As we mentioned in our previous year report, "the only way is up". And so, we went forward instead of backward and saw most of our plans blessed by JAH so that they were factually established. 

But let's recall the start of this year first. Financial problems were kind of dominating and they still aren't what they should be. But when you consider that yours truly had to see a doctor last summer due to a lack of food and that this situation is now history, there's a lot to rejoice over. And: the Dubroom is still here! We were offline a couple of times, but we did manage to survive!

Central theme these past months could best be described as "building". And so we did. The concept of the website was changed a little bit, in order to make it more clear just what can be done in the Dubroom. Four words, all starting with the letter R, describe the contents:

• Reviews (mp3's, albums, books, video's, software, and more)
• Research (Babylon Observer, Center for Research on Christianity)
• Release (music, articles, even books)
• Rest (message boards etc)

A significant amount of effort was put into facilitating the needs of the truly varied interests and nature of the Dubroom's daily visitors. As we gather statistics, like words people type in search engines before they find the Dubroom, we can get an idea as to why people visit. People come to get information on Reggae or get our music, but there are also many who have an interest in the contents of our research projects. And there are also many who have an interest in just about everything we have. And so, it's kind of easy to go from one thing to another, but only if you want.

We've been reviewing free and legal MP3's for a long, long time now. In fact, mp3.dubroom.org remains to be a well-visited source for many as we continue to be rather unique in this. 

A long-time wish was established in 2006 as video.dubroom.org was introduced. Thanks to websites like Google Video and You Tube, the online Reggae massive could now enjoy the sights of historical and contemporary footage: documentaries, and musical video's of course. And this wouldn't be the Dubroom if we wouldn't start reviewing the best material out there.

Another thing we started in 2006, is DUBROOM STAR SELECTIONS. It's a webstore and a net-label which can be accessed at music.dubroom.org. It just started, but we hope to be able to present some crucial music in the future. It's the result of a merger between the Dubroom and a webstore run by JAH Mark Ragsdale. He owns a record label called STAR Recordings and also this webstore, but we decided to join hands and strength.

One of the major projects was the production of two Messian Dread net albums, both of which were released in December 2006. 31 DUB shots from this mega-session and one "hardware" CD which will be available in January 2007. In total, almost 50 tunes were created and each one was "vocalized" as well, either with singing or with some toasting.

We hoped, that we could have re-started RADIO DUBROOM this year (2006). But unfortunately, there was no money for this. We do hope to be able to re-start the program somewhere next year, though. And when everything continues to go in the way it currently does, this could very well be the case. JAH WILLING, of course. And for I and I this is no vain saying but a deep, deep wish.

Also, the plan was to create a weblog. And we did so, but not on our own server. In 2005, we tried to open a News Portal and that didn't work out because of script-kiddies presenting themselves as "hackers". The weblog function didn't work out because of bugs in the software. Basically, the weblogs we have now (MYSPACE and VERSIONIST) contain the contents of every Dubroom Front Page. Obviously that's not the weblog we had in mind but who knows...

JAH Knows!

The Message Boards continued to be well-visited and the level of thoughtfulness in the various discussions is often mentioned in the feedback we receive. There's a group of people coming from truly various backgrounds, each with their own specific interest and knowledge. Time after time, truly interesting subjects came up, wherein different opinions were shared, analyzed, et cetera.

Especially those sections where people can come together to talk about Christianity and Rastafari turn out to be of interest to most of the participants. We've reasoned over topics such as the Trinity, the Bible, we've shared our experiences in this area and the Dubroom does receive feedback wherein people express more personal problems and dilemma's based on the various postings.

On the top-right side of every page on the Dubroom, you can see a picture of Yesus Kristos and when you click on it, you will read the Most Important Message of all. Every time we look at the statistics, this particular picture shows up as the most viewed!

And even though this is absolutely not a "Christian Website", yours truly certainly is a Christian and is not ashamed over that either. Being called "Rasta Of The Christ Doctrine" and being the Webmaster of this independent website, the Dubroom obviously does have a lot of material for people who are interested in JAH Livity. 

We actually have two different Message Boards about Christianity: there is one in which we try to find things about JAH, and there is one wherein we expose and debate Babylon Sponsored Christianity. 

Even though we didn't specifically pay much attention to the Christafari-phenomenon and the attached "Gospel Reggae Industry" where people's faith and spirituality is being transformed into merchandise, there was quite an intense discussion on the Dubroom Message boards about the "Marlin Awards" with "Gospel Reggae" artist JAH Pickney, resulting in an article about yet another branch of this industry. Unfortunately, JAH Pickney decided to discontinue the communication with the words: "I don't want to be involved in something that may look bad on the Marlin awards and the artists involved. They are my brothers and sisters and amazing friends."

Our research project the Center for Research on Christianity (CRC) which can be found at crc.dubroom.org, released a number of articles on the Gospel Reggae Industry and other branches of Babylon Sponsored Christianity. One article that should be mentioned here is "Europe's Own Saddleback Church", a disturbing report from yours truly on "The Fastest Growing Church In The Netherlands". The church was known to be a place where one could study the Bible seriously, but it's gradually becoming just another "Purpose Driven" social club, ready to be integrated in a "Global Peace Plan" which basically aims to create a New World Order in the name of "Jesus Christ" with some very scary implications.

And so we continue to promote not only the best (DUB) Reggae out there, but also consciousness in the sense that we continue to expose and research what so many people have come to know as "Babylon". 

The next year, 2007, will -JAH Willing- mark the 10th anniversary of the Dubroom Website. On June 10, 1997 we started to gather statistics and so we use that date as the founding date. There are no specific plans yet, but we do hope that this will be a nice celebration.

In any way, we do hope to re-establish Radio Dubroom, we hope that we'll release some good music in MP3 and CD format, we hope to be able to add niceness for the producers of music too. 

Thank you for visiting us, for reading this report, and we surely hope that you'll continue to visit and perhaps even contribute to the Dubroom.

Because if there is one thing we would like to state, it is that we are ALWAYS looking for people who are able to write articles, ALWAYS looking for artists who would like to have us present some of their music to our -many- visitors.

We are grateful for every visitor, and currently on average we cater to 1500 people on a daily basis. In the last month of 2006, December, there were even well over 2000 visitors daily!

We wish them all, YOU all, a very blessed 2007!

One Love,
Messian Dread (Webmaster, DUBROOM.com)

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