Pubdate: Mon, 25 Jun 2012
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Copyright: 2012 The Ottawa Citizen
Contact: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326
Author: Lynn Saxberg

ZIGGY PLANTS AN IDEA

Marley Is Standing Up for the Civil Rights of the 'Herb'

Ziggy Marley has been openly crusading for the rights of a plant ever 
since the release of his fourth and latest album, Wild and Free, last 
summer. A breezy duet with actor Woody Harrelson, the title track 
envisions fields of hemp growing wild and free, set in a landscape of 
lilting roots-reggae.

"The herb," Marley says, warming up to a recent phone interview, 
"Cannabis, hemp, marijuana, whatever name you want to use. I was into 
learning more about it, and trying to understand why the world is not 
taking advantage of it as a natural resource. It was a big influence 
on the record, the idea of hemp and growing hemp."

A year later, fields of hemp are still not growing wild and free, but 
Marley doesn't sound like he's giving up. "It's almost like a civil 
rights issue," he says, chuckling at the comparison. "In the plant 
world, this plant is like the black people back in the day. I'm 
standing up for the civil rights of a plant."

Musical talent and a fondness for the herb are not the only things 
that Marley inherited his father, the late Jamaican reggae legend. As 
Bob's eldest son, Ziggy witnessed first-hand the power of his 
father's music, an experience that triggered his own activist streak.

"I grew up in revolution, I grew up in change, I grew up in music 
being such a powerful weapon that them tried to kill my parents," he 
says. "This is where we start from, but we have evolved in the way we 
express ourselves in words. For example, I say love is my religion."

What's more, his concept of revolution has evolved since his father's 
day. The 43-year-old now feels that revolution begins within the 
individual, an idea he explores in the song Personal Revolution, also 
from the Wild and Free album.

"I like that song because it brought to me a different way of 
understanding revolution. Growing up, revolution was so political, 
but now revolution is spiritual, personal. We need to think about 
revolution different now," he says, calling for leaders whose 
personal revolution inspires them to be "good, loving, honest people."

"We just gonna keep repeating history. More social, more physical, 
more political, more economic revolutions, and it's going to continue 
until people become spiritual. Until there is no difference between a 
Muslim, a Jew and a Christian. Until there is no difference between a 
rich man and a poor man."

Or, to get back to the plant world, until there is no difference 
between hemp and corn or any other plant. A father of six children, 
Marley preaches the equality of plants to his kids in the same way he 
educates everyone.

"I present it as a plant that God created, that nature created, that, 
like everything that God created on this planet, has its uses. 
Everything is part of a bigger ecosystem. We play a part, the ants 
play a part, the bees, the worm, the fly. The cannabis plant plays a 
part. It's just nature."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom