A troubled Jamaica's call for 'one love' rings hollow

April 03, 2005|Hamilton Kahn, Globe Correspondent

One love, one heart Come to Jamaica and feel all right.

-- Promotional jingle adapted from ''One Love," by Bob Marley

NEGRIL, Jamaica -- There is no way to know if reggae legend Bob Marley, who died in 1981 at age 36, would be spinning in his grave if he knew how his music and image were being used to promote Jamaica in 2005. There's even a question these days as to whether Marley would want his remains kept on Jamaica. His widow, Rita, wants them moved to Ethiopia, which she says is what he would have wanted in accordance with his Rastafarian beliefs.

For a traveler arriving in Jamaica today, thinking about Marley is only natural because his music and image are everywhere: piped in to the immigration line in the airport, playing on the bus headed south to Negril, peering from merchandise peddled along the roadside, plastered on posters promoting a concert in honor of his 60th birthday. Yet the social inequities Marley railed against with his lyrics are also very much in evidence, with stark poverty and unemployment existing side-by-side with over-the-top wealth and little in between.

Such contradictions seem to haunt this tropical island nation, which takes pride in having cast off the chains of colonialism and oppression but still seems to be seeking its own clear identity. For example, even though Jamaica achieved independence more than 40 years ago, public opinion is divided over getting rid of the British-based Privy Council as its equivalent of the Supreme Court. Too, while strict laws are on the books against marijuana -- the chosen sacrament of Marley and the Rastafarians -- its use, growth, and sale appear widespread, even celebrated, and enforcement is, at most, occasional (and according to locals, easily mitigated for a price).

Meanwhile, Jamaica's no-problem, feel-all-right image has been tarnished abroad by a reputation for violent crime. Of particular concern to overseas observers have been attacks on Jamaican homosexuals.

Last November, the international organization Human Rights Watch issued a 79-page report condemning persecution of homosexuals in Jamaica. The report came after several brutal killings, including the murder last June of gay rights activist Brian Williamson.Williamson was a founder of J-FLAG (Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals, and Gays), which keeps secret the location of its Kingston headquarters to protect the safety of its staff and those seeking its outreach services. Among other conclusions, the report said discrimination and violence against homosexuals in Jamaica were undermining efforts to stop the spread of HIV and AIDS.