I said, “Yes, it is there, but what was there was an exposition on the possibility of making medicine from the ganja plant and not about the production of the medicine.” The first story is about confirmation of what was said and the second was a matter of a lack of comprehension.

A few days ago, a third person called me and asked this question, loaded with certainty, “Didn’t Bob Marley enter the Jamaica Festival Song Competition?” I told him that I didn’t remember anything like that. I sent him to Google. He replied, “Mi nuh tell yuh, man, Bob Marley entered festival with One Cup of Coffee in 1971, the year when Eric Donaldson won with Cherry Oh Baby.” This information was taken from Google. I told him that Google is wrong.

I told him that One Cup of Coffee was Bob’s early song. It was a ska song, and that by 1971 ska was not around. And that Cherry Oh Baby is a reggae song. Further, I told him Bob Marley was singing reggae at that stage of the history. That was the first reasoning why Google is wrong.

I, however, became worried that something may be wrong with my memory. Persistent in my research I came across an article, ‘ One Cup of Coffee was not served’, published in the Jamaica Observer, July 5, 2011 that declared that the Google story is wrong. It disputed the story; it shows that One Cup of Coffee was made in 1963. However, it argues, The Wailers as a group entered the 1967 Festival Competition with the song Send Me Your Love. The Observer called on the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) to make the effort to have this misinformation corrected, but the error still exists.

I am not using this single issue to make a general judgement on Google. It is useful, useable, and I find Google Scholar just amazing. Still, this history of reggae music is as important to Jamaica as the music itself. I hope that the JCDC will act this time.

Louis E A Moyston, PhD

Kingston 8

thearchives01@yahoo.com