Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
Hope McNish, wife of the late Eric 'Macko' McNish, talks to Dr. Clinton Hutton before the launch of the memorial activities for Mr. McNish. Dr. Hutton was the guest speaker at the launch at The Hilton, New Kingston, in St. Andrew recently. - NORMAN GRINDLEY/DEPUTY CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
ON THE first anniversary of his death, journalist Eric 'Macko' McNish will be remembered through some of his deeds.
Details of three events in honour of the former editor of the Jamaica Beat newspaper were given at the Hilton Hotel, New Kingston, last Friday morning, by his widow Hope McNish. Two of them, a seminar at the Ashanti Restaurant in Hope Gardens on November 6 and the sixth staging of 'Music Is Medicine' concert at the Emancipation Park in New Kingston, were events McNish, who died on September 9, 2004 after a struggle with heart failure, founded or played a key role in starting.
FIRST OF THREE EVENTS
The first of the three memorial events, however will be a dance at Jamaican Vibes on Haining Road in New Kingston, the headquarters of the Jamaica Association of Vintage Artistes and Affiliates (JAVAA) on Haining Road in New Kingston, on Saturday, September 24. Shanghai Solophonic disco will provide the music, with guest selectors including Stokey Love of Rapture Disco, broadcaster Norma Brown-Bell, Winston Blake of Merritone, Ilawi from Jah Love, Judith Douglas of Wray & Nephew Ltd. and Carl Percy of Carl Percy & Co. Ltd. A selector from Classique Disco will also be in action.
It not simply a matter of song and dance, however, as proceeds will go to the Jamaica Foundation for Headucation and Social Change (JFHSC), the organisation staging the three memorial events, to further Eric McNish's vision.
NEXT EVENT THEME
The theme of the November 6 seminar, which is likely to be the final of the three events, is 'Ways To End the Wave of Crime and Violence in Jamaica.' The early morning 'Music Is Medicine? concert, to be staged along with the Emancipation Park Walkers and Joggers, will feature Dean Fraser and Friends.
Mrs. McNish noted that the theme for the three events, 'By His Deeds Shall a Man Be Known', was chosen because that was her husband's motto. She also said that the response from most of the persons who were contacted to assist in staging the events was the same: 'Anything for Macko.'
'OWN-ACCOUNT' CATEGORY
Dr. Clinton Hutton of the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona Campus, placed Eric McNish in the category of 'own-account' persons, those who had to have sovereignty and self-reliance.
'It was that class that produced Bogle, Hibbert, AGS Coombs, Garvey,' Hutton said.
As a journalist, Hutton placed McNish in the tradition of Dr. Robert Love, John Willis Menard, John Maxwell, Ben Brodie and Julian 'Jingles' Menard, in the 'role of public educator,' with the ultimate aim of 'transformation of the poor into the agency of national development.'
'He has a relationship with the elite classes, but the relationship is on the basis of what they can do to develop the masses of people as in doing so develop themselves,' Hutton said.
THE POOR'S ABILITY
He spoke of the ability of the poor to create wealth if given the chance to do so and said 'nowhere is this more evident than in reggae music,' the origins of which are in the meeting of the urban poor with the migratory rural poor, especially in West Kingston.
'Macko was also aware that poverty has a way of regenerating itself,' Hutton said.?It was this cycle of poverty that pushed Macko to become a public educator.'
'We have to find ways to teach young people about themselves,' Hutton said.
And the host of the brief function, Norma Brown-Bell, added that 'another key word throughout Macko's career was development.'
'Let us build up the levels of native genius in our Jamaicans,' she ended.
