RESPECT TO...!!!

Among my friends on MySpace are four of Bob Marley's children, one son for John Lennon and one daughter of Nat King Cole. What is becoming patently obvious to me is that neither of these rich, wealthy and talented children will ever be 'legends' like their fathers, no matter how hard they work and how desperately they wish to make their own name. They will always be hovering just over the sea of mediocrity while being judged every step by their father's fame. Dad will always be hanging around like a sweet smell to remind them of their position. Right throughout history, children of legends seem able to bask in their glory and are given a clear path to their own success, like succession to a royal lineage. But they seem unable to improve on that parent's contribution or supersede them in their success. And I think I know what could be holding some of them back.

Bob Marley had 13 children, all of them sharing in a huge inheritance from their father which grows relentlessly each year, averaging $7 million annually, with him being the most famous reggae artist on earth. His sons have enjoyed their own music studio where they can do whatever they like ever since they were teenagers. The result is that four have emerged as real talents: Damian Marley (who is likened to his Dad and is affectionately called 'Junior Gong'), with his own racy pop style, Stephen, Ky-Mani and Ziggy, all different in their own musical renditions and all eagerly competing to wear Marley's musical crown. Damian certainly looks like his father but it is Ziggy who sounds like him.

Too Close for Comfort
Ziggy is the oldest with a cracking voice and should have eclipsed his brothers ages ago. However, while he has a solid fan base, one can sense that he is not regarded as exciting as the others, as he is not mentioned as often. Alas, Ziggy Marley might not realise this, but he suffers from the same problem as Julian Lennon - they both sound too much like their fathers and so create some conflicting dissonance in their listeners. Listen to both of them sing and you get goosepimples hearing their voices. But the public doesn't quite like that. It is too close for comfort without providing the original article.

In fact, the public has an ambivalent attitude towards such children. They would give anything to have Marley or Lennon back and secretly hope the offspring can continue to deliver in the same vein. But when they oblige, they perhaps sound too much like Dad, which confuses the audience and irritates them instead. The end result is that, had their Dads not been so legendary, their voices would have made their own impact. But how can you better Bob Marley or John Lennon's voice and style? You can't, so it is best to build up your own style, which Damian and Ky-Mani, in particular, seem to have succeeded in doing. Yet, in true competitive form, children will always try to imitate or outdo their parents, and famous ones are even more so.

Like a king, Bob Marley has bequeathed a huge legacy to his sons. They are like gods and princes for the fans they have, mainly through the magical Marley name. However, they have to fight harder for their place in the music world than lesser mortals. While their money can give them most of what they desire, the Marley name will only carry them so far before they find out what a millstone it could be for them. After all, being given a head start by their father, they will never be certain if they would have made it without that famous name. The Marleys all have their own little dynasties just now, each competing fiercely for that elusive musical legacy. But the ultimate Marley crown will never be theirs because their father's impact is too strong. Just take one look on MySpace and it is clear, from the members' choices, that the boys are not really competing against each other. They are actually competing against their father who is still very much in the running. No contest there. In essence we love the sons and are fascinated by them, as they represent a part of the Old Man, but it's the dad we really want and, even worse, who we use to judge their actions.

Basking in the Shadows
Natasha Cole is no different. No matter how talented she is, just like Nancy Sinatra, they will always be hanging behind their famous fathers, Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra. Being women too, they are almost expected to stay in the background, basking in Dad's shadow, real success being perennially elusive for them. They are never expected to measure up. Unlike Julian Lennon and the Marley boys, they are perceived in a different way. Being women, they're good, but that's it. They're not expected to surpass their fathers. Their aspirations, and talent, are never seen to be in competition with their dads at all, though the legacy has ensured them some success.

The trouble with all those siblings and their legendary dads is that the children are not really expected to do anything spectacular because their fathers have already attained immortality.

Becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy, the curse of the legendary parent inevitably ensures that there is only one legend from each family. Everyone else who follows them, no matter how great their talent, will always fall just short of perfection and be consigned to the footnotes of history.

What Price for Life in South Africa?
A paltry car?
A RESPECT tribute to LUCKY DUBE

Take a look back to the last 3 months and, in that time, going by the annual figures, around 5000 people would have lost their lives in South Africa to attacks and murder. It never registered before, that level of carnage in a beautiful country, the home of hope and Mandela, but the brutal killing of the international reggae singer, Lucky Dube, suddenly brought those nightmarish figures into sharp relief.

5000 people means 54 per day, more than 2 every hour. That really makes a grisly toll. Killings for cellphones, jewellery, trinkets and anything looking worthy, even old goods, are commonplace. But this particular murder has shocked South Africa because he was just a family man dropping off his kids, and a very well known one too. Normally famous people in those countries are not troubled and have no bodyguards because the locals are proud of them, live in awe of them and protect them.

