Michael Reckord, Gleaner Writer

Judge Joe Brown, the presiding judge on the leading American reality television courtroom production of the same name, has challenged Jamaica to produce and promote artistic endeavours "to focus, uplift and challenge" people.

With the right sort of training and education in the arts, Brown said, he sees the island being "a leader in the 21st century". He spoke in the context of what he perceived as a deterioration of values promoted by Hollywood movies.

Judge Brown was speaking at the fund-raising banquet and launch of the Edna Manley College (EMC) Development Fund at the Hilton Kingston hotel, New Kingston, on Monday evening. The well-attended $7,000-a-plate function included the official launch of the fund by Inter-American Development Bank executive director Winston Cox.

Both Cox and Brown made personal donations to the fund and encouraged the private sector to support it. EMC principal Burchell Duhaney announced details of plans to "re-image the college and reposition it as a centre of excellence".

'An inspiration to the world'

Judge Brown said he had been coming to Jamaica for many years and regarded the island as "an inspiration to the world". He cited Jamaica's reggae music as one powerful, all-pervasive influence.

About 40 years ago, he said, Hollywood lost its sense of true values and "got into nihilism" and general negativity. One result was the problems the world is having with children, he opined. "When the message (of the movies) is that feeling good is more important than doing the right thing, something has gone wrong," he said.

"When the message is that it's ok to have children out of wedlock, something has gone wrong. When governments allow CEOs to become billionaires when their companies are going broke, it's wrong," he added. He also decried the trend towards gay marriages, negative messages in hard-core rap music and 12- and 13-year-old girls in the USA getting welfare cheques when they have babies.

"We've got to get back to being productive human beings," he said, emphasising that Jamaicans have control of their own destiny and could make the island "a paragon of the Caribbean".

As well as speeches, the formally attired, larger-than-expected audience (extra chairs and tables had to be brought in during the proceedings) was treated to entertainment.

Though she was not listed as a performer, the irrepressible, effervescent Fae Ellington was entertaining. Not only was she witty, she actually danced at one stage. Her partner was a student of the EMC's School of Dance, one of the seven or eight dancers who appeared continually throughout the evening, dressed in costumes which represented different styles and periods of Jamaican music. The first of several music and dance segments was 'A History of Jamaican Popular Music', compiled and narrated by School of Music lecturer Michael 'Ibo' Cooper. Musically and visually (by means of dance), the audience was taken through periods of mento, R&B, ska, rocksteady, reggae and dancehall music.

History lesson

Another history lesson came via the video montage produced by lecturer/singer Michael Sean Harris as a tribute to Jamaican art, artists, athletes, beauty queens and scenery. Dancers performed on three sides of the ballroom while the video was being shown.

Harris, the artistic director of the function, was assisted in the staging by Dance School lecturer Neila Ebanks and Michael Holgate, a choreographer, playwright and actor with Ashe.