Stap Nyam Yuh Tail

How can we tek wi han tun fashion and use mikle mek muckle when so many external, antagonistic factors prevail. Some persons will try but whole heap will, according to our nation’s history and peoples nature, never reach beyond the presumptuous boundaries set.

Wi watch di news an imagery of wage freezes an pompous vehicles riddle the airwaves with intent to over shadow  the loathing realities of inflation, constricting debt, joblessness, etc. Not everyone will master the tracks, conquer the boxing rings or stumble upon cash just left alone by careless atm attendants in order to clear their plates of the stale and insipid realities that we have been fed or have been fed us. Rightfully so we must recognize those who have triumphed over there dispositions but no be swept away by the whirlwind within which one is so bugled that he becomes blind sighted. Jamaica’s reality of lacks in intellect, capital, collateral, etc. has crippled our youth, both male and female.

If I am special, you are special we all are special then all we are left with is a monotonous flux. As Black people were cultured to believe that we should turn the other cheek when our men are shackled, our women are raped and our kids are left to ride the illiterate wave because Gad naah gi yuh more dan wah yuh can bear , a di same way, we have been left to think that we are special and the world is obligated to us blindly leading us to take part in the rat race.

We as Jamaicans have no clue how to step away from monotony and mediocrity hence we are as captives to a redundant rhetoric  which holds tight the regressive grip of the common vice. A long time Rasta a talk bout Babylon and wi deemed him fool with intense skepticism. Our country because of this has been littered with persons unable to think beyond the walls of their craniums further propagating and perpetuating an unbearable stench of disrespect and egotism.

Cow si him tail and tink a bush biting at it till him nyam himself. Egotism is disingenuous. It has been etched into the bones of the old and breed into the genes of the young. Propaganda and hungry bellyism is our down fall. Tik bruk inna wi aise puppah jeezas. Every baddy know she yuh cyaah clean di stream from di battam yuh  fuss affi start from di tap but yet wi blame di mussic an deem our young men as packs of rats without first highlighting the fact that we left the food and built the nest.

Mek wi stop pointing fingers and start painting solutions to our economical situations to make Jamaica a betta plaice fi live, work , raise family , whatever. Why can’t our leaders stop trying to be culprits and embrace the fact that they have substantive purpose? Who are we fooling to think that we can outfit politicians with exorbitantly priced vehicles which they will in 4 years time own, fi likle aar nutn, in the name of service to the people  when di people a dead fi hungry. We see wars happening globally and retaliations by citizens of nations  and think we are nowhere near such wanton behavior but believe me it’s at our doorstep about to insert its aggressive shaft into our context.

I’ve always thought it to be nonsencesical( if such a word exists) to train people in a field which has no industry and send them to sit on their couches after the graduate but di foolishness starts when yuh start train to much 1000 people fi waah industry we have 10 and smiling aaff yuh face like yuh mekking a difference. Yuh aint better dan the fool we think seh dem fi tek waah old car, call it jeep an dash some half starving and desperate young people in deh fi guh paint side walk an kleen gully with intent that yuh plugging gyaps in unemployment. A who a di fool doah gad, di man weh cum up wid di plan are di one pan di wagon.

Untill this island nation eradicates the filth from our upper and lower cottages we will never move. Untill we can stare wi selves in the eyes, gi wi self a raahtid bax an she a who yuh fooling den wi doomed to sitting and watching di same reruns on the unplugged tv screen.

TAN TUDDY

Why don’t we hand a knife to everyone who thinks they are a surgeon and say “cut”? Aaww! So why is it that everyone who stands and says I am an artist/artiste gets to wear the mantel. As was said by Dancehall Icon Bogle “everybody can daance but anuh every bady a daanca”. To me the problem doesn’t lie with the bestowed, more so, it lies with the individuals bestowing.
Do we ever stop to 

