Let the dust settle part 1 spoke to the whole accusations and counter accusations between Buju Banton and the gay community in the United States predominantly San Francisco the described gay capital of the world where Buju's tour has met with fierce opposition.
Now the dust has settled somewhat what do we see? Buju seems to have won this round (lost the war overall) with more dates slowly added to his tour and the American Civil Liberties group in Miami coming in support of him in a statement issued some time ago (who cares?) they seemed to have missed the boat in as far as understanding the requests or commands in Buju's lyrics to kill gay men and the methods prescribed, of note shooting directly in the head with an Uzi.
My calling for letting the dust settle was to get us to see the landscape more clearly and get rid of the noise and smoke from opposers and supporters alike from all sides. Of note the gay people who met with him in San Francisco have not responded to the criticisms levied by some in the music industry locally and in some instances seem to suggest the meetings never happened and the photos of Buju bumping fists with gays were doctored which I found so ridiculous, folks will do anything to deny or avoid discussing issues directly that they find all kind of silly excuses.
There is also talk of Buju loosing allegedly millions from cancellations a point I have a little difficulty digesting as most of the venues are small club houses not arenas of stadiums like he used to get in his heyday of Til Shiloh CD prominence.
Will the gay groups get another chance to meet him face to face again? I doubt it unless they resort to picketing him and his shows again or some miracle in the future. I feel he now knows how to play the game with PR and press while working his contacts in the community even though he doesn't support us. It would have been good if the folks who met with him used the time to discuss the situation here in Jamaica and how to help to defuse the fiery homophobic climate in our nation with a serious view to meaningful tolerance.
Some within the opposition are trying to get information on hate crimes from the agencies of government of all places including the police, this clearly shows the still lack of knowledge of the Jamaican situation and apprising oneself at best some more before launching into actions. I hope that the endeavours are tracked and noted carefully.
Be it resolved though that the interventions from our foreign supporters are welcomed however how interested is the average GLBT Jamaican on the ground if one should poll or even just ask about the present impasse many don't even care or are just becoming aware due to mainstream media coverage especially from US cable stations as many Jamaicans have cable service, the question is whose fault is that and how do we fix that? boi mi nuh know yah sah
JFLAG's silence until recently when I feel it was forced to respond because of pronounced media coverage and the photos from the meeting on blogs and news sites worldwide was disturbing to me, the group said it was not impressed. My criticism of them and ordinary GLBT Jamaicans goes further as there hasn't been any serious public support for the interventions by the Cancel Buju Banton campaign not even so much as a response, Jamaican membership or statement on the website. I guess some are timid and don't wish to publicly show support and are emotionally there in spirit as some of the Facebook comments and private messages suggest but can we be in the shadows and cowards all the days of our lives?
Now is the time to begin picking our brains to finding formidable solutions now that the issue of Murder music has gotten the public attention it deserves from an American standpoint as actions like this are normal in Europe and the UK through their own Stop Murder Music campaigns respectively. Recently Sizzla was in the news as his show was cancelled by SMM Bern.
We have to keep the issues alive in Jamaica or it may just die as a nine day wonder as some have, while doing so however new ideas must be found to strike a balance needed to push tolerance. (fan away the extra dust)
Peace and walk good
also see:
Gays may have overstepped their bounds giving Buju ultimatum says human rights activist
Golding and Simpson Miller failed to lead (Gleaner Editorial on the Charter of Rights debate)
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4 comments:
I think you are too pessimistic. It is true he rather cleverly got the better of the so called activists at that meeting in San Francisco but then he spoiled the effect by declaring war on us again on Jamaica radio a few days later.
The big blow to the tour was when AEG/Live Nation pulled out right at the start - I think they had the best venues.
I am suspicious of that statement from the ACLU in Florida: it was couched in such naive language, you have to wonder if it was not solicited by the producer of his Miami show. By the way, the significance of that show is that it is in a 5,000 seat arena - quite unlike the little clubs he has had to make do with as substitutions.
The point of the campaign was not to victimize Buju in particular but to send a message that there's a price to be paid if Dancehall artists make gay-bashing songs for domestic consumption and then try to make money in the United States. The bigger motive was to keep the of gay rights issue alive in Jamaica, which it certainly seems to have achieved.
I don't know what will happen next: it's hard to see BB doing another big tour here anytime soon if he is constantly having to reshchedule gigs all the time. On the other hand, I think the gay community got stuck in a war of attrition which left no clear winner. I don't want another fight like this one, anyway.
It's not an issue which is going to go away, since, as you say, Jamaica is bombarded with U.S. TV for better or often, for worse.
Still, you could have all the law reform you want in Jamaica, but you will still have the problems of guns, poverty and violent crime to deal with.
Not very well written, but I just got up.
not pessimistic just realistic
I defer to you since you are there on the ground.
better u say synical as I don't see the community in general seeing the sense of urgency especially the present Charter of Rights that has basically relegated us to nasty outcasts and the Buju item most persons seem not to even care at the relevance of this action against, probably lgbt people here may be disillusioned on the other hand and just feel helpless.
BTW is this SamK?
oh boi
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