Heroes and Nation Builders of Jamaica

"He bared his chest and declared…If you are going to shoot, shoot me, but leave these defenceless, hungry people alone." ….Alexander Bustamante

I once saw a play in the early 80s at the little theater where the above was said by one of the actors and another actor shouted in response…..”A should a now!!” …to the laughter of the audience…

His implication was that today's police would have obliged Alexander Bustamante and open fire killing him and everyone dead. I however think that if it was now there would be no one to play the role of Bustamante because that is not how our current so called leaders roll, we would simply be on our own.

Market Woman early 1900

For me the best part of Jamaican history is the period from 1900 to 1962, I call this period the age of Nation Building Stage 2, the fight against hard life and suffering experienced at the hands of British Colonialism. A time when the working class, Educated Class, middle and upper middle class came together and took a stand, back then they had Back Bones made of steel, an intellectual mind coupled with a gritty personality, they were not afraid to risk liberty, life and limb while standing up for their Principles and defend their country and people.

This is not a period in Jamaica’s History to forget or dismiss since full knowledge of what happened and all the players involved is required to create a strong foundation for future Nation Builders, what they did, how they did it and why should be taught in every school across Jamaica, their names should flow of the tongues of old and young alike. These nation builders were strong, charismatic and educated, their ability to organize the masses and articulate their hopes, dreams and desires for the future even in the face of British Colonial might, is why they were so successful. These men and women could engage the British on so many levels, including an intellectual level and if that failed then they had the power to shut down the entire country with just one word, they could mobilize the population of Jamaica, having them take to the streets at a moment’s noticed, even when the colonial forces tried to stop them with a barrage of bullets. Yes they were scared and concern for themselves and their love ones but they considered what they were fighting for to be more important than life itself and their love ones were right beside them in the struggle.

Frank Hill, Ken Hill, Richard Hart, Arthur Henry

They were fighting for Liberty, Equality and Social-Justice, for the rights of man, the freedom of man and the Independence and birth of a Nation. They were not perfect, far from it but they were more of a man and woman than any man or woman claiming to be our leaders today. They were supposed to live for an eternity through us, we should have been an embodiment of their spirit and humanity but we failed them, we could not carry their achievements, their strength, their discipline and determination on our feeble, worthless, brittle poor excuse for a backbone.

Wherever they are now I am sure they must be saying to themselves what a waste of my time and life, what a complete waste of my efforts, to sacrifice so much only to see that my sacrifice was in vain. Look at them running around without any sense of collective purpose, consumed by their own self-importance, consumed by greed and selfishness, look at how they turn their backs on everything we fought so hard to achieve.

Then I can imagine Sam Sharpe and Paul Bogle turning to the others saying “might as well we kept our mouth shut, cut the masters cane and say yes sir may I have another when the whip cut across our backs, instead of having that rope around our broken necks, suspending our lifeless bodies and George William Gordon agreeing”. Because they had so much hope for us but look how we let them down.

I know when we think of the period from 1900 to 1962 only Manley and Bustamante comes to mind but there were so much more players involved and without these brave men and women, both Manley and Bustamante although being great men just would not have succeeded. It is a waste of time to compare our so called leaders today to these brave men and women, as it would be an insult to their memory. The fact is our current stock of educated and political class are nothing more than shallow over privilege selfish little pricks, consumed by their own self-importance and I have no respect for them, they are not men or women of substance and value, they are profiling little fluffs who exist in a fluff bubble and trying very hard to keep their bubble intact at the expense of their people and the future of their country. Their flawed concept of class is measured by money, too stupid to realize that all the stolen money in the world cannot buy an ounce of class, it does not matter how big your house is or how massive a car you drive, you are and will always be just a shallow prick living in a big house and a prick driving a big car, who enjoys the poverty around them simply because that is the only way for them to stand out and feel special, the look at me syndrome.

Colonial Britain Propaganda Newsreel : “Just a hundreds years ago Great Britain abolish Slavery, today the Jamaican Negro is a happy and law abiding citizen, loyal to his Government of which he is very proud. The reality for Jamaicans was very different from that portrait by newsreel at the time, unemployment was very high and wages very low.”

For the most part we as a people were engineered to collectively belittle ourselves, our achievements, our history and we belittle our past leaders because to understand these great men and women would belittle our lives and make us realize that in the scheme of things we are nothing. History will collectively define us as cowards, selfish, greedy, tribal and inhumane and history will not remember our names because it is not worth remembering. History will remember our post independence political class as corrupt, murdering, selfish little twats who purposely created hardship and suffering for their people, who armed Jamaicans and send them out to murder other Jamaicans and who stole from every Jamaican to satisfy their own greed.

Norman Washington Manley

I said before that some of our past leaders, even though they were visionaries and great men were not perfect, no one is, however long before we had political party violence in Jamaica, there was Trade Union violence which was like a drug gang turf war. The Unions set the stage for the political violence that was to come and what we experienced over the decades, the BITU gave birth to the JLP and from the NWU came the PNP but instead of Nation Building these Political Parties now practice Nation Destruction.

When we were fighting the British our mission was clear cut and well defined, it was US against THEM, after the British left, we did not know what to do, we searched high and low for someone else to fight but found only Jamaicans, so unable to find any other group to demonized, we quickly turned on ourselves. Jamaicans from all walk of life rallied around the Political Parties and shouted “old dutty Labourite”... and …”old dutty Socialist” at each other. We made up retarded party slogans…”Stand Firm!”…and…”Deliverance!” and shouted them at each other, we created Political Party Gang colours and signs and flashed them at each other,  some "Raised the Fist", others raised "The Victory Sign” and after we had fully demonized each other in every which way we could, filling our hearts with pure hate and contempt for our fellow man, we then proceeded to set upon our Jamaican brothers and sisters with great vengeance. We murdered Jamaican Men, Women and children with ease simply because they belong to the other party, all in the name of politics and our political overlords, ......such is our Legacy!

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• Independence and Freedom means absolutely nothing without a strong sense Responsibility and Discipline. 
• Equality, Social-Justice, Self-Reliance and Discipline are wonderful principles to live by and we should try to instil these principles back into our society.
• Political Tribalism will be the death of us, as we are way too small and too poor to survive this crab in a barrel mentality.
• Jamaica is a country with so much potentials, we could achieve so much as a people if we apply our selves but we do not think or operate as a collective.

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St. William Grant

Alexander Bustamante

Sir Florizel Glasspole

The Right to Vote

Workers Rights!!

Colonial Times

Life in Jamaica under British Rule as a Crown Colony can be defined as a place filled with poverty and inequality, many Jamaicans at the time was still working on the estates for below living wages.

Selling Sugar in the Market

Sugar Press

Winston Churchill in Spanish Town Jamaica, 1940s