The Trend, The Time and Bob Marley

Old pirates yes they rob I
sold I to the merchant ships
minutes after the took I
from the bottomless pit
but my hand was made strong
by the hand of the Almighty

we forward in this generation
triuphantly
won't you help to sing
the songs of freedom
'cuz' all I only have
redemption song...redemption song

emancipate yourself from mental slavery
none but ourselves can free our minds
have no fear for atomic energy
'cuz' none of them can stop the time
how long shall they kill our prophets
while we stand aside and look

some say it's just a part of it
\we got to fulfill the book
won't you help to sing
the songs of freedom
'cuz' all I only have
redemption song...

"Yes, the lyrics is baked in my genes from the moment the album was released. And I 'dunno' if this is becoming craziness. But, no, I am trying to figure out how it all popped up, and of what origin am beginning to sense that this is not something new or probably I may be losing it because the lyrics itself had a whole lot to do about my being,and specifically the pirates who had thought they were doing my being a favor which led to the mess that seemingly has consumed the world today, and certainly a world that continues to be troubled."

"Hey, man, what's wrong with you and what the hell are you talking about... are you alright, man!?"

"Oh, yeah, 'am alright. It's just that something is baked in my genes and it continues to give me that natural high. I really 'dunno' what it is."

"What's going on and what exactly is baked in your genes?"

"Well, I just gave you a hint and it's not rocket science. Simple and clear, but since you are too dumb like Fred Sanford would tell his son when they ran the salvage company, Sanford & Son, let's try it again. It's called 'The Trend and The Time", not Morris Day & The Time, perhaps before "Purple Rain." Did you get it?"

"Nope."

"So what do you want me to do? Stuff it?"

"What are you talking about for goodness sake?"

"Here we go again, he wants to know everything."

"Of course, I do. Have you been smoking some weed or something?"

And, what's that... you see what I mean? Each time something pops up, it's all about weed."

"Look, man, I'm through with you."

"Really?!"

"Really!"

"Ok, let's see, have you ever heard of Bob Marley?"

"Of course, who doesn't know Bob Marley, the legend."

"Here you go. You are becoming a good boy and I am proud of you. But let me ask you, though, did he ever made sense to you?"

"Yep, and now what?"

"This is the deal, and make sure you take notes when I lecture."

Funny and confusing, huh? It all depends on which way you look at it. Not much happenned for the gone week but I did chew on some few stuff. Too many books popped up about Bob Marley, though I haven't made time to check them out at the bookstores, but I read the review, "The Bob Marley Story", well-done by Joshua Jelly-Schapiro in the April 9, 2009 edition of the of The New York Review of Books. Summing it all up, to one essay, Schapiro provided a lot of information from the following: "Before the Legend: The Rise of Bob Marley", by Christopher John Farley; "Bob Marley: Herald of the Postcolonial World," by Jason Toynbee; "The Book of Exodus: The Making and Meaning of Bob Marley and the Wailers' Album of the CEntury", by Vivien Goldman; and "Soul Rebel: An Intimate Portrait of Bob Marley", by David Burnett.

Good piece and in-depth, and Schapiro writes;

"Marley is the only third world performer to be elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 1999, the BBC named his "One Love" the "Song of the Millennium", the same year Time Magazine declared his 1977 "Exodus" the "Best Album of the Twentieth Century" voted the third greates songwriter of all time in 2001 by BBC poll (behind Bob Dylan and John Lennon...)"

Bob Marley was something else. He changed everything about reggae which evolved from ska, rocksteady and prophesy after his neigborhood buddies, Winston McIntosh and Neville "Bunny" Wailer" Livingstoe would join him in forming the Wailers. McIntosh went by the name of Peter Tosh while Livingstone would be Bunny Wailer. And, the rest would be history.

