Valerie Dixon, Contributor
Wayne Marshall (left) and Vybz Kartel, sometimes described as a master of slackness, in performance at High Grade held at the Golden Spring Community Centre in April. - CARLINGTON WILMOT/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
THE NEW Jamaica that we were told about before and after Independence is dying. It is being gormandised by the shoots of 'bhutooism' that seek to destroy all that our ancestors toiled and sacrificed for.
The new Jamaica was going to be an example to the world of how all classes could live and work together and be respected as a great little nation. Unfortunately, we have embraced the ideology of 'bhutooism' where we are now respected not for goodness, but for downright badness in every meaning of the word.
A 'bhutoo' can be described as someone who is coarse, crude and callous, mainly because he or she lacks social graces and appropriate deportment. Such a person can be rich or poor, and can be of any colour. A 'bhutoo' can even be highly educated and can also be a professional. Bhutoos are mainly unable to appreciate the more aesthetically-pleasing things of life. These are usually the things that money cannot buy.
When did this ideology start to gormandise us? I believe it began to emerge when the people who had the knowledge and experience of how things are structured in an ordered society realised that the ideology of the day was changing Jamaica into something that they did not want to be a part of.
When that infamous invitation which said that those who did not like what was happening in the country could leave on any of the the famous five flights a day to Miami was issued, many of our role models, mentors and teachers left in large numbers for the United States of America. Other flights took some to England and Canada.
They were in business and every profession; they were entertainers, artisans, and highly- skilled workers from every type of trade. Skills and knowledge are passed from one generation to another and if there is a gap, a generation is left with only pieces of the knowledge. This is further compounded when one is an oral society.
Our educational system has suffered the worst for this. When we compare the calibre of teachers leaving training institutions today, with the teachers trained 30 or more years ago, it is like comparing chalk and cheese.
WEAK TEACHERS, WEAK RESULTS
If your teachers are weak, the end result must be 'bhutooism' because standards must fall in the interest of expediency. It was necessary to train professionals in a hurry to try and fill the vacuum left by those already mentioned.
Just listen to how the masters of reggae music like Ken Boothe and John Holt sing and pronounce their words and compare that to our present-day singers and disc jockeys (DJs). By the way, does DJ mean what I just said anymore? Due to 'bhutooism', I am not sure about much these days.
I read an article in Sunday's Gleaner where a present-day DJ by the name of Vybz Kartel was congratulating himself on mastering dirty lyrics and slackness and I cried for Jamaica.
He said: "My son (a toddler) knows my songs word for word and me never see my son ah behave any way different from a normal child." It is not Vybvz Kartel's fault that he cannot manage the English language and it is not his fault that he has no clue regarding how sound affects us. Vybz Kartel and his generation have been totally engulfed by the ideology of 'bhutooism'.
DOWNGRADED
Many who profess to be professors are to be blamed for the sorry state of our education system. I know for a fact that some received prizes for being best in English year after year when they were in grammar school. Today, because of 'bhutooism', the word 'grammar' is far removed from these schools. Many have been downgraded and are simply called high schools.
But my generation is a selfish one. Those who did not migrate and who received all the training, education and social graces, have kept them for themselves.
So they tell us that English is not important because patois is our first language and that is what we must speak.
So when a DJ get a bus-out and go a 'farrin', 'im just fling de patois inna everybody face cause a yaawd 'im come fram and 'im big an bad an braawd an if nuhbady nuh like it, den dem can kiss out 'im what's it nats it. These are the types of people who earn ton loads of money today and yesterday, many of our fine artistes could hardly 'eat a food' - 'bhutoo' talk for 'earn a living'. Jackass sey world nuh lebble.
On to the sound of music. It is no coincidence that the music of the developed world is different from the music of the underdeveloped world.
Sound can be both constructive and destructive. Very few people are aware that the sound of a human voice can shatter a wine glass. If it can do that to a lifeless thing, then can you imagine what it does to a living thing like a toddler?
Music can hypnotise us or can lift us to higher levels. Going back to pagan history, music was used by the priests to excite the congregation into sexual orgies so that they could keep control over the congregation.
It is further said that music with syncopated rhythms - I am told that a lot of jazz music has this - produces a hyper-excitement of the nerves, encourages loss of the powers of self-control and gives rise to a false exhilaration and false moral and physical reactions.
All of this sounds like where our popular music has descended to today. This type of music with its array of harsh, ear-splitting drums and other percussion instruments, inflames, intoxicates and brutalises man's soul.
Finally and most importantly, this kind of music makes us crave depraved things such as drugs, crime and brutality and desensitises us to their harmful effects. To substantiate all that I am alluding to we can read the book of Joshua in the Bible, because the writer must have also possessed some knowledge of how powerful music and sound can be when he wrote about the Fall of Jericho.
Our educators and policy makers embraced the ideology of 'bhutooism' when they took music out of our schools, especially primary schools. How many primary schools can boast of having a piano and other musical instruments? The developed world knows the importance of teaching music, poetry, painting and other arts.
The purpose of the arts is to teach structure. Children need to learn from early that small things come together to make big things. For instance, musical notes combine to form symphonies; words are structured in special ways to create everlasting poetry. This knowledge of structure helps us to appreciate beauty, harmony and balance.
Before 'bhutooism', the media used to help in this regard. Today, we seldom hear or read of a brave newspaper or television commentator criticising any of the powers that be. Many are afraid because they have sold out for luxury and bodily comforts and without these, they are completely in the cold, unhappy and would lose face.
TRAPPED
The churches also seem to have fallen into this trap. Very few persons seem to have the nerve to speak up because it would mean their income would be cut off and they would be ostracised and would not be a part of the status quo. What a shame not to be invited to all those swanky parties anymore.
Some of the biggest 'bhutoos' can be found in the public and private sectors. Many are so trapped in the material world, that for a few million dollars, they are selling out the beauty spots and protected areas of Jamaica to foreigners who have a long history of hatred towards black people.
NEW LAWS EVERY DAY
They make new laws every day which cut down our liberties as they embrace the ideology of 'bhutooism'.
I now challenge all Jamaicans to reject 'bhutooism' and I call upon special-interest groups, such as our environmentalists, to expose those who are intent on destroying the beauty of Jamaica and who are forcing us to accept man-made structures with which they wish to replace God's creations. Development and progress must be tempered with knowledge and common sense.
'Bhutoos' cannot help how they are because many were never exposed to and taught how to appreciate beauty and the finer things of life.
They were born or grew up at the time when Jamaica lost many of the people and things that could have melded us into a great little nation. Many who lead us today are only concerned about material things such as pay increases and 'humongous' pensions.
We must embrace a new ideology that includes everyone and return Jamaica to what our ancestors had envisioned us to be: a land of beauty where the people are strong, proud and free.
Valerie Dixon is a Manchester-based educator who may be contacted at valeriecdixon@hotmail.com
