tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953848556540874315.post2930917468653107483..comments2023-09-07T01:46:58.215-07:00Comments on Active Voice: Buju IS Jamaica: "the full has never been told..."Annie Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18002716362243335338noreply@blogger.comBlogger49125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953848556540874315.post-35543320589420594632009-12-30T14:36:48.164-08:002009-12-30T14:36:48.164-08:00Oh how I enjoyed reading this comments string.Oh how I enjoyed reading this comments string.Fiyu Piknihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02436637433989843647noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953848556540874315.post-44541572706338657372009-12-30T06:04:33.029-08:002009-12-30T06:04:33.029-08:00an interesting article, but i would put forward th...an interesting article, but i would put forward that jamaica is not particularly open nor tolerant (i live in jamaica btw)- right now in particular the "public" voices in the media, the social institutions like the schools, churches, etc., and the government are calling for censorship, licensing of journalists, etc. at least two members of parliament (including the PM) have publicly stated their disapproval of homosexuals.<br /><br />also i know buju personally, he is a genius and an incredible egomaniac and a madman. at the Rebelution concert last year xmas he punctuated his performance with the statement "Sponge Bob is a batty man!" remember that buju was acquitted of beating some homosexuals, but an acquittal in jamaica means what really... so he takes his calls to action quite literally it would seem.<br /><br />sarah i think you've drunk the koolaid (or quenchade in this case).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953848556540874315.post-91671759546998394792009-12-26T00:59:29.015-08:002009-12-26T00:59:29.015-08:00Thanks for writing this, Sarah! Your words were so...Thanks for writing this, Sarah! Your words were so fitting to the situation & how many of us feel. Buju was such an inspiration to many Jamaicans.. This just confirms that he is only human and can only be judged by Jah. I just hope that justice is fair & his lyrics as a teenager don't impact this case.Julie Mangonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953848556540874315.post-2582147148832359792009-12-22T04:47:40.318-08:002009-12-22T04:47:40.318-08:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953848556540874315.post-77899072868288914332009-12-22T04:10:06.520-08:002009-12-22T04:10:06.520-08:00I was really glad when Hilaire Sobers castigated t...I was really glad when Hilaire Sobers castigated the print media for the completely biased and inflammatory way in which it covers events involving homosexuals. <br /><br />I would say that if we can't persuade highly educated folk such as the media represents to get with the programme, it's going to be that much more difficult to get those with little or no formal education to get on board. in fact we need to start at the top, not the bottom...<br /><br />so there Long B, a kiss in your direction too--Annie Paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18002716362243335338noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953848556540874315.post-76245327360460850072009-12-21T16:37:53.986-08:002009-12-21T16:37:53.986-08:00Mwah! A kiss for you, Annie Paul. There.
What I ...Mwah! A kiss for you, Annie Paul. There.<br /><br />What I have found so maddening is how hyper-sensitive we Jac'ns [are goaded to] become whenever anyone mentions anything that suggests homosexuality. We have become such easy bait that two men, a blog, a cellie and a fax machine located somewhere a farrin can make us jump up and act like flipping idiots, spouting all kinds of "facts" and making pronouncements about "gay rights" (does anybody here know what the hell that means? cause I sure don't, not in a country where we don't even have a friggin' bill of rights, so I can't even sue my ex-boss or caretaker for sexually harassment...), and in the process embodying what we claim is not true of us. Putting aside the everyday ignorance and word-wars that happen here, I have been far more embarrassed & troubled by what is passed off as "fact" and logical opinions by commentators, etc. Frankly, I blame the Jac'n media for actively sustaining the anti-gay propaganda machine with the broad & inaccurate generalizations @ some fictive "homosexual lobby" that is based on prejudice, hearsay and skewed interpretations of publicly accessible information. Ask yourselves how many times in the past 18 years of Buju's trials that a single Jac'n newspaper/media outlet has EVER published a story that is actually based on interviews &/or interaction with anybody who claims to represent said "homosexual lobby"? To the extent that any media sources ever quote actual people, that stuff always comes from a single organisation's press release, website, or email; no context, no history. All information is manipulated to point us in one direction: that the WE who don't like gays & lesbians are absolutely right, and DEM who are "promoting" homosexuality are absolutely wrong. Always we are told what we should believe & those who dare to think differently are either pushed aside or, worse choose to silence themselves and refuse to craft a position that does not begin with disclaimers like "I think homosexual sex is nastiness but..." or "I can spot them a mile away, but..." or "the bible say is a sin but..." or "some of them too obvious but...", or "as long as they don't molest my children..."