Letter of the Day | Confucius wasn’t wrong

THE EDITOR, Sir:

As usual, there is quite a long list of hot-button topics vying for the attention of Jamaicans, both here at home and abroad. Prominent among the lot today is the influence, or lack thereof, of dancehall music on the surge in violence and criminality ravaging the country.

Confucius is reported to have said, “ If one should desire to know whether a kingdom is well governed, if its morals are good or bad, the quality of its music will furnish the answer.” I agree entirely, and a look at Jamaica’s (music) says it all.

For the record, I stand with the faction that says, yea, dancehall music is having a negative impact on the society and steps need to be taken to address this. As such, I am in total agreement with the position taken to ban certain types of music from the airwaves.

I am an older person and prior to a few weeks ago, the only Molly I knew was a girl in my class way back in high school. Thanks to dancehall music, I was prompted to do some research and am now aware of a drug with the same name. I can only imagine how many young children out there heard about the drug via dancehall music, did some research, and are now intimately involved with it, unfortunately.

In my humble opinion, only someone at the extreme end of the naivety spectrum, or a very dishonest person, could be seeking to make the claim that dancehall music has no influence on crime and violence in Jamaica today. And for those who posit that the influence is minimal, I have this to say to them. We are also told that the miscreants involved in crime today are the minority and that the majority of Jamaicans are decent, honest, hard-working people. Yet here we are, with us consistently being ranked among the world’s top three most murderous jurisdictions.

Sugar is an integral component in the making of bread, yet rarely is it mentioned; what we usually hear about are flour and yeast. Go figure.

CORETTA BURGESS