think who a lot of these people writing for the news papers and doing TV interviews are how they became qualified to hand over such titles. Have we stopped to think of our Minister of Culture and the many respected officials we have giving out Fine Arts and Music awards to the public. Well, I am curious to say I hadn’t before this but the thought has me pondering.
I do not wish to take away anyone’s accolades or titles( yeah right ) my point is and is simple put unless you are certified to certify “shut yuh mouth”. Weekly I read the Art sections of news papers to find “works of art” scuffed at by the academics and no where worthy of being recognized by the “Intuitives” yet it is lord with honours by untrained eyes and unqualified pens smacked right on the front page of that section.
I hope my banter does not come off as just a bitter young artist wishing he was being featured because guesses what, I have been, so has my work, so if your mind lingers there you are not listening. What I speak of doesn’t only pertain to painting or the visuals it also speaks to literature, the culinary, performance and entertainment. I can whip up a good enough meal but I aint no chef. I can become one with dedication and education but until then I can whip up a good enough meal, yuh get mi?
No one seems to take the Arts serious: not the government, institutions nor the artists themselves, no my bad sorry, the patrons buying the crap does; because they crave that which is creative so much they are forced to take what they get. If we as Artists cyaah put wi futt dung who the hell will. I we wont produce, write, criticise and bestowe we cyaah guh stop whats taking place and if so , wi would have to kibbah wi mout.
I am talking freely and boldly as that’s what I do best “stop gwaan like yuh a govanna general, handing out awards and bestowing titles, as mi grand faddah wuddah seh, tun tuddy jackass”. The Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, the National Institute, National Gallery and many a Art Consultants/ graduates of the mentioned college exists for a reason. I do not wish to take away the prestige from anyone I just demand that it not be presumptuous.

Without Vision

like a man chained in a cave to stare at a shadow eventually accepting his realities( Plato "Allegory of the Cave) so many of us stay retarded by our dispositions in life. Jamaica's Art/ Industrial Arts industry is so rich in potential yet not many a individual's mind has been impregnated with a response that has the guts needed to take the bull by the horn. Jamaican Art has become the buying and selling of mediocrity and lack of integrity breading a result of the "bruck pocket, gimmi a bly "culturally insignificant. This  cohort resides limited in their fortitude to recognize this truth, as believe it or not,  it would destabilize their pockets and livelihood. How then can there be a revolution of this process if timidity is the epitome of our existence .

It has always been my impression that the Edna Manley college, one of the foremost leaders tasked with the mantel for the rejuvenating and re-contextualizing of the Jamaican Arts and its contemporary expression and economy, has not failed in producing artist annually but has fallen short where the ability of these practitioners reside in contextualizing their academia bestowed them.  Outside of philosophizing and doing art to meet a personal expression these professionals are limited and eventually do not contribute much to the nations Art nor do they impact its culture, outside our miniscule Music catalog.

there are a few persons who have tried to capitalize on industrializing their Artistic and  creative expression and those persons have to be credited where necessary but one must admit what has been done so far is not even a chip off the iceberg.

 Fifty years is a great triumph for any developing post colonial nation  and Jamaica having accomplished such should be applauded in context." Sly mongoose yuh name gaan abroad" but in this case not for the violence that has retarded our nations  infancy but for being one of the first nations, no longer wearing Her Majesties albatross , to have leaped this far and stayed close to being flat footed. Our physical and entrepreneurial  renditions as a nation has developed over their years which allows us to live and compete globally. Though we boast a nice resume our breathing is asthmatic and our grip slipping.  

Lets pause at this interval, " rest wi likle self," and reflect on the ways we have managed our creative abilities so we can effect a more impacting result as we embark on the next fifty yes to come. There are many groupings of talented Arts professionals  as well as creative genres untapped but ripened unwavering to the idea of being  exploited. In hindsight lets authenticate the sentiment, as consistently  referenced, that we are the Mecca of culture and capitalize on it to reclassify our economy matriculating from developing to developed. Throughout my primary and secondary eduction there was one thought which was impressed on my mind and that of my classmates daily , " Jamaica's most valid resource is it's people."

A people is an expression, an expression a culture, a culture an asset. Art is an asset of an expressive culture.  "Cow nuh know the use of him tail till him lose it" we cannot fall victim to such realities. "Wah heart nuh si heart nuh leap", without a vision the people perish, it does not have to be 20/20 as long insight is not in vain. The Aim of this "chatup" is not to discourage the trying our pedestal the tried but to  redirect and re-volt the Jamaican expressions, its context and economy. Jamaica's Arts/ creative industry is at a fork in the road: do we stand idle by and watch  as people take our valuables as their own or do we capitalize on  that which is valuable to  justify the road we will take. No man is an island and so it takes all within the industry and those on the periphery to  own, deconstruct and reapply the energies needed to say that we have done our nations expression justice and are proud.