<br /><br />In the wake of this systematic campaign of misinformation "gay organisations" and gay & lesbian people any claims about "tolerance" & "intolerance" need to be set aside. Each can be readily refuted with available evidence. What can't be refuted is the need for respect for the dignity of each person. Period. For me, the question is: What do/can we do - individually and collectively - to get that ball rolling? What are the places we can begin, without getting into an argument about which issue is more important than another? Surely, even Buju can get with that programme.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953848556540874315.post-77996945771385105732009-12-20T15:52:55.763-08:002009-12-20T15:52:55.763-08:00You think Peter Tatchell's activism might have...You think Peter Tatchell's activism might have inspired Uganda gov't to kill people who have gay sex with 17 year olds? wow look & learn<br /><br />http://www.petertatchell.net/Chipnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953848556540874315.post-26901870899736237902009-12-20T14:21:20.951-08:002009-12-20T14:21:20.951-08:00Welcome Long B, welcome! I proffer my other cheek....Welcome Long B, welcome! I proffer my other cheek...Annie Paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18002716362243335338noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953848556540874315.post-82020026979663721212009-12-20T12:35:28.958-08:002009-12-20T12:35:28.958-08:00Great conversation! I'm not surprised that it ...Great conversation! I'm not surprised that it couldn't stay on BB. I was really taken aback by the Jcn reportage in the 1st few days that spent less time reporting on what was happening 2 BB, & more than 3/4 of every column dedicated 2 the boycotts/campaigns against him. That, 2 me, was really disrespectful of BB, & helped 2 fuel the bullshit conspiracy theory that he is being set up. Too many of us talking as if we know BB personally, when we don't know anything. I'm not standing behind any drug dealer, a fellow Jamaican, albeit an important one, or not. Until he is cleared of the charges, he is worth as much 2 me as Dudus - both of them r low-limb fowls that deserve 2 b shit on using every legal maneuvre possible.<br /><br />I must say that I'm very happy for Kei/Marlon/FSJL not conceding to Ann's/Sarah's/et. al's insistence on confining any critical discussion of BBB to that "lyrics R only metaphorical" prison. Marlon's & Kei's comments @ the inherent problems/limitations of liberal thinking are right on. I, too, value the space that Annie's blog provides, but I constantly feel a little bit betrayed by her refusal 2 do more than peddle the same conspiratorial bullshit @ "intern'l gay organisations" that shows up in the Gleaner instead of doing her research. Nor is it exactly reassuring 2 me that my Jac'n "allies" R straight people who do think I need to hol' mi corner & that it's ok 2 b asked 2 do so, & who don't see the need 2 speak out against "metaphorical violence" because it does not target them. For ex., rather than telling "int'l gay organisations" 2 go rail @ the church, etc. & leave BB alone, how @ telling them 2 go piss off AND taking on the pastors etc. Why not show solidarity with queer folks here rather than just sit back & complain when farrin others R critiquing the situation 4 how they see it using really fucked up lenses? It's not & never will be enuf 2 say one "knows of many homosexuals" as if that can challenge the violent antipathies that come in verbal & physical form. It won't. It doesn't.Long Benchnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953848556540874315.post-11913619010492714022009-12-20T10:39:48.546-08:002009-12-20T10:39:48.546-08:00"Truth be told, the majority of murders that ..."Truth be told, the majority of murders that are committed against gays in Jamaica are usually committed by a lover or former lover." We're in a new millennium and people still shovel this bullshit. <br />Thanks for clarifying my own point that while the nature of civil rights, gender rights and GLBT rights are different, the nature of the enemy is the same.