Empower youth through music
published: Wednesday | May 10, 2006

THE EDITOR, Sir:

I support Mrs. Rita Marley 100 per cent, she is so right. I'm a Jamaican living in America for the past 13 years and as a Jamaican I get so much respect from people when I travel to Europe and Canada. People over the world are making millions of dollars off reggae music and the creators of the music aren't making any. We would like the Jamaican Government to set up some arrangement so Jamaican musicians can collect royalties.

The Government needs to give the Jamaican kids an alternative, such as music and art, because so many kids fall through the cracks and get lost even when they have the talent. A lot of parents don't want their kids to do anything except to concentrate solely on academics.

One of my dreams is to give musically talented youths in my community a chance to do music; so I'm building a recording studio in my community. I'm currently enrolled in the music recording programme at the San Francisco State University and will be finishing up this fall. After that, I'm moving back to Jamaica in December to work in the music industry so more power to Mrs. Rita Marley.

I am, etc.,

ELVIS GARDNER

djbobbychemist@yahoo.com

Novato, California

Via Go-Jamaica