By Amina Blackwood Meeks, Contributor 
Blackwood Meeks
"Anything that children like will live forever." Professor Carolyn Cooper, at the opening of LikkleStoryFest.
IN OUR CHILDREN we
have everything or we have
nothing.
The deciding factor is whether we have the will and the vision to commit the resources of time, energy, facilities, human capital and money into programmes and activities which develop human beings, not just roads or buildings.
And there's the rub. You cannot ribbon-cut human development to my certain knowledge no one has, as yet, staged a ceremony with photo ops to "declare this person open."
Well, besides the morgue. And there's another rub, the sorry mourning, to quote my mother,which is the ceremony at which we mourn all the things that could have been if only we had done what needed to be done.
Like invest in our children instead of give dem gray hairs over wedda de budget balance or not, or teck back de ability to afford a computer in this age of scientific technology (go deh, Bob) and leave dem wid bang belly while we work their parents to death in the name of debt-servicing an tell dem nat to bother wid de strike because it going to mash up de likkle tourist industry.
Now I confess that I have a bias which results in a piece of fimilosophy, as in a fimi viewpoint, that tourists do not visit Jamaica or anywhere else for that matter to admire Mister and Mistress Chakupdehso for their ability to balance the budget or take pictures of our nearly high-rise buildings.
Tourists may, however, come to Jamaica because we cultivate fine musicians, exceptional dancers, sometimes brilliant cricketers and world class storytellers, who the Chakupdehso don't quite know how to view or what to do with.
And when they visit, tourists might just spend some money which helps us to balance the Budget.
This, surely, must be part of what we mean when we talk about cultural industries. If we are to be believed, it must also be part of what we mean when we say we are into an age where development is about knowledge, as in "how we wuk we head". Enter Kwaku, What-A-Hard-Man-Fe-Ded, the Honour Rebel Bredda Nanse an de head wukking and de stories which have brought us thus far, and in very real ways connect us to worlds and peoples we sometimes cannot imagine and, maybe, dare not imagine.
STORY-TELLING FESTIVAL
LIKKLESTORYFEST, the children's storytelling festival took our children beyond the imagination, theirs and ours for a whole week in venues across Jamaica. Up to 500 children at a time, sat for five hours with only a 45minute break sharing stories that connected them to those we left behind in Africa, through the tales of Nana Vuyelwa Mthimkulu from South Africa and those we have not been taught to accept fully as family through the tales of Samantha Pierre and Noreen Joseph of Trinidad and Dominica, respectively.
When given the choice, the children opted to be told stories in the Dominican kweyol or learn songs in one of the languages of South Africa. And when the storytellers were exhausted the children begged for more.
Professor Carolyn Cooper is right.We cannot love what we do not know; knowledge is the first step to longevity. It is how we build on it that becomes what we enjoy as tradition or lament for its passing.
And, when they performed, the children reminded us of the levels of excellence they are capable or reaching in their respective art-forms.
It is this performing ability that talent scouts go after for advertising and marketing campaigns. They look cute in commercials. It is also their group which is targeted for products they nag their parents to purchase. It is the group in which as a nation we invest the least. And it is from their ranks that world famous participants in the cultural industries will come and make us proud to be Jamaican.
We might also use them to endorse this or that product and yes, the world will happily not recognise the name or face of one manjack who whispered in the ear of anyone who walked up or down Duke Street to make life-changing decisions, but they might make gurus of anyone of these little ones who dare to change the world with a guitar and a song or with a story. Right, Miss Lou?
So what's to become of our arts and culture? Well, maybe the same thing that's to become of our children. And that depends on whether we continue to allow the Budget 'to run out' when either of these two is mentioned.
And especially if they are mentioned in combination. For who cudda eva teck pikney sinting serious.
We give thanks for those who do. Jack Mandora, me nuh choose none. Selah.
