I was introduced to #Steemit and #Reggaesteem by @MiYard, then my cousin @Dmiliz kept asking me to post stuff here. I've dipped in and dipped out, not really grasping what is going on here. "It's a community" he tells me. So here I am.
I'll start with a little background. US born, Jamaican childhood, lived in Europe, Africa, the US and the Caribbean throughout. Live in Jamaica now.... resident in Jamaica now... I don't even have a Parish. My travels seem to have continued within Jamaica itself. I am a filmmaker, with one award winning feature under my belt. It's called Between Friends and was produced in Trinidad and Tobago. Funny too, because I wanted a reggae soundtrack for it, but opted to embrace Trini music only. I'll get around to making a movie in Jamaica soon... I find it hard to sit still... But I do need a foundation and I've started a little something great!
You can call me @Ganjactivist, it's a name I adopted from a website I was developing as an educational media platform in support of the legal Jamaican cannabis industry. As much as "Ganja" is inherent in Jamaican culture and some religious beliefs, it also remains quite taboo. The political, social and religious anti-ganja propaganda that infested the global media, effected Jamaican society so much so that the Rastafarian community was demonized for use of the plant. A festering sentiment that still remains woven in the fabric of the Jamaican psyche. It is a continuous battle and I will play my part in reshaping the concept of cannabis consumption in Jamaica and potentially much further afield.
The website itself has picked up and what started out as just a website with written content, will soon have a library of accompanying videos of interviews and industry features. Unfortunately, I haven't been posting here enough and I am a business minded person, so out of all this has evolved the Ganjactivist.com Marketplace (working title) for listing and selling products and equipment to the Jamaican market. You can check it out here: https://marketplace.ganjactivist.com/
That was part shameless plug and part introduction. I say this because over the years, my work and projects have become infused into who I am. Or maybe more accurately, who I am has become reflected in what I do. How can it be otherwise? Or why should it be otherwise? You wouldn't have Reggae music if the "greats' didn't believe in who they were and what they were doing. Some passed far too soon and others still stand, yet much remains the same. With the exception of ganja. The herb is being freed and hopefully it will take with it the stigma that till remains, the mental
elasticity of the Jamaican public and invariably, the Jamaican economy.
Imagine what Jamaica would look like. Imagine what new reggae music would sound like. No more songs about "sufferation" and mostly songs about loving up and making love. It's time for a new vision, it's time for Jamaica to "own" its assets. It's time for Jamaica to own its "cannabis and coffee". More to come.