Et tu, Bruno?

While I’ve mostly tried to remain fairly light-hearted about the Reggae controversy, Carol Bruno’s pull-quote on the cover of this week’s Independent deserves a less-than-light-hearted response.

It’s bullshit, Carol, and you know it. Bullshit. And shame on the Independent for putting it on the front page on the Reggae week issue with no counter-point. Shame on both of you.

The quote in question: “I and most of the people working on this festival are members of the Mateel, and we feel unified—we are all the Mateel too.”

Sorry Carol, no you’re not. You may in fact be a member, but you are not speaking as a member as long as you’re speaking for Reggae Rising or People Productions. In the article, you were speaking for P.P. and R.R. You were not being interviewed as a member of the Mateel and you cannot and do not speak for members of the Mateel. Tom Dimmick has tried to make the same “we’re all the Mateel” claim as have coordinators in private email lists. You all may be members of the Republican Party or the Rotary too, but that doesn’t mean you can invoke your membership in those organizations in order to promote your own private, for-profit enterprise. People Productions and Reggae Rising and Dimmick Ranch are private, profit-oriented entities. They are not the Mateel, they are not in any way under democratic control of the community and their representatives do not and cannot speak for the Mateel. To pretend to do so is disingenuous at best and Machiavellian at worst. I’m frankly dismayed to see that the local paper and other news sources are not truly “independent” enough to see through this and call bullshit.

Yes, Carol and Tom and all you loyal coordinators, you may feel “unified” amongst yourselves, but you are not promoting unity in this community. You are stealing something that is not yours. I truly hope the courts think so as well.

KMUD NEWS FLASH! “Reggae Rising 85% sold out.” Actually, I’ve always thought that Reggae Rising has been 100% sold out to greed from the very beginning.