This remarkable singer came to my attention when he performed some years ago at the Royal Albert Hall in London, in an African music collection which exposed Britain on a very public stage to some incredible talent from across the world. He was singing Feel Irie, being highly animated with locks flying all over the place, and I laughed at how much he reminded me of Bob Marley, yet with his own eccentric style and sound. His backing singers were something else to see. They matched his dynamism with a dancing fervour that one would hardly expect from women over 40. He was brash, bold, handsome and truly irie. I have been hooked on his songs ever since. But in my mind he was just another Bob Marley look-alike. I never understood the man or his music. And he stayed in my subconscious in that way. Until yesterday.

He was gunned down in Johannesburg by three carjackers in front of his two teenage children whom he had dropped off home. They tried to get his car off him, he wrestled with them, they shot him, he tried to drive off, crashed into a tree and died on the spot. He was only 43, at the prime of his life. That's what his life, career, singing talent and achievements were worth - one pathetic car. In a moment of envy and madness, the world is robbed of a wonderful singer who impacted on Africa in a major way. I didn't realise until last night that he spent his whole life fighting against apartheid, attracting the attention of the authorities, fighting the scourge of poverty and the level of crime in his songs, the very crime that would snuff out his life in an ironic twist.

South Africa is supposed to be one of the world's unequal societies with "a vast underclass of poorly educated unemployed people and a small wealthy elite", according to the LA Times. Critics are calling for the death penalty to be reinstated, as they see crime being out of control. But punishment by itself can never stem poverty and lack of hope. It merely deals with those who have actually committed crimes while ignoring those on their way up, the huge army of youngsters, waiting in the wings without any kind of life, to add to the increasing crime pool. It is a sorry state of affairs which needs less talk and more action to raise the spirits and aspirations of people lost in poverty and crime, to improve their emotional health dramatically so that they do not see the killing of another person as the liberation of their life.

I have been in a state of shock since hearing the news, but in Lucky Dube's death I learnt about his life. He certainly hasn't died in vain if his loss causes South Africa to examine itself and where it is going.

Rest in peace, dear friend. Thanks for the lovely music. I dedicate my two favourite songs, to your memory: It's Not Easy and Feel Irie.

Cecilia Sarkozy:
Not even Presidents' Wives Are Exempt from Emotions!

To the world, Cecilia Sarkozy has been acting rather strange for the past two years, most of all not sharing her husband's moment of triumph in 2007 when he won the election, and has hardly been seen in public with him since. She explained it recently that, since she fell in love with someone else in 2005, she has not felt that life with Sarkozy was her 'place'.

She returned home to try again, but found it hard to put the marriage back together. “We tried everything,” she said, adding: “...one day you no longer have your place in the couple. The couple is no longer the essential thing of your life. It no longer functions; it no longer works.”

Her statement carries no surprise in the scheme of falling in and out of love. Their relationship is a prime example of what happens when attraction goes simultanously with awareness of personal evolution. Quite simply, you can never get the attraction back, or return to what you were. Attraction is like innocence. When it is lost, and you are more knowledgeable, things just never seem the same again, so it is difficult to recapture that innocence. There are lots of people, right this minute, stuck in stale and debilitating marriages, trying to conjure up the impossible: renewed attraction. But they have no hope in hell of succeeding because one cannot manufacture emotions. They simply reflect how we feel at any given point in time, and there is very little we can do about them.

Then there is personal evolution. We change from week to week, let alone year to year and 11 years is a long time. Back in her younger days, she was probably drawn to his potential and power, his personality and drive. She now says that she likes 'shadows, serenity, tranquillity'. But Sarkozy was a bright star on his way in politics when she met him and she actively encouraged his ambition in the earlier years, organising his schedules and diary. It seems that having evolved in her own right to a more mature stage, the idea of being part of a continuing couple, especially on such a very public stage, no longer appeals to her. She might have grown to like tranquility, but what is more likely is that Cecilia is no longer in love with her husband. Thus, it doesn't matter who he is, or what he has just now, that will never be as attractive to her as the love she experienced with the new man and her own contentment.

In fact, the minute a third party is involved in a relationship, as she admitted, one quickly discovers what has been missing at home and that is usually the beginning of the end. The physical attraction part is never the same after that. Any outside affair tends to show up, in sharp relief, the reason why the person was unhappy in the first place. This makes any reconciliation near impossible to achieve.

That couple has done the right thing. They can now both move on in their own way without all the questions being asked about her whereabouts and the new French president looking so unhappy. They both have the freedom now to stop the pretence and live their life according to their choice, and not just by some social protocol. Good luck to them on their journey.