Playing rhythym guitar in Kingston, Jamaica
When I graduated from college in 1993, I had two sets of marketable skills - computer-based graphic design, and West African drumming. I spent the year after graduation living in Ghana, sharpening my drumming and xylophone skills and trying to decide if I was brave enough to try to move to New York City and try to make a living as a backup musician, an anonymous musician making star musicians sound better as they entertained an audience.
I (wisely) became a geek instead. And I now find myself as a backing musician of a sort in a geeky academic “benefit concert” in Kingston, Jamaica.
This takes a moment or two to explain. Be patient.
Charlie Nesson, founder of the Berkman Center, has a deep and abiding passion for Jamaica. He’s been coming to the island nation for almost a decade, trying to figure out ways the Internet could help the nation’s development. He met a young social entrepreneur, Kevin Wallen, who runs an extraordinary project called SSET - Student and Staff Expressing Truth - within the Jamaican corrections system. The program provides access to computers and media tools to inmates - students - so that they can both express themselves and create media that can have a life within and outside the prison walls, through a radio station that connects Kingston’s prisons and, eventually, through the Internet.
If Charlie were a musician, he’d play benefit concerts for whoever would listen, passing the hat and raising money for the SSET project. But he’s a Harvard professor instead, and his benefit concert is called “Cyber Strategy for Carribean Business Leaders”. It’s a day long seminar in a hotel in Kingston, sponsored by communications companies and banks in Jamaica. Charlie’s the opening act; the headliner is Harvard Business School professor, John Deighton. John Palfrey, director of the Berkman Center, is the closing act - we’re hoping the audience will hold up cigarette lighters during his talk. And I’m playing rhythym guitar, helping Palfrey lead the audience through a technical explanation of how Google works and creating a blog with Charlie, live and on stage.
Which explains what I’m doing sitting in a conference room in Kingston, surrounded by telecoms employees, prison wardens, recently released former inmates, high school principals and a couple of somewhat confused Harvard professors. Big companies like Cable and Wireless are paying to listen to Charlie, JP and John speak, and all that money is going to the SSET progam. It’s an interesting mix, but it’s working so far, as Charlie’s now showing off the Jamaica page of Global Voices to a group that’s very excited to see Jamaica having a presence to the wider world, online.
Hanging out last night with some of the people associated with SSET - notably my friend Tafawa Thompson - we got to talking about the notion of Jamaica “punching above its weight” in cultural terms. Jamaica’s a small nation, by almost any metric - 2.7 million people, slightly smaller than the state of Connecticut. But almost everyone in the world has an impression of Jamaica - accurate or not - connected to Bob Marley, Red Stripe beer, reggae, ragga, dancehall… In the sense of “nation brand”, Jamaica’s got an extraordinarily strong one.
Tafawa told me a great story last night. He was recently in South Korea and discovered that Korean youths in the night clubs were sporting Bob Marley t-shirts. When they heard him speak, he was surrounded by fawning clubgoers who wanted to meet the Jamaican guy… Why did all these Koreans know about Jamaica - or think they did? And I wondered, who was making those Bob Marley t-shirts, and did any of the money from those shirts make it back to Jamaica?
How does a strong nation brand serve as an economic asset to a nation like Jamaica? How does the fact that everyone knows something about Jamaica - or thinks they do - help Jamaicans make money?
October 13th, 2005 at 12:06 pm
Is the “concert” being recorded for a podcast?
October 13th, 2005 at 12:48 pm
But of course, Oso. Charlie Nesson is recording it and should post it on his blog later today. I’ll post the link as it goes live.
October 16th, 2005 at 1:49 pm
Hey Ethan you really had everyone at the seminar spell bound and the presentation with John P had rapt attention
I need a blogging refresher course and we can do it under Ja Voices so brief me step by step
October 16th, 2005 at 9:37 pm
Richard - Thanks for the kind words. I’ll drop you a line with some pointers to help get Ja Voices off the ground - would love to see it happen.
October 21st, 2005 at 4:39 pm
[...] Jamaica In Jamaica, much of the discussion focused on the incessant rainfall, which caused serious flooding in several parts of the island. “I drove through the bog walk gorge on Friday evening and believe me, it is a sight when that Rio Cobre river is as angry as it has been in all this rain,” wrote CoolDestiny on Sunday as the island braced for more bad weather in the coming week. Also blogging about the weather were Fyr and Mad Bull and Stunner posted some photos of flooded streets in Kingston and a broken bridge. Charles Matheson wrote a short but detailed account of some of the weather-related goings-on, saying that “The Yallahs Fording in St.Thomas is impassable, so is the Bog Walk Gorge and Barry, several roads in and around Spanish Town are inundated, so too several communities in the Sunshine City of Portmore. There are communities in the parish of Clarendon that are also marooned,” and on Wednesday reported on heavy traffic jams between Kingston and Portmore. Stunner was ecstatic to catch a glimpse of the sun on Friday, a sentiment echoed by Dr. D. Scratchie blogged about the weather too, but was also concerned with National Heroes Day, and indeed the Jamaican blogosphere wasn’t lacking in buzz about social and cultural issues. Mad Bull welcomed the return of “cultural songs” to the Jamaican music scene. Group blog Jamaica Culture and People solicited opinions on the legalization of marijuana with participant Missie raising the topic of traditional Jamaican attitudes toward care of the elderly and wondering how these might have changed. Missie also contributed an enticing photo of a traditional Jamaica breakfast and a re-post from the blog forum about the evolution of Red Stripe Beer. Speaking of Red Stripe, Owen had some reservations about a Red Stripe-sponsored competition in which the first prize is a Hummer: “Wouldn’t it be better to have the prizes be 20 cheap cars instead of just one expensive one?” he asked. And Dr. D. took on the topic of remittances, saying, “I get the impression that lots of our people feel that their folks ‘up so’ serve one sole purpose……to send money and consumer goods for them, as fast as a magic wand can be waved.” Visitors to the country had things to say as well. Berkman Center Clinical program participants filed audio reports about their time in Jamaica and one of them is keeping a journal. Ethan Zuckerman also blogged about “sitting in a conference room in Kingston, surrounded by telecoms employees, prison wardens, recently released former inmates, high school principals and a couple of somewhat confused Harvard professors” at the “Cyber Strategy for Caribbean Business Leaders” conference in Kingston and observed that in spite of the island’s relatively small size, “almost everyone in the world has an impression of Jamaica - accurate or not - connected to Bob Marley, Red Stripe beer, reggae, ragga, dancehall… In the sense of “nation brand”, Jamaica’s got an extraordinarily strong one.” Nesson was there as well and talked here and here about the event. [...]
December 21st, 2005 at 5:10 pm
[...] I went to Jamaica (for 36 hours…) a couple of months ago to lend a hand with a benefit for “Students and Staff Expressing Truth”, a computer-education and personal growth program based in Jamaica’s prisons, led by the remarkable Kevin Wallen. Wallen, with encouragement from my collegue Charlie Nesson, has started posting on Charlie’s blog. It’s a little odd to read Charlie’s blog and not know whether to expect Harvard’s most exciting law professor or a brilliant young social activist… but I suspect that’s how Charlie likes it. Kevin’s recent post about his “Unchained” radio show, which broadcasts songs requested by family on the outside for inmates, was especially moving to me. [...]
December 22nd, 2006 at 5:18 pm
hi surfing the net looking to become a penpal of any inmates in Jamaican prisions, can you help at all?
I just sent an email to you, but can not be sure it has arrived