<br />This is actually worse than the people screaming Boom Bye Bye, because it purports to a rational reason, even a compassionate one, yet it puts a dangerous spin on an ignorant prejudice by claiming to be rational. This is not the thug out there burning down black churches, but the rational scientist who has no problem with blacks since it's not their fault their brains are smaller. Gay people are their own worst enemies. Where have I heard that one before...Marlon Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06694034857728190133noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953848556540874315.post-91590067198042080212009-12-20T10:09:32.880-08:002009-12-20T10:09:32.880-08:00It is also quite interesting that an artist who in...It is also quite interesting that an artist who in 20+ years of recording has probably never sold more than 3million units ( collectively) is at the center of this "gay rights" issues - THE MAJORITY OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE SOMETHING NEGATIVE TO SAY ABOUT BUJU WOULD NEVER EVEN HAVE KNOWN ABOUT THE SONG HAD IT NOT BEEN FOR THE "GAY ORGANISATIONS" - Buju is way more popular now than he has ever been in his career because of y'all.<br />Gay organisations picked an artist that they thought would be an easy pushover - I don't hear anyone of them shouting out against Marshall Mathers - a WHITE AMERICAN artists who is way more influential than Buju will ever hope to be. FIRE BUN for america and their racist shitstem (for the ignorant and illiterate, that did not mean to literally throw acid on America)<br /><br />"Between 1997 and 2000 over 30 gays were killed in Jamaica" - and guess what? over 4,000 straight people were murdered....There are over 1300 murders every year in Jamaica (pop. 2.8 million) and although it shouldn't be an issue (murder is murder) the gay community tries to make a case about the violent nature of Jamaicans to gays in Jamaica. Truth be told, the majority of murders that are committed against gays in Jamaica are usually committed by a lover or former lover. Contrary to popular belief and that Biblical…er Time magazine article that keeps being quoted Jamaica is not a Homophobic society - we have no fear of gays, actually we leave gay people alone and stay far away. What about the 1300 murders every year in Jamaica? If you are so into righteousness, please speak out about the social ills that contribute to this (the same social ills that cause rich older men to take advantage of innocent children in the ghetto destroying their lives BOOM BYE BYE AND FIRE BUN FOR THAT), because the REAL REASON gay people (just like straight people) are victims of murder in Jamaica HAS more to do with these social ills than with people running around killing people because of their sexual orientation. You want to help? Stop focussing on Buju, and Bennie and get to the root of the matter…Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02409164780683353138noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953848556540874315.post-2551617439243557272009-12-20T09:26:43.062-08:002009-12-20T09:26:43.062-08:00All in favour of confiscating ALL of Sarah Manley&...All in favour of confiscating ALL of Sarah Manley's Buju Banton albums (until she promises not to write about it again) , SAY "I"Afflictedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10651023981775273913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953848556540874315.post-63038073125170687602009-12-20T08:19:50.914-08:002009-12-20T08:19:50.914-08:00I'm just going to agree with Marlon. Also, I&#...I'm just going to agree with Marlon. Also, I'll add that I find the arguments about metaphor and foreigners not understanding Patwa amount to dishonest special pleading. <br /><br />The 'not in my face' argument is tripe. Pure and simple. I've heard it about other things that offend idiots, like interracial relationships and marriages, and, frankly, it pisses me off.FSJLhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15803079547494458258noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953848556540874315.post-37503983152415760282009-12-20T04:45:42.501-08:002009-12-20T04:45:42.501-08:00Kei, we all know the kind of 'tolerance' t...Kei, we all know the kind of 'tolerance' that happens here. and its unacceptable that men/women who wish to be a certain way with each other can't do so openly (but it's another thing to suggest that Jamaicans go out of their way to hunt down and kill all homosexuals--you know that's not true). i think the older generation of homosexuals is quite used to living covertly as a result but there are younger males who don't see why they should, and feel free to be 'out and bad'. and then that brings the thrashings and the violence. <br /><br />i imagine this would be the normal trajectory in any culture where homosexuality is proscribed, with or without lyrics to endorse it. i imagine people