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James' Forum
A missed Marley opportunity
Posted By: James
Date: Tuesday, 8 February 2005, at 10:06 a.m.
I just finished reading this article in the Jamaica Observer about Bob Marley and the recent celebration of his birthday.
From what I have read, Bob's wife may be planning to move her husband's remains from his current resting place in Jamaica to a new location in Ethiopia.
It seems that there's not much interest in Bob Marley or his music in Jamaica at this time, at least not from the Jamaican people. In contrast, tourists seem to have a great deal of interest but not much has been done to feed the interest.
When I am in Jamaica I never fail to be assaulted by the "new" reggae being played in the taxi, in the hotel lobby, in the restaurant or the jerk shack. It's everywhere. You don't often hear the "old" reggae unless someone is making a point to play it. I once while sitting at a bar on the beach I heard the bartender ask one of the waitresses what music she would would like him to play and she replied "anything but Bob Marley", and so he played the new "angry-gansta-rap" style reggae that most older tourists find to be "unpleasant". This is when I get up and move along...
I think Bob Marley did a lot to bring world attention to Jamaica, but in typical Jamican fashion, the opportunity has been squandered.
There is a lesson here that other tourist destinations learned long ago, "Give the tourists what they want, not what you want to give them, and they'll come back with their family and friends".
Unfortunately, for such a small island with a relatively tiny population, it appears impossible to get any manner of national focus on inportant issues. Everyone has a different perspective and it seems to prevent widespread cooperation.
I think a good example of positive cooperation is on the 7 Mile Beach where all of the property owners seem to work hard to keep the beach as clean as possible, but when it comes to noise, the music is just too loud and often too angry, making tourists uncomfortable.
The powers that be in Jamaica appear to have more interest in making as much money as possible as quickly as possible and they seem to have little interest in promoting Jamaica's rich cultural and musical heritage, especially when it comes to Bob Marley. They don't mind using his image but they don't seem to be interested in cultivating it's drawing power.
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