Explain Reggae to me _ I and I _ and _ Jah Rastafari _ the weed thing, etc.

AIN'T IT COOL?

I was just reading this Ziggy Marley interview (Google highlighted) and totally thought he was speaking for himself. I have always thought this listening to reggae, too.

Ziggy Marley I and I's highlighted

I AND I AND ALL DI YOUT SHALL WITNESS THE DAY THAT BABYLON SHALL FALL!

(Proof I am not listening to enough jungle right now.)

I like this from the FAQ's:

-Is the Herb an obligation for Rastas ?

Like for dreadlocks, the use of Ganja is part of I and I, but it is not an obligation. You shall not use the Holy Herb to follow and in all case you must use it with respect and consciousness, not to be "stoned".

I wish I knew how to smoke pot without getting stoned. That's pretty much why I avoid it besides it being unhealthy.

If you put quote marks round a phrase, it searches all the words as a phrase, regardless of whether they are "stop words" such as "I" and "and".

see

Better yet

See: Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself", Thoreau, Hinduism, Rumi, that scene with the white sheet in I

Jah Rastafari = King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah if I'm not mistaken, considered to have been Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia. Ethiopia was supposed to be a promised land of sorts for Rastafarians through Biblical connotations and the fact that it was symbol of African independence since it was the only country to not be claimed as a European colony. Many Rastafarians don't believe that he's really dead, and also amusing is that Ethopians criticised Selassie for his dictatorial power as a monarch, although he was far from being a terrible ruler.

Weed, probably some life essence or something transcendental like that.

Two sevens clash (like the Culture album)...apocalypse was supposed to come on the seventh day of the seventh month (7 July) in 1977. Many Jamaicans got into a panic that day. I forget the significance of the sevens but it's probably something like the "seven deadly sins" or the seven days it supposedly took to create the earth.

I can't explain 'irie, sadly.

From what I understand, irie is just a good feeling. Joyous, blissful, etc. There's a little nuance that makes it different, but I can't really say what that is.

Until 1936, at any rate.
Emperors of Ethiopia: http://www.friesian.com/ethiopia.htm

Secret 77 by Bad Brains!

"Ras Tafari" = Prince Tafari = Prince Tafari Mekonnen, Haile Selassie. Anyone see the article in last week's New York Times about his probable illegitimate son? Has the name Abebe, actually (not Tafari, obviously); his mother worked for the emperor after his wife died, and there's a certain resemblence and an appropriate timeline. I hope he can prove it, and I hope he goes to Jamaica and gets really stoned and wanders around shouting "Rastafarians! I am the son of your god!"

Check out this Christian analysis of Bob Marley:
http://www.av1611.org/crock/pod_rast.html

If you don't like the Christian angle, you may also come to realize that you don't like the Rastafarian angle, either. I know I don't! I had no clue Bob was singing about this.

"The ultimate hope of militant Rastafarians is that all black people can return to Africa for a while, though eventually they hope to span the globe and become the dominate race of humanity. Many of them believe (and hope) that, ultimately, the world’s white population will experience a total collapse.

Rastafarianism among black people is as radical as the obnoxious white-supremacist groups are among Caucasians. "

Following your logic, I must believe everything I read because I see no reason to believe your advice!

Who wrote this? The Ku-Klux-Klan?

"Rastafarianism among black people is as radical as the obnoxious white-supremacist groups are among Caucasians. "

I don't know enough about Rastafarianism to say it is incorrect but most of the Rastas I've seen don't act like they want me to die or anything.

The best way to learn about a religion is to go directly to a different religion who is talking about them!

Really? If there was an emoticon for raising one eyebrow I would put it here.

We sick an’ tired of-a your ism-skism game -
Dyin’ ’n’ goin’ to heaven in-a jesus’ name, lord.
We know when we understand:
Almighty God is a living man.
You can fool some people sometimes,
But you can’t fool all the people all the time.
So now we see the light (what you gonna do? ),
We gonna stand up for our rights! (yeah, yeah, yeah!)

"They say Rasta confused
And no know what to do
They say Selassie is lost
Oh but Jah Jah have the last laugh yet
So Rasta don't get foolish
Don't let the newsman chat fool you..."

Rasta is pretty crackpot, and to a degree, inherently anti-Semetic. But then again, most religions are (crackpot, at least...)

-- Mark (r-...) (webmail), May 13th, 2005.

You know, I have to point out here... there actually are white Jamaicans. I work in a Jamaican restaurant and every so often a native born white Jamaican comes in. It always sort of catches me off guard when I first hear their accent.