Raggae

Just groovy

I play reggae on the soundsystem. Eitan: "Are the people coming over Jamaican?"

Jimmy Cliff's 'The Harder They Come" my introduction to reggae in the 1980s listened to (of course) on my Sony Walkman (the kids have no idea what a tape cassette is).

I spent some time in Kingston, Jamaica, with Help The World See setting up a national eye health program across the Caribbean islands which were up and running in Jamaica and St Vincent and the Grenadines when I split for business school.  The University of West Indies, outside Kingston, the Caribbean's best university, offered the medical statistical data we needed for the preliminary work. It was an efficient place if under resourced. I also spent time in the local libraries on several islands. Good memories.

Of note, during my visit to Kingston, I joined a reggae concert at a local auditorium that was more akin to a school gym rather than concert hall.  Ziggy Marley, the final act, paraded as royalty. And of course he is. Raggae one of Jamaica's most significant cultural exports.

On the day of the concert I visited Bob Marley's house, which is now a museum (Barak Obama paid the museum a visit when he became the first sitting US president to visit Jamaica). For a small country, it plays large on the world stage.