"The Harder They Come" and the Venice Film Festival. Jimmy Cliff. Perry Henzell. Rita Anderson (Marley's wife). Christopher Blackwell, the brain behind Island Records. Lee "Scratch" Perry, the gem behind reggae explosion. Desmond Dekker, the first reggae artist whose album "Israelites" catapulted reggae to the top. Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF freedom fighters and independence for Zimbabwe. And, all in all, Blackwell was the man. And reggae came to stay, and the vibe would change the world; and of course, the flow made sense.

And as it goes, so I found myself knowing more stuff about the legend. There was Aston "Family man" Barrett who claimed to have fathered 52 children; there was Bruce Dunbar in the era of the reggae explosion; there was Coxsone Dodds label that paid poorly; there was the American group, The Drifters, Marley listened to growing up in Jamaica and there was a group that admired the works of Marcus Garvey and celebrating "the 1930 coronation of Haile Selassie 1 as emperor of Ethiopia as a fulfilment of Garvey's supposed prophecy to 'look to the East for the crowning of the African King'"

Marley, the legend, you did stuff and you changed the world. Your legacy lives.

News Desk Update Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Human Trafficking in Eastern Europe 'Set to Rise'
Human trafficking is increasing in other parts of the world as well. In the Philippines, for example, rising unemployment is making more people vulnerable to traffickers, reports the humanitarian news agency IRIN. "Along with a possible upsurge of criminality as joblessness and poverty spread, there could be a rise in cases of human trafficking," says lawyer Ferdinand Lavin, chief of the National Bureau of Investigations Anti-Human Trafficking Division. "People will be more aggressive in finding jobs and human traffickers will take advantage of the situation."

Human trafficking, often referred to as modern-day slavery, is the second largest and fastest growing illegal industry in the world, according to the Polaris Project, a group that works with victims of all forms of human trafficking. Traffickers typically "prey on people who are hoping for a better life, lack employment opportunities, have unstable home life, or have a history of sexual abuse," notes the Polaris Project. [READ MORE>>>]


Modern-Day Slavery
INDIANAPOLIS - Slavery as blacks know it is permeated with images of Africans stuffed in ships, whipped and beaten beyond recognition, hung on trees and picking cotton. Slavery now has a new face – human trafficking. Human trafficking is often confused with smuggling, extortion or simple prostitution. When a person is a victim of human trafficking they are mandated to work under specific conditions by force. The U.S. is one of the top “destination” countries for human trafficking.

“I don’t want to devalue the legacy of slavery in this country with real shackles. For people to understand the kind of control someone is under, it's useful to think of this as a modern day form of slavery,” said Mark Lagon, executive director of Polaris Project, a national organization aimed at ending human trafficking.

Forced labor continues to be a substantial portion of human trafficking yet commercial sex dominates. According to Gayle Helart, assistant United States attorney, for the Southern District of Indiana, the crime isn't about the violence or the labor itself, but the money - especially commercial sex. [READ MORE>>>]


Brown panel urges memorial to note slave ties
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A commission established by Brown University in cooperation with the city of Providence and the state of Rhode Island has released a report that makes six recommendations on how to acknowledge the university and community's historical relationship with the slave trade.

Among the recommendations by the commission is that the Public Arts Committee at Brown be asked to commission a memorial about how slavery was intertwined with the Ivy League university's early benefactors.

Other recommendations include working with city and state to explore how they will memorialize slavery in the city and state's past.

The commission recommends that the director of Center for Slavery and Justice, when appointed, undertake a discussion how this history will be represented in the Brown curriculum and how the curriculum can be used for teaching at the K-12 level and that the university through the center.

The commission also recommends providing funds for ongoing public events, seminars and lecture on issue that help the community reflect on the history of slavery in Rhode Island and similar atrocities around the world. [READ MORE>>>]


National domestic-violence conference set
The alleged beating of pop star Rihanna by her boyfriend, R&B singer Chris Brown, has touched off a national dialogue about domestic abuse.

