But for the owner of Oasis in Carr Mill, the answer is something he laughingly told former Prime Minister of Jamaica P.J. Patterson at a press conference in 2005, “Jah sent white. I don’t know why, but Jah sent white.”
Roskind is the visionary behind A Global Call to Love Concert, which will be held on Feb. 7 in Santa Cruz, Calif., and streamed for free worldwide.
He met Wednesday with several people interested in helping spread the word about the event.
“Everyone gets one seven-billionth of the job to heal the planet,” he said.
Roskind opened the meeting with a YouTube clip of Marley performing. He explained that love allowed Marley to go from a gang leader in the slums of Kingston, Jamaica, to one of the top-selling artists of all time.
“Everything that came out of that man’s mouth was conscious, and because of that he’s now known for more than his music,” Roskind said. “He’s a symbol for a movement towards love.”
Roskind has written 11 books, all of which center around the message of love.
When he published his first book, “Rasta Heart” in 2001, he introduced it at Marley’s house in Kingston on what would have been his 57th birthday. He got 11 “teachers of love” in Jamaica, many of them reggae artists, to speak and perform at the event and even got the permission of Marley’s mother, Mama B, to host an event at the home.
