THE EDITOR, Sir:
IN MANY ways, our local history and culture can be viewed as a continuous journey towards an ever increasing tolerance of free expression, no matter how distasteful, idiotic, offensive or decadent such expression may be. While some songwriters, singers, rappers, and DJs of every class and creed have used their talents (or lack thereof) to create a consciousness of which we can be proud, some have been too generous with their uncouth manners and ignorance of issues that oftentimes are more imagined than real.
In our country where literacy is still not widespread and where the 'dancehall' phenomenon reigns supreme, we are at times unwittingly forced to hear and acknowledge too high a level of shocking raucousness and risqué behaviour. There seems not to be any care taken with the choice of words in some of these 'culture songs' and neither is there any regard or concern about the impact such words will have on the young and immature.
As I listened to the message in a song blasting on an amplified radio, I could not help but analyse the presumed truism of the words of the song being played. The schoolers on the sidewalk were all dancing and singing in cheerful agreement and unison as they repeated word for word the lyrics that shotta clothes don't wash wid gal underwear. I wondered too, if these were indeed 'schoolers' or were they 'shottas' and 'rude boys' in school uniforms.
To put those words in a song (being played on national radio) suggest to me that there is a morbid fear or resentment about such a simple domestic chore. There must be an unwritten mandate or understanding and acceptance that 'shotta' and 'rude boy' would lose their manhood and subsequent 'badness' if such a chore or even a simple shower with the wrong rag ever took place.
We are never too old to learn and quite often we have sought too complex a solution for problems that are more easily solved than we dared to imagine. Neither the might of the security forces nor the sobriety of the judges nor the compassion of the juries, nor the horror of the penal institutions have been able to intimidate or suppress the ways and means of the 'shottas' and 'rude-boys'.
If all of us can be guided by the message in the song, then the best weapons of mass destruction could be a simple little thong and a cheap wash-rag. If this is the wisdom we need to emasculate and subdue them, we should give it a try lest we all continue to wither and perish as naught else may change them.
I am, etc.,
SONIA CHRISTIE
Stewart Town, Trelawny