"Whenever something so startling involving celebrities is in the public eye, it starts people talking," said Kate Marckworth, director of the health-care task force within the Columbus Coalition Against Family Violence.

The 10-year-old coalition hopes to continue the conversation at its first national conference, titled "Innovation through Collaboration: Building a Community Response to Family Violence."

The event, which will run from April 29 through May 1 at the Hilton Columbus at Easton, is expected to draw as many as 500 domestic-abuse experts from across the country.

"We are honored to host this conference to help dedicated individuals continue their work breaking the cycle of violence in victims' lives," said Abigail S. Wexner, the coalition's founder and chairwoman. [READ MORE>>>]

BOOK SHELF: The Door of No Return: The History of Cape Coast Castle and the Atlantic Slave Trade

Many lyrics have echoed about the horrific Trans Atlantic Slave Trade on the process of human cargo. In 1974, The O'Jays recorded Ship Ahoy paying homage to Africans who survived and overcame the predicament of slavery and human bondage. Also, Seventies Jamaican Reggae group, The Cimmarons released Ship Took Us Away From Africa, an overnight mindblowing sensation at a time of the reggae boom and Rastafarian prophesy which took roots reggae to newer heights.

William St Clair's remarkable new book The Door of No Return: The History of Cape Coast Castle and the Atlantic Slave Trade, came at the right time after extensive and exhaustive research digging into the archives. It was fifty years ago that on March 7, Kwame Nkrumah's practical and enigmatic leadership achieved full democratic fabric, making Ghana the first West African Coast to gain independence.

I haven't been familiar with a whole lot of stuff regarding the slave trade until St. Clairs in-depth, well-written book which caught my eye at the "Black Township" where I partly engage in African cultural relativism. Very few of us are African-born and most of the people here are aging and are fast-talking in joining the band wagon - homeward bound to motherland. Their focus had been Ghana as the free land offer by the Ghanaian government is attracting every African Diaspora.

Listening to these aging folks talk, I tried to imagine what must have gotten me in this place and why am I trying to figure out why these folks think going back to motherland is the last straw. These are mostly retired men who had thought a whole lot of time had been wasted thinking the land of the free was a safe heaven until now. I also imagine these aging folks, maybe there's nothing out there for them anymore, thus no longer productive in a society where free enterprise is highly comepetitive among the youngish capitalists. Or maybe, the bills are driving everyone crazy while their retirement benefits can afford them all sorts of luxury if they relocate to motherland. Why not?

Talking about enterprise, St. Clair's book noted the entrepreneurship of the slave trade and how detailed and organized it was relying on the archives of the Cape Coast Castle. The castle's first construction was commenced by a Swedish construction company in 1653 at the peak of the Scramble for Africa when for a decade (1653-1663) the Swedes and the Danes were the domineering colonists until the British empire conquered the castle in 1664. It was a game of chess among the European traders and dealers and despite all that, the local kingmakers had the upper hand and determined a good bargain on the people that were being traded for transport across the Atlantic to the shores of America.

The book is entirely drawn from St. Clair's personal research from the archives of the castle. I think from a personal point of view and based on the tedious research project carried out by St. Clair detailing on how the Coastal kings negotiated with European traders and an ensuing warfare as the castle almost got hit by the French in 1756 and the returning of some slaves, for instance, the return of Ayuba Suleiman Diallo who also became a slave trader makes this 282 pages of Blue Bridge Books quite interesting and engaging.

What I'm Reading

Well, I'm not really a bookworm, but a friend had recommended I should purchase Randall Robinson's latest entry into bookstores. Ok., I did go to the bookstore and listened to my friend's humble advice. I had a problem though. A book 280 pages at the price of $26 before taxes probably means a whole lot in Latin American history.

Randal Robinson's An Unbroken Promise: Haiti, From Revolution to the Kidnappintg of a President appears to be spellbinding as I comb through. I am now in Chapter Three and I hope by next month I will be through with a book full of agony and human tragedy.