RESPECT... Then and now. What Next?

From the first time I set foot in Jamaica until today, I have tried to live up to the term "Respect". Respect for the people, respect for the culture and respect for Jamaica in general. When I used to travel around the island the word "Respect" was used as a general term of greeting between Jamaicans kind of like "How ya doin'?" is to a New Yorker. I admired the word and began to use it almost immediately each time I encountered a Jamaican either in Jamaica or elsewhere in the world. I thought it was "cool" like I had a special knowledge or insight into what it was like to be a Jamaican. And, when I heard Third World use "Respect" in a song, it was like they were talking to me. Me? Ya talkin' to me? Me? Rasta Rootsie?

Maybe it is because "Respect" is not a birthright or something you can buy, I made it a point to look deeper into the nuts and bolts and the moving parts of relationships between Jamaicans and between Jamaicans and non-Jamaicans. I began to realize that I was myoptically focusing on the word "Respect" and was only noticing when it was being used and not all the times that it wasn't. Kinda like looking for a friend in a green car to pick you up and when they run late how you start thinking that a lot of green cars seem to be passing you by after one or two fail to stop. Like green cars in Jamaica, maybe "Respect" was just getting a little more rare or maybe it was becoming a casualty of the times.

The "times"? Yes, those were the times of love songs and crooners. Of music that united us, protected us, loved us and promised to never leave us. It seems that "Respect" is inexplicably tied to "love" not physical love but emotional love. Not raucus and racy "sex you up" dominance love but equal and respectful love. Maybe this is what Don Maclean meant by "The day the music died" because when "Respect" walked out the door, it took a little of the oxygen out of the room at the same time. Rasta Rootsie still love dem gyals but an old fish becomes a slow fish and lawd knows di times deh ruff. That was then and this is now so, what is next?

Jamaica is on the cusp of change. Teetering one way and the other towards reform one day and chaos the next. Much like a Route Taxi, rough economic times is driving the car and the future is strapped in the passenger seat as the car goes careening down the road. Rasta Rootsie tinks dat soon the abundance of vehicles matched against a dwindling working and thus paying ridership will slowly nurture Respect back to prominence. How dat work? Well, he believes that everyone wants to be treated with Respect and they will pass it on if given the chance. Jamaicans are resilient people and will endure a lot of pain before saying "enough is enough". It seems that the ragga culture of decadence is enduing a well-needed makeover. Lyrics are being outlawed. All night parties are undergoing time restrictions and garrison gangster politics are undergoing some reform.

The patient is still in critical care but stabilized for the time being. It is a little early to hang the "mission accomplished" banner across the battlefield but somewhere in the distance I hear a love song.

sez....Rasta Rootsie

THE BEGINNING...For me? Easy. 11/25/1979!

No, its not my Birthday or "Earth"day like the newagers like to call it. It's when my eyes, and more importantly, my ears opened to the sights and sounds of Jamaica. I was standing backstage at the Santa Barbara County Bowl staring in utter astonishment at a group of Rastafarians called Bob Marley and the Wailers on their Legends Live tour. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L07lXY7hZQw

It isn't often in your life that you can actually pinpoint the moment that everything changes. When only hearing about an exotic location like Jamaica gets replaced with a physical need... no, an ADDICTION.. a stumbling through everyday life in a B movie with Bob Marley providing the score. It took four long years of scrimping and saving every spare dime I could manage until one day I made my dream a reality.

How did it begin for you?