everywhere have had to take gay friends to hospital after they've been bashed up by hostile groups, perhaps even in the United States. <br /><br />but things were/are beginning to change here in response to the pressure from the younger men mentioned above, in response to American programming available on cable tv and in the way that this culture is changing in a myriad ways in response to globalizing forces of various sorts. I wonder how much the structured campaign by Tatchell and co. has hindered and turned back this natural evolution that was taking place, has set all this back. and perhaps has also raised the ire of other countries (cf Uganda and co.?) and made them take the retrograde step of outlawing homosexuality at this date and stage.<br /><br />The debate about lyrics is moot, but i will continue to say just as i do about so called 'violent' lyrics like Anytime and Look into my Eyes and songs of that ilk that its a mistake to suppress them. where homophobic lyrics are concerned there seems to be some simple-minded belief that by shutting the songs down you've made the place safer for gays and achieved some kind of change when the opposite may be true.<br /><br />my position is that if people are singing anti-Indian songs i want to hear them, i want to know what it means, i want to be aware that there is this hostility for whatever the reasons are (and in the case of Indians sometimes justifiably) and i want to hear those lyrics disappear naturally when that hostility for whatever variety of reasons ceases or abates because that's how i'll know that real change has occurred and that it's safe for me to talk my coolie talk and walk my coolie walk...<br /><br />to go back to homosexuality and Ja i do wonder though if things will change without some of the pillars of this society who are gay (and you know there are many of these) coming out and making/taking a stand...and giving the lie to the notion of homosexuality as an undisputed evil by embodying the ways in which homosexuals have constructively contributed to this country as they have everywhere else in the world.Annie Paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18002716362243335338noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953848556540874315.post-85872109297542672742009-12-20T02:42:30.779-08:002009-12-20T02:42:30.779-08:00I’m with Marlon in the congrats to Annie for creat...I’m with Marlon in the congrats to Annie for creating and moderating a space where these discussions can happen minus the usual histrionics, even though I know it wasn’t exactly the discussion you wanted. I remember once you told me the frustration of having to in one week incredulously interrogate Jamaicans who didn’t accept that we were at times ‘intolerant’ on this issue, and then in the next breath explain to others unfamiliar with the nuances of Jamaica that the situation was a lot more complex than they were painting at as. That has been my frustration too. But I still don’t buy the metaphor argument. Maybe you can explain it to me better, even if ‘off channel’.<br /><br />Here is the thing for me: a song like ‘Fly me to the Moon’ bears so little relationship to reality - no man in history has ever put his girlfriend on a rocket and taken her out of space – that when we listen to Frank Sinatra, unless we’re smoking something potent like Miss T’s weed that she once promised, well – of course we’d know it’s not literal! We’re not so certain when Dionne Warwick asks the way to San Jose. She was a little dopey from morning, and maybe she really did get confused – San Jose, California? San Jose, Costa Rica? And maybe at the time she didn’t have any of her psychic friends to help her out. Similarly, it’s hard for me to accept a song like boom-bye-bye as metaphor when it has had currency in a society where some people (I admit, not all!!)will happily and have happily taken it as a call to arms.<br /><br />I notice when Sarah and plenty of us Jamaicans talk about our ‘tolerance’ we tend to put within that discourse a clever proviso. We say, we’re fine ‘so long as dem keep it to demself!’ This seems a subtle way to acknowledge that yes, on occasion men have been beaten (or killed) in Jamaica on suspicion of being gay, but the fault here was clearly not on the perpetrators of violence, but rather on the victim because dem never keep it to demself and did too hype up wid dem nastiness. But what does this mean, to keep it to oneself? It tends to be the case that the people in Jamaica who have been beaten (and on occasion killed) were not attacked because they were found in the situation that Buju metaphorically describes (two man hitch up and a hug up and a love up inna bed) but because they embodied a kind of behavior that was deemed offensive - a certain lisp, a certain drawl, a certain swing of the hips.<br /><br />Perhaps on the too many occasions (okay, it was only twice) that I’ve been called out of my bed in Jamaica to drive such and such to a hospital because they had been beaten in Liguanea or in New Kingston, the doctor if he had been so enlightened, could have explained that no no no, that big gash in your forehead is not a real gash, it’s just a simile, and that broken nose is really just a metaphor for Jamaica’s disapproval of your wearing skinny jeans on a Friday night.Kei Millerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02258170709463523866noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953848556540874315.post-37760911508673632062009-12-19T14:13:39.577-08:002009-12-19T14:13:39.577-08:00Marlon is the man!
