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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>Of heroes and hypocrisy</SPAN>
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>Lloyd B Smith
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<P class=StoryText align=justify>Every time a modern-day icon dies in Jamaica these days, there are feverish calls for that individual to be made a National Hero or Heroine. History has shown that such a decision should best be left to future generations who will be better able to assess these people's worth in a dispassionate and non-partisan manner.<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=80 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>Lloyd B Smith</SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>The passing of cultural icon Louis Bennett-Coverley has once again brought this debate to the fore, and with it a great deal of hypocrisy. There have been repeated calls for her to be added to our pantheon of Jamaican greats with the nation's highest honour in the same way that many groups and people have been calling for reggae icon Bob Marley to be made a National Hero.<P class=StoryText align=justify>My major concern with these calls is that we are still a nation of double standards and a "two-facedness" that belies reason. To begin with, Bob Marley during his heyday was never accepted by the movers and shakers of the Jamaican society, and his music for the most part remained on the periphery of the island's popular culture.<P class=StoryText align=justify>It can be said that if Marley were alive today, he would more than likely be living in exile either in Europe or North America and he would have tremendous difficulty getting one of his songs to be a number one hit in his homeland.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Bob was a ganja smoker who was wont to "big up" the herb in many of his songs and utterances. No doubt, he was the "real revolutionary" and as such must be understood within the context of his own struggles to become somebody in a world where the "bald heads" ruled the roost.<P class=StoryText align=justify>But I find it most ironic that Marley, who openly extolled the virtues of ganja smoking and used the "sacrament" extensively as a means of inspiration and confidence booster, is considered by some a fitting candidate for National Hero, while if a "youthman" is caught with a ganja spliff, he is likely to be fined and or confined! When a Jamaica Tourist Board advertisement invites potential visitors to come to Jamaica and "feel all right", there is the subliminal message in Marley's lyrics of coming to Jamaica where the best sensimilla (herb, marijuana) is to be found and enjoyed. What better way to feel irie. Yeah mon!<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=365 align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>If Marley, Garvey and Miss Lou were all alive and living in Jamaica among us, they would not be happy or at ease with what they would have to tolerate </SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>Miss Lou in real terms died in exile, just like Marcus Garvey. It is no secret that she and her dear husband could not afford to live out their last years in Jamaica, land they loved. And it is evident that were they to have remained here, it would have been difficult for them to get on the social pages of the leading print media as their genre of entertainment would have had great challenges surviving alongside the burgeoning dancehall and eagerly embraced North American hip-hop culture. In the same way that Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller is being ridiculed because she allegedly has difficulty speaking the Que
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>Lloyd B Smith
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<P class=StoryText align=justify>Every time a modern-day icon dies in Jamaica these days, there are feverish calls for that individual to be made a National Hero or Heroine. History has shown that such a decision should best be left to future generations who will be better able to assess these people's worth in a dispassionate and non-partisan manner.<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=80 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>Lloyd B Smith</SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>The passing of cultural icon Louis Bennett-Coverley has once again brought this debate to the fore, and with it a great deal of hypocrisy. There have been repeated calls for her to be added to our pantheon of Jamaican greats with the nation's highest honour in the same way that many groups and people have been calling for reggae icon Bob Marley to be made a National Hero.<P class=StoryText align=justify>My major concern with these calls is that we are still a nation of double standards and a "two-facedness" that belies reason. To begin with, Bob Marley during his heyday was never accepted by the movers and shakers of the Jamaican society, and his music for the most part remained on the periphery of the island's popular culture.<P class=StoryText align=justify>It can be said that if Marley were alive today, he would more than likely be living in exile either in Europe or North America and he would have tremendous difficulty getting one of his songs to be a number one hit in his homeland.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Bob was a ganja smoker who was wont to "big up" the herb in many of his songs and utterances. No doubt, he was the "real revolutionary" and as such must be understood within the context of his own struggles to become somebody in a world where the "bald heads" ruled the roost.<P class=StoryText align=justify>But I find it most ironic that Marley, who openly extolled the virtues of ganja smoking and used the "sacrament" extensively as a means of inspiration and confidence booster, is considered by some a fitting candidate for National Hero, while if a "youthman" is caught with a ganja spliff, he is likely to be fined and or confined! When a Jamaica Tourist Board advertisement invites potential visitors to come to Jamaica and "feel all right", there is the subliminal message in Marley's lyrics of coming to Jamaica where the best sensimilla (herb, marijuana) is to be found and enjoyed. What better way to feel irie. Yeah mon!<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=365 align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD></TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>If Marley, Garvey and Miss Lou were all alive and living in Jamaica among us, they would not be happy or at ease with what they would have to tolerate </SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>Miss Lou in real terms died in exile, just like Marcus Garvey. It is no secret that she and her dear husband could not afford to live out their last years in Jamaica, land they loved. And it is evident that were they to have remained here, it would have been difficult for them to get on the social pages of the leading print media as their genre of entertainment would have had great challenges surviving alongside the burgeoning dancehall and eagerly embraced North American hip-hop culture. In the same way that Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller is being ridiculed because she allegedly has difficulty speaking the Que