When the trumpet sounds

Colin Steer, Associate Editor - Opinion

Amid life's hustle and bustle, few things will stop me in my tracks as quickly as the sound of a trumpet being played well. Whether in the distance or nearby, the notes wafting on a gentle breeze are enough to provoke a pause as I absorb the riffs and then move on with renewed purpose to the business at hand.

From a simple marching band to the grandeur of an orchestra, the sound of trumpets always seems to give an added fillip to the spirit. And over the last two decades or so, I have come to appreciate the classical and the contemporary - from Henry Purcell to Chuck Mangione, from Hugh Masakela to Wynton Marsalis - and yet I cannot tell when or where it all began.

Two incidents stand out in my mind, however. In the winter of early 1996, just as I disembarked from a Washington, DC metro train, riding the escalator to street level, the notes from a trumpet, intermingled with the cold, misty winds, drifted below to envelop the eclectic crowd of passengers. It was if I was being drawn, in spite of myself, to this beguiling sound. By the time I emerged from the metro station, it had stopped, however, and despite a furtive dash to the right and the left, I could not find the musician. What I would have done or said had I seen him - I assumed it was a man - I had no idea. But, as I made my way back to the hotel where I was staying, I had a strange sense of contentment and appreciation for the experience.

Thought-provoking messages

The other incident occurred one Sunday evening some years earlier. I had just left an afternoon synod service at the Coke Methodist Church where Reverend C. Evans Bailey had delivered a powerful charge to the congregants. As I walked through a section of central Kingston on my way to Vineyard Town, I was arrested by the sound of the trumpet being played at the Wildman Street Pentecostal Church. And I stopped to hear its then pastor, Winston Stewart, leading the believers in worship.

Yet, despite what I recall of the two thought-provoking messages in one evening, it was the sound of the trumpets that seemed to have had the greater impact on me, leaving me in a state of introspection as I made my way home. Music is indeed food for the soul.

In succeeding years, tentative steps to purchase an instrument and to take lessons have remained just that - tentative. The busyness of life and procrastination have resulted in an unfulfilled dream. Perhaps my family and neighbours should be grateful for small mercies. My practice sessions might not have been as enjoyable to them as I would like to think they would have been to me.

But thanks to the wonder of technology - from CDs to the internet - I can enjoy some old favourites and discover new ones through YouTube. It's a great way to escape the daily cacophony of car horns, circular talk shows and self-absorbed 'entertainers'.

Population debate revisited

POSTCRIPT: In his letter 'Debating population policy' published August 9, Dr Wayne West managed to concede that the factors contributing to declining birthrates were more multifaceted than he would have hitherto wanted the public to believe.

While he reiterated his view that European liberalism and laws flowing therefrom have contributed significantly to that continent's declining birth rates, it would have been good, if Dr West were able to demonstrate that liberalism is also responsible for declining birthrates elsewhere - Singapore, for example. And while the African nation of Botswana has been severely affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, its fertility rates have placed it alongside the top European countries recording a decline, which some analysts suggest has much to do with its improved economic and social standards over the last two and a half decades.

According to Dr West, within the liberal world view dominant in Europe, "the individual has a 'right' to do what he feels/believes to be right for him. The desires of the individual then becomes the essential framework for development of law and public policy". Again, that may well be true, except that there is no government policy forcing the population to embrace those perspectives. India under Indira Gandhi in the 1970s tried forced sterilisation with distrastrous political consequences, and China has employed a "one child per family" to counteract what its government saw as run-away population growth rates, also since the 1970s. In the west, including liberal Europe, the Roman Catholic church and others have been free to declaim against contraceptives and abortion.

So what will we say in a few years about Jamaica, this current pattern holds true, where our Jamaican churches are 55 per cent to 70 per cent and sometimes more, female populated; and Christian women in their most fertile years are unable to find suitable partners as husbands; and if they remain true to their vows not to procreate outside of marriage, and they are unable to contribute to Jamaica's population growth? What will we blame then? European liberalism?

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