You have to appreciate the ir...Marlon is the man! <br /><br />You have to appreciate the irony in a statement that says gays ruined someone's marriage! hehe! <br /><br />I agree with the cultural relativism sentiment, which includes past US presidents backing fundamentalist regimes, which we're paying for now. Mohammed's wife was 7 why not think its ok? gulp Those who confuse the bible-born homophobia issue in JA with some jamaican identity, i.e. "It's that the tribe of slaves we're descended from were warriors and.." its bogus. You could teach a jamaican kid in one day how to respect and stand up for gay people. You don't need years. Start with the persecution of scientists over centuries, explain genocide and mob behaviour, dispel the flawed romantic notion of national culture/identity and replace it with classes on the global economic reality. encourage kids to feel safe to explore their sexuality and imagination. <br /><br />Civil rights in the US is definitely a suitable parallel for the gay struggle in jamaica. Lets take a 'literal' reading of the law as a place to start. <br /><br />With simultaneously fighting 80 countries bans on homosexuality, I forgive gay activists insensitivity to multiple readings of patois, and failure to dig deeper into a more current catalog of murder music. we know its just good macho entertainment, not to be taken literally.<br />why else would beenie perform a song like that in Uganda at a time when a silent genocide was about to take place? <br /><br />"this is offensive to anyone who feels targeted by lyrics" <br /><br />shouldn't everyone be taught to feel targeted by ignorance?<br /><br />It's time for straight people in Jamaica who get it, to stand up. You hate the us groups, and say Jamaicans are tolerant, but would you wear an equal rights for gays pin for a day? in this lifetime?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953848556540874315.post-74962666354742914032009-12-19T11:30:04.274-08:002009-12-19T11:30:04.274-08:00Hey Marlon, thanks for the clarification and the c...Hey Marlon, thanks for the clarification and the compliment, i hear you on the common enemy thing. i hadn't thought of it from that point of view.<br /><br />and SF nuff respect to you...and thanks for taking the time to elaborate your position here. no, i don't think either Fi Yu Pikni (Unspeakable Truth) or I am saying that Dhall shouldn't be boycotted. boycott it by all means if the lyrics are offensive to you. All we/i am saying is that the lyrics are not saying go out and murder gays, they are expressing extreme disapproval and yes, metaphoric violence. This IS offensive to anyone who feels they are the target of the lyrics and such persons have every right to boycott it.<br /><br />And what i'm getting from you is that maybe we here also need to realize (if we haven't done so already) that when we say these things in our context it may mean one thing but once it goes outernational we have no control over how it will be interpreted. and that too is a reality we need to be aware of. <br /><br />so may the discussion continue...i'm off to take a nap.Annie Paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18002716362243335338noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953848556540874315.post-21295687068177129362009-12-19T11:26:26.480-08:002009-12-19T11:26:26.480-08:00I'm with SF on this. It's the cultural rel...I'm with SF on this. It's the cultural relativism argument that's tired, not the struggle for equality no matter what that form might take. Why should they take into account local culture, when that local culture has no interest in correcting itself? Nuances my ass, the boy wrote a song bout' man who a "rub up and a kiss up, and a take them cock like them a play sword fight." This isn't cultural peculiar word play, it's a young idiot who wrote a song in his young idiocy, and payback was and still is a bitch.