CONTACT: Falana Fray | petition author & publicist | fbfray@gmail.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                               

Petition Calls On The Jamaican Government To Name
Bob Marley A National Hero 

New Yorker Launches online petition appealing to the Prime Minister of Jamaica to Award Bob Marley the Country’s Highest Honour

NEW YORK, NY – New York based publicist and freelance writer, Falana Fray, recently launched a global online petition (www.ipetitions.com/petition/bobmarley), to call on the Jamaican government to name reggae superstar Bob Marley a National Hero.  This petition is seeking 1,000,000 signatures by October 2008. 

In a recent article published on ItzCaribbean.com, Fray offers a persuasive and compelling argument on the King of Reggae’s extraordinary contributions to Jamaica and the world through his spiritually uplifting and politically conscious music. 

In Why Bob Marley Should Be A National Hero of Jamaica, Fray points out that "it’s almost 27 years since the death of the legendary reggae icon Bob Marley, yet despite previous appeals by the Marley Family in 2004 and a host of posthumous awards, the government of Jamaica still refuses to accord the Honourable Robert Nesta Marley National Hero status, the country’s highest honour." 

Bob Marley was a musical ambassador for equal rights and justice and a spokesperson for the poor and marginalized.  Many people all over the world have come to know and love Jamaica and Jamaicans because of Bob Marley. "His greatest contribution to Jamaica has been intangible, immeasurable, and invaluable, said Fray.  "He deserves to be among the fraternity of Jamaica’s honored national heroes, which includes Marcus Garvey."

The petition came near the end of Jamaica’s inaugural reggae month of February, which also marked the birth month of Bob Marley, who died of cancer on May 11, 1981. This petition is already attracting global media attention and has already received signatures from people in countries such as Russia and Japan. 

After the goal of collecting 1,000,000 signatures is achieved, Fray will call on the Jamaican government to revisit the issue and reconsider naming Bob Marley Jamaica’s 8^th National Hero on or before February 6, 2009, which is Bob Marley’s birth date. 

To sign the petition, please visit www.ipetitions.com/petition/bobmarley.

"Why Bob Marley Should Be A National Hero of Jamaica," can be read at www.myspace.com/bobmarleypetition.  For more information about the petition or to set up an interview with Falana Fray, please contact fbfray@gmail.com.  All general inquires, please contact  bobmarleypetition@gmail.com.  Also visit www.youtube.com/bobmarleypetitiontv.

BOB MARLEY by Roger Steffens

Music raises the soul of man even higher than the so-called external form of religion...That is why in ancient times the greatest prophets were great musicians. - Hazrat Inayat Khan, "The Mysticism of Sound and Music"

Without doubt, Bob Marley can now be recognized as the most important figure in 20th century music.

It's not just my opinion, but also, judging by all the mainsteam accolades hurled Bob's way lately, the feeling of a great many others too. Prediction is the murky province of fools. But in the two decades since Bob Marley has gone, it is clear that he is without question one of the most transcendant figures of the past hundred years. The ripples of his unparalleled achievements radiate outward through the river of his music into an ocean of politics, ethics, fashion, philosophy and religion. His story is a timeless myth made manifest in this iwah, right before our disbelieving eyes.

There will come a day when music and its philosophy will become the religion of humanity...If there remains any magic it is music.

Unlike mere pop stars, Bob was a moral and religious figure as well as a major record seller internationally. To whom does one compare him? In a recent Sunday New York Times Arts and Leisure lead story, Stanley Crouch makes a compelling case for Louis Armstrong as the century's "unequaled performer," excelling not just in his instrumental inventiveness but in his vocal style as well, transforming the way music was made and listened to, and influencing performers of all stripes right down to this very day. But you don't see thousands of Maori and Tongans and Fijians gathering annually to pay honor to Louis Armstrong; you don't witness phalanxes of youth wandering the world sporting Louis Armstrong t-shirts. In fact, big as the Beatles were, you hardly see any Beatle shirts around anymore, except for those few featuring John Lennon's sorrow-inducing visage. Can you imagine an image of Elvis sewn onto the sleeve of an armed guerilla? When was the last time you saw a Michael Jackson flag or a Bob Dylan sarong or Madonna rolling papers? All of these exist in Marleyite forms, his iconography well nigh a new universal language, the symbol, as Jack Healey of Amnesty International continues to tell people, of freedom throughout the world.

That music alone can be called real which comes from the harmony of the soul, its true source, and when it comes from there it must appeal to all souls...Music alone can be the means by which the souls of races, nations and families, which are today so apart, may one day be united...The more the musician is conscious of his mission in life, the greater service he can render to humanity.

Most of the pop stars thrown up over the past hundred years had entertainment as their first and foremost goal. Not so Marley. He was conscious of his role as the bringer of the message of Rastafari to the consciousness of the outside world. He cared nothing for earthly trappings, and loved nothing better than lying on Jah's cool earth at night watching the heavens revolve above him, rock stone as his pillow. He was here to call people to God.

So we can't compare Marley to other well-known musical figures. As for politics, he eschewed them, although his actions caused him to be perceived (and sometimes feared) as a profoundly radical political leader too. But his were the anti-politics of salvation through love and love alone, an unshakeable knowledge of the oneness of all humankind.

Music is behind the working of the whole universe. Music is not only life's greatest object, but music is life itself...Music being the most exalted of the arts, the work of the composer is no less than the work of a saint.

As for innovation, Marley was a multi-talented synthesizer of new ideas and rhythms, beginning with his precocious "Judge Not" solo debut at the dawn of the ska era, right up through his ongoing experiments with gospel, r&b, rock, folk, jazz, Latin, punk, scat, disco, and even (in unpublished form) bossa nova. Bob understood that reggae had the magnificent capaciousness to absorb all other influences and anchor them solidly to the drum and bass underpining that is its essential element, the sweet seductive secret of its success.

Actually the real secret is that Marley's music is about something. It has value. Bob's art is life transforming, answering our highest needs. It answers in a positive way, the question that Carlos Santana says we must always ask before we begin any activity in life: how is this going to make the world a better place? Although Bob became a commercial artist, he was not making commercial art. His art transcended pop fluffery. Many are there who swear that his music literally saved their lives.

The use of music for spiritual attainment and healing of the soul, which was prevelent in ancient times, is not found to the same extent now. Music has been made a pastime, the means of forgetting God instead of realizing God. It is the use one makes of things which constitutes their fault or their virtue.

This essay was previously published in The Beat Magazine, vol.193, 2000.

Roger Steffens is an actor, author, reggae historian and curator of the current exhibition at the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California called "The World of Reggae featuring Bob Marley/Treasures from Roger Steffens' Reggae Archives," on view through Sept. 30.
For information about the Queen Mary exhbition: theworldofreggae.com

Why Bob Marley Should Be A National Hero of Jamaica
By Falana Fray

It's been almost 27 years since the death of Bob Marley, yet despite previous appeals by the Marley Family and a host of posthumous awards Jamaica still refuses to accord the Hon. Robert Nesta Marley national hero status, the country's highest honour. Even when Bob was a young musician from Trenchtown, his music wasn't recognized by his own people in Jamaica until his first album "Catch A Fire" became an international hit, thanks to Chris Blackwell, but also the fact that Rastafarians were regarded as outcasts, or "Black Heart" men in the 60s and 70s.