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MarleyAmina Blackwood Meeks, Contributor
BROTHER BOB, de only smaddy name dem call up more dan yours is Kwaku Ananse, a wha so? Anyway, yu dun know dem deh pan yu name ... again. Dis time is de suggestion, de insinuation (for I tink you prefer de Babylonian connotations in dat word to describe the distinctly-Babylonian approach to de business at hand), for dem is in-sin-u-hating, or maybe is incinerating, for de ting waan bun me up, dat you are to be used as a tourist attraction. I know dat you overs sey is not just you, but you sight up sey I citing an example. Dey labbering all de time bout 'brand Jamaica' an every time I hear it me whole being scream out "Fire!" and it is not of the purifying variety.
Sometimes it come in to me like we are extras in de Forrest Gump movie. De one bout de man into him own world into him mind, a follow him own likkle voices, an just start run bout de town. De next ting him know, well him never even know for him wasn't paying nobody no mind, was dat banns a people start follow backa him a do everyting him do an when him ketch into a far place an stop do it dem never know wha fe do for dem never have no deeper motivation dan to follow fashion. I calling dat de Forest Gump sydrome (FGS).
We know sey brand name is a name what a manufacturer choose for de ting dem selling an dem try to use something dat nobody else doan call fe dem tings. I doan have a problem wid dat part. Sometimes two manufacturers have a problem doagh, dem ketch up over who have de right fe use de name and dem haffe get Blue Boot fe climb up Eleven Step go bow to Judge Wig inna Courthouse. Sometimes Brand Name cause all kinds a passa passa mongs men an people who nuh know demself, chu some brand name claims sey dem is de bBrand of 'de rich an de famous' an dem sing song an moggle afta dem fellow human beings who de system leff nutten but what Red Rat sing bout de "tear up b... pants crew" outa road. So de very concept of de branding of goods ah froth me up, me nuh mean soso fraught, wid nuff tings dat come between people dat we need to penni sometime.
GOODS AND SERVICE
Branding, the searing of
flesh with a hot iron to produce a scar with an easily recognisable pattern for identification is a ting dat ascording to how me get it, did come up into Africa long time BC fe mark livestock, fe people sure which animals did belong to dem. Dat different from sacred tribal marcations for beautification. De Greeks, Romans an dem Anglo-Saxons cousins come tink sey it was a wonderful idea fe brand prisoners as a form of punishment. De ting sweet dem an dem brand slaves, army deserters an everyting dem tink dem own an have control over. Ah deh so we come in marked, labelled, boxed an baxed up, shipped as goods an services.
Bob, is like dem tek you as both goods an service, part of 'de produck' dat tourists spend money fe see, hear, touch an carry back as curios. De ting about manufacturing you know is dat people generally meck something firs before dem brand and sell. But is like sey de sellers dem wait till creative souls meck demself den dem come in as a miggle man, curious bout de state of de market. It look like some people doan realise sey is people dem dealing with. You can imagine a booth into a big international trade expo an it mark Brand Jamaica an into de booth now is Marcus Garvey, Bob Marley, Louise Bennett, Edna Manley, de Prime Minista and de Leader of de Opposition, accessorised with a bar code an a price tag into dem aise like aise ring. Bid em in, Bid em in, Bid em in. When I analyse dis stench of how we behaving I see a ting, big wud people call subliminal factors, dat cause it. So as we bear a name and play de game.
ANIMALISATION
Yu see like how people love tink sey when me say certain tings a joke me a gi, me decide to check what people who live in de branding capital of de world have to sey bout it. One a
dem call it the tactic of 'animalisation'. One Lewis Mumford, (1895-1990), big social philosopher, historian, and urban planner, write dung sey him believed "that society is dehumanized by technological culture and that it must return to a perspective placing emotions, sensitivity, and ethics at the heart of civilization." Anything that puts money above people an put how people feel outside of the context of so-called development naw go good fe we in de long Forest Gump run. Meck we kean stand up an sey no to de branding? An sometimes all when we run go brand wit pretty label dem still rejeck we produck, for is so fe dem game go, dem sey dem want Chiquita an we tink dat mean banana an den we end up feeling wutliss like everywhey we tun makka juk we. So we put on we animal foot dem now an start trample macca an dem tun roun again an brand wi more unmentionable labels. Dem betta listen to de FireMan, yu hear, "Cause if dem don't change, we gwine do something about it ..."