<br /><br />If there is some metaphoric, lyrically imaginative double speak in this then clearly I should stop teaching Literature right now because I don't see it. BBB is ignorant, tough talking bullshit, no more elliptical or complex than NWA's She Swallowed It: "then I''l let you videotape her/and if you got a gang of niggaz, the bitch will let you rape her.". <br /><br />The problem with Cultural Relativism is that nobody calls cultures out on their backward, ignorant bullshit (this includes the hip-hop culture of NWA). This is of course the fault of well meaning liberals (before they became cultural relativists of course) who failed in what they did first, which was to force change by insisting people become just like them. But they have gone the other extreme, by leaving these cultures to sort themselves out. Like Germain Greer arguing for Female circumcision or people turning a blind eye to the Iranian age of consent being 9. As I've said before, a 9 year old vagina is a 9 year old vagina and no penis should be inside it no matter what your frigging culture is. <br /><br />I have no pity for Buju, not because he sang a dumb song years ago and is still being punished for it. But because he just did a stupid-ass thing and de beeyatch get ketch.Marlon Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06694034857728190133noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953848556540874315.post-12000637597276970122009-12-19T10:43:43.322-08:002009-12-19T10:43:43.322-08:00Hello Annie from SF...
hanks for hosting my thoug...Hello Annie from SF...<br /><br />hanks for hosting my thoughts here.<br /><br />(Just a note on me....full-time trade union activist & healthcare activist, gay rights as a downtime hobby, much more time spent wacking the Mormon Church around than Buju, significant times organizing with communities of color in the US, full-time devoted to undermining the US corporate power that is at the heart of US imperialism....and if you think that the US gay rights groups aggravate you, just please imagine the running wars i have had to wrench those groups away from well-intentioned upper-class white guys who often screw things up in order to empower multi-racial progressive coalitions. just trust me on that one....but while i will be critical of "Gay, Inc." I will still do what i can to achieve power for LGBT peoples...and one of the tenets of classical gay liberation ideology is that gay/les/bi/trans people are universal and eternal...we are in every culture, with different specific experiences, but commonalities and transcultural bonds also. jasmyne cannick is one who would dispute this, saying she if black first, a woman second, and a lesbian third, a viewpoint i do not necessarily share).<br /><br />Now there are two conflated arguments happening at the unspeakable truth blog...US gay groups are doing stupid stuff...and dancehall doesn't deserve to be boycotted. <br /><br />I agree on the first point...especially if you focus on US-led boycotts...which I think are actually a bit of a strawman focus. Most American gays only have interaction with buju and Jamaica during a local boycott, when he comes to town and the issues are raised anew.<br /><br />Obviously, for issues within Jamaica I would look to JFlag first. But I want to make one point about these kinds of criticisms of gay activism....in many ways, these arguments that gays should be doing better or doing more are just heart-breaking, because the small world of gay activists continues to be decimated by the toll of AIDS, and the cross-cultural community leaders, the Jamaicans who were in the US during the heyday of gay rights for example, are now dead, and we miss the leadership that they would be providing. I can feel their loss. i walk around san francisco and feel the ghosts of people who should now be mature adults, in their 50s and 60s, building great institutions, but instead were lost in their party days of their 20s and 30s. i know of many black cultural and political leaders who should be here--essex hemphill and marlon riggs jump str8 to mind--though i know less about people specifically of jamaican descent. <br /><br />So criticize gay groups too much, and I just throw my hands in the air and say, well life's hard, we are a put-upon people trying to help our brothers and sisters around the globe, I managed to get out a press release today about some piece of activism I accomplished, did you? and yeah, god, those groups are annoying, wish there were different people doing that work. Is inaction our other choice? And who's gonna pick my kids up for dinner?<br /><br />I am glad to see Annie that despite your usually thoughtful writing you can resort to overstating your argument as fully as i can: "The problem w the international gay rights groups is that they are operating with a blinding sense of self-righteousness and completely unwilling to take into account local culture."<br /><br />maybe unable would have been more fair than unwilling?