Orville Taylor | Bleaching and bad vibes

Forgive my naivete, but I honestly believed that given that the concert is titled ‘Freedom Street’, then just as the ‘World Boss’ himself is free, so should be all other ‘bleachers’.

At US$125 per person, these cheapest seats are J$4,000 higher than the national minimum wage. Follow me! ‘Sikki’, the security officer who will be working the show, cannot afford the ticket, even if he spends all of his week’s pay.

Don’t, get me wrong’ People are free to do whatever they want with their money. And after being absent from the scene for more than a decade, the fans of entertainer Vybz Kartel must be hungry for a performance.

Scheduled just five days after ‘The Greatest one night reggae/dancehall show’, Sting, it might force the dancehall faithful to make a choice between the two. However, the concerns about competition and splitting the small post-Christmas money is a matter for the promoters.

Hopefully, after the dust has settled, Kartel would have amassed enough money to cover what looks like a hefty health bill, that he might have to foot for the rest of his life.

Millions in legal fees were spent to get him out of prison and he lost even more income, from not being able to work.

Importantly, he has forgone not just revenue from his live shows, but no matter what; his years spent in captivity cannot be replaced.

He entered prison as a healthy man in his mid-30s. Now, just two years from 50, he needs to recoup his health and guarantee a steady income as he ages. In one single word, Kartel must do all that is necessary to maintain a livelihood.

As we ‘fast and pray’ for veteran entertainer, Lieutenant Stitchie while a gofundme account is being maintained to defray his medical expenses, Kartel must be mindful of the fragility of his own existence and immediacy of his illness.

Anyone who has faced a life-threatening illness or a brush with death has to have a different perspective, when given a second chance. His message, “Tell di youth dem fi stay outta crime, it nuh worth it, a waste a life, a waste a time Bredda,” is spot on and is clearer than any of the myriad tattoos that colour his skin.

Never mind my colleagues and apologists, who live in a fake cyberworld. Entertainers are immensely influential and not only does their music affect behaviour, both negatively and positively, but more importantly, their actions speak loudest.

SEE THE DIFFERENCE

On New Year’s Day January 1, 2025, Jamaica and the world, that he is the boss of, must see the difference. Trust me! In an inner-city community in Jamestown, 20 minutes from downtown Accra, two hypermelanised Africans, so black that their grey hairs have not changed colour, sent a message.

“Kaatel! We love and appreciate you. We want good things, we want you to come and do a concert. But please stop ‘breaching! Breaching not good!”

He has an autoimmune disease, whose name is almost an ominous eponym. Named after an Robert Graves, an Irish physician, from the 19th century, it is the condition where the thyroid gland is out of control.

This butterfly shaped endocrine gland, covered by the ‘rum bump’ (Adam’s apple), is like the central computer in a motor vehicle. When working perfectly, it regulates the activities of all the other glands in the system.

Just imagine what happens when your car’s engine control unit is malfunctioning. Graves’ disease affects everything and can cause damage to every single part of the body. In essence, it can make the body turn upon itself.

Some noted individuals, such as athletes Gail Devers and Kirani James have handled it well. However, the majority of persons with the condition live shorter lives and have generally more adverse health outcomes for the rest of their lives.

Yes, people die from it too.

Although it is autoimmune and the cause is not absolutely known, like so many other medical conditions, it may simply be linked to one’s genetics. Therefore, if Grandpa or Nani had it; then you could also be vulnerable.

However, smoking is a major trigger and that includes anything from cerassee leaves, to the ‘ishen’ to crack.

And here is the bombshell. Skin bleaching agents, especially those with steroids and other endocrine like chemicals, can affect your body’s largest organ… the skin and internal tissue too.

PROVIDED BY ‘SCIANCE’ MAN

Having just read a few medical studies, including one titled, ‘Cosmetic agents causing endocrinopathy in an African immigrant’, the tubes, jars and vials of chemicals are even scarier that those provided by the ‘sciance’ man.

Bleaching creams also provide some evidence of adverse impacts on gonads, uteri and semen, and may even affect their neighbours, although there is no hard evidence yet.

Simply put, bleaching, unless one is doing so to change one’s appearance to evade one’s enemies, is a very dangerous thing to do one’s body.

Then, add the multiple chemicals from tattoo inks, which find themselves in lymph nodes, the guardians of the immune system.

Moreover, myriad studies now emerging have labelled tattoo inks as ‘endocrine disruptors’.

Now, as with many of the lifestyle diseases, most persons who bleach and tattoo will not have major health impacts. Most smokers do not get lung cancer and most heavy drinkers do not get cirrhosis.

However, people with the genetic proclivity towards these illness will get them.

Kartel has already outlived Bob Marley, in years alive. But ask Ziggy and others, if they would not swap their fame for 10 years with their father.

Bleaching is connected to a whole range of negative psychological and social outcomes and causes. The majority of them are negative. The anti-crime message is not the only one we need from him.

And by the way, he would not be the first Jamaican celebrity to use one of the nine lives to disavow a body profile for which they were ambassadors.

No grandstanding; but no bleaching either.

Dr Orville Taylor is senior lecturer at the Department of Sociology at The University of the West Indies, a radio talk-show host, and author of ‘Broken Promises, Hearts and Pockets’. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and tayloronblackline@hotmail.com.