The Editor, Sir:

I refer to an article in The Gleaner of October 30, with reference to 'Lyrics, the cause of some violence', and I refer to some of the lyrics published in the features on crime inside the publication. I must say that lyrics do influence violence in our society. The lyrics today in the dance hall are like the staple diet of some of the youth.

In the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States, 92 per cent of black and white youth worship these types of lyrics, saying it's a Jamaican thing. They worship those DJs, and on another front, the immigration department (especially in the UK and its embassy in Jamaica) is using these to stereotype the majority of Jamaicans, in particular, young Jamaicans coming into the country. I think the Government needs to do something to stop these DJs from circulating these types of lyrics, which have a profound influence on today's youth.

Pull out all stops

There are lyrics, such as "A we mek Madden build morgue fi store body like number pon sim card," and we can see this in our society today when the murder rate rises to over 1,300 since the start of the year. Government needs to pull out all the stops to curb these types of lyrics. The young ones who are coming up, if they see murder around them as a way of life backed by dancehall lyrics what else can we expect of them? We must plug the hole now before it becomes too large and impossible to plug.

I am, etc.,

Donald

ghanaa2@yahoo.co.uk