<br /><br />The SECOND argument being made is that dancehall doesn't deserve to be boycotted because of complex lyrical traditions. That may be so within Jamaica, and I'm not engaging on that question...but in the terms of the global audience--7 billion not 3 million people--buju's words in BBB at least are a menace and a scourge to all gay people, and any right-thinking, humanitarian person should be outraged by them. Shades of meaning...I respect other interpretations but also have to insist on my rights as an audience of BBB to interpret it as seems plain to me...<br /><br />-anon/sf.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953848556540874315.post-21553227481296651172009-12-19T07:46:00.665-08:002009-12-19T07:46:00.665-08:00I think were agreeing on that point though. Maybe ...I think were agreeing on that point though. Maybe I didn't express it correctly, but that way of thinking I actually got from you when you pointed out correctly that, it is was this I'm superior, this near culturally imperialist attitude, that "you should just become like me" way of thinking that nearly killed the initial export of feminism, and also helped do as much harm as good with gay rights issues in the Jamaica. <br /><br />As for similarities, I USED to think that there was no suitable parallel between racial discrimination or gender discrimination and sexual dis, until I realized that while the nature of the struggles are very much different, the nature of the enemy is the same damn thing. It's fascinating researching the reasons why some didn't not support civil rights in the US. Here was one of them: that black people were too sex obsessed and violent and when one ended up dead it was usually because of some jealous fight with another one. Now where have we heard that one before? <br /><br />A writer friend of mine once said that gay rights will never move forward in Jamaica because there's not single movement in this country from anti-slavery to Rastafari acceptance that did not happen without considerable bloodshed. You want to know what price freedom? Ask a Rasta who was there to fight for it. I know that this was not supposed to be a blog about gay issues, but it's tribute to your blog being such a wonderful safe-space, that people who are usually silenced feel the freedom to speak.Marlon Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06694034857728190133noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953848556540874315.post-51725161614147138072009-12-19T05:04:42.127-08:002009-12-19T05:04:42.127-08:00My dear SF Anon,
thanks for persisting with this ...My dear SF Anon,<br /><br />thanks for persisting with this but do read this blog by a gay youngster from Ja, studying in the US. It's a truly exceptional blog, The Unspeakable Truth-- when he talks about his tentative forays in Ja, his relationship w his mother, and the difficulty of telling her, her outraged reaction and subsequently her acceptance of him. it's a study actually in how Ja is slowly changing and not to also feed this constantly shifting ground into the strategies used by external organizations, the insistence on 'by any means necessary' (and sorry i don't think there's a suitable parallel between racial discrimination or gender discrimination and sexual dis) is bound to fail in the same that neo-colonialist policies ultimately have (sorry Marlon).<br /><br />But do read the blog coz its not only Carolyn Cooper or myself who are suggesting that a literal reading of lyrics is possibly a mistake. This youngster does a good job of showing how easy it is to misread lyrics which are essentially written in another language,Patwa, as if they were written in English. Here's the link:<br /><br />http://revaluushan.blogspot.com/2009/11/inefficacy-of-american-led-boycotts.html<br /><br />and do go on to read his backposts, they are incredibly poignant...Annie Paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18002716362243335338noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953848556540874315.post-54541114834939416352009-12-18T18:01:18.214-08:002009-12-18T18:01:18.214-08:00Hi it's anon from SF otra ve.
I want to respo...Hi it's anon from SF otra ve.<br /><br />I want to respond to the anon from above who went on an anti-gay-american-imperialism rant above.<br /><br />Here's why i support/ed efforts to stop buju from playing in my hometown of san fran, and to not be able to be promoted/distributed by any global corporation: because it established an important business practice that you can't call death to gays without making amends...and still be able to do business in the global market as if nothing happened. that rule already exists for, say, ethnic cleansing and racial demagoguery, and it should exist as well for gay-les-trans people.<br /><br />is that really "savage power"? or a rudimentary survival technique? <br /><br />and yes of course this raises a fundamental philisophical question: is it colonialism/imperialism/oppressive to insist on the recognition of human rights in nations other than your own? i'll leave that debate to sharper social theorists, but i'm jumping in both feet to invoke human rights as a global concept applicable to all people, and that includes gay rights. that is more my focus, than the particulars of the jamaican situation about which of course my knowledge is limited.<br /><br />i note that david bahati from uganda the other day was forced to deny that human rights extended to homosexuals, as he calls them. it was an oddly cheering moment for me, because he was on the defensive, recognizing a global presumption that human rights exist and extend to gay people.<br /><br />okay, pardon my bloviation, but two other points....<br /><br />annie, you ask us not to literally read BBB. An argument similar to Carolyne Cooper's "lyrical gun." Okay, a close call on reading interpretations, informed by jamaican linguistic and cultural traditions, i get it. But the song has been received in communities across the globe, and its words seem stark and obvious in those contexts. <br /><br />and finally, I will mark the style of arguments here that warn of a backlash if gays press for their rights too boldly. obviously this is an important issue and consideration. but note that this is a perennial argument thrown against the lgbt movement, and every other social justice movement, and perhaps the kind of argument malcolm x was responding to with his phrase, "by any means necessary."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953848556540874315.post-54212821778900740312009-12-18T17:31:37.802-08:002009-12-18T17:31:37.802-08:00Interesting. The problem with Anonymous' argum...Interesting. The problem with Anonymous' argument is that for every solid one you nail (the neo-colonialism inherent in western people trying to civilize so-called backward people for their own good—Amen) there's a point you screw up with convoluted conspiracy theory. Washingston got screwed because he put his put his foot in his mouth and then choked himself. Denzel Washington, whose views on gays were once similar never made that mistake. <br /><br />Had a white male actor said something racist or anti-semitic, the black and Jewish community would not have stopped until he was destroyed too, so save the "attack on black men" argument for movies like Precious, which does far worse damage. As for destroying his marriage and career, I think men are quite capable of fucking up their own lives thank you very much. <br /><br />But this is about Buju. He is not a martyr, a victim, a misunderstood man, nor has he moved on, unless we're choosing to forget that gay bashing incident a few years ago for which he was naturally acquitted. <br /><br />Sarah is right about Jamaicans belief in live and let live as long as no one "shoves it it anyone else's face," except that it is the Jamaican equivalent of "as long as you know your place," which used to be the back of the bus or the nigger toilet.. She is correct that Buju IS Jamaica. Brilliant and careless, wise and ignorant no raas, violent and sentimental all at once. He's also a dumb-ass sloppy criminal who get ketch. So it go.Marlon Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06694034857728190133noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953848556540874315.post-43160884434982311552009-12-18T17:29:39.255-08:002009-12-18T17:29:39.255-08:00wow, its getting harder and harder to respond to a...wow, its getting harder and harder to respond to all the various anonymouses...but thanks for having this discussion on my blog...all a you--<br /><br />To say Buju is Jamaica is to say that he symbolizes this country and this culture in its majority but not its totality. <br /><br />its getting tiresome to hear the foolish refrain being repeated about Buju preaching death to all homosexuals--that's not quite how it is in the same way that a song that says Fly me to the moon is not an order to NASA to transport the singer there. <br /><br />Literal mindedness is such a bore! please spare us any further such readings. and rest the self-righteousness too while you're about it...Annie Paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18002716362243335338noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953848556540874315.post-29032852487653290132009-12-18T17:09:34.009-08:002009-12-18T17:09:34.009-08:00People think Peter Thatchell called the cia becaus...People think Peter Thatchell called the cia because Buju might win a grammy? And they responded? forget the terrorist threat guys.. I think these are two unrelated events and efforts should be made to make a distinction. <br /><br />I'll sacrifice GLAAD and Outrage ANY DAY for a strong and informed Jamaican campaign, but people are too scared to protest. because they might get shot? Lose their family? Would Buju stand up as a martyr in that video with the mob against the school boy?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com