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Originally posted by Wahalla
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Those are the Garrisons! -
Where we know independent thought is controlled tightlyOriginally posted by Tuff Gong View PostComment
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I am a PNP Supporter but let me say this what about the old, unproductive, clearly stupid old fogeys in the Comrade ranks? Almost the entire top tier of the Comrade line up have been involved in one shape or form with elective politics since the 70s.Originally posted by remo View PostAs a staunch PNPite(is that a word?)...Good luck Labourites.....You could make my day by leaving Charles and Henry out to pasture,Bring some new and fresh people in
The Burkes
Simpson-Miller
Bunting
Golding
Phillips
The Duncans
Buchanan's
etc!
The above names are proven failures and have never been part of any successful Government of Jamaica since 1970.
At least Mr. Charles and Mr. Henry have been part of Governments that was a resounding success in the 60s, 70s and 80s.Comment
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.....or not even possible. That is just one of the reason why I don't live in Peter Phillips Constituency.Originally posted by evanovitch View Post
Yet in fairness to the Garrisons it would be impossible to bring the walls surrounding them down, since most of Jamaica (counting the Gated Communities) has become garrisoned, if not politically, at least for security, sustenance and general welfare.Comment
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What yuh talking bout man ..Mike Henry an pe arnelC haresOriginally posted by Tuff Gong View Post
Have been around since wappie kill phillopComment
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Originally posted by remo View Post
The issue I believe , is evidence of contribution...to deny THEIR work N contribution is disingenuous at least n partisanship at bestComment
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"The journey has been rough at times, but I think that the most rugged period of my union and political situation was my confrontation and relationship with Michael Manley," Charles said of the former two-time prime minister of Jamaica.
"I was assigned by the BITU (Bustamante Industrial Trade Union) to break into the bauxite industry, and I started at Kaiser in Discovery Bay. Michael Manley was determined that no other union but his NWU (National Workers' Union) must get into the bauxite industry and we both used tactics and strategies," Charles explained.
"Alpart in St Elizabeth was the roughest of them, because I found construction workers working in conditions that I totally opposed, and with my American exposure, I told the management what they were doing wrong.
"A team of men from Central Kingston stopped me one morning and one said: 'Alpart is Michael's territory, so I think it's best you go back and leave here'. I said 'this is Jamaica, and Jamaica is my territory, like yours. I think we still have a right to be where we want to'," Charles said.
"The next morning, two carloads of guys came to the plant after I arrived with my driver called 'Silent'. I was in the back seat and one car came straight before us and stopped, and by the time that one stopped, one got behind our car and blocked us, so we couldn't go forward.
"The guys alighted from both cars and I decided that the safest thing was to get out of my car. So I got out and started to run towards the mining area. I could easily hear one guy say to another, 'shot him', and he said to the other guy, 'why you no shoot him, you have a gun too?'," Charles related.
"He said again 'shoot the b...c.... man nuh!', and the other insisted, 'you shoot him'.
By this time, Charles said, he had reached one of the mining holes, which he assessed to be about 22-feet deep.
"I flung myself against the side of the hole and tried to hold on," he said.
"I had ran in the direction of where the tractors would come into the mine to take up the dirt and go out, so when I heard one coming I managed to crawl out of the hole and run alongside the tractor. I looked back and saw that the men were still standing there with the guns, but nobody could shoot, or didn't shoot.
"My driver, who had driven away, came back around, and while travelling at around 25 to 30 miles per hour, I grabbed the back door, opened it and swung into my car," said Charles, who at the time had returned to Jamaica only a year after he completed studies at New York and City Universities.
A shaken and bruised Charles was taken to the Mandeville Hospital where he spent a few days. The doctor on duty issued strict instructions that he should have no visitors, out of concern for his safety.
But not wanting to be far from the action, Charles took on the Herculean task of going back to Alpart, despite the danger.
"I recalled the morning when I arrived there, one of the guys said to me 'b....c..... Charles, you come back'. And I said to them, 'I am back for good'.
"A few days after that, Michael arrived at Alpart for a meeting at Nain. I was there with some guys and saw a crowd coming with him, but a police jeep was in front, so I wasn't as fearful of the crowd, because the police were there.
"When the police jeep came down and stopped beside me, I heard one of the guys say, 'Charles, you haffi leff ya, you know, because the boss seh a you a cause problems, and as long as you are here we not going get no work'. That's what they said Michael told them," the veteran trade unionist said.
"I thought that the police jeep was the safest place for my rescue, so I jumped into the back of the jeep. The policeman in charge said to me 'come out, this is a police jeep', and he was so serious that I had to jump back out.
"So I stepped out of the jeep and leaned my back against it just as Michael and a few of his guys arrived. A guy named Cookie, whom I knew before, said to Michael, 'him have a gun', and I really had a gun.
"Michael looked at him and said, 'who have a gun here?' And Cookie leaned back, went down and up with his fist and landed it straight in my eye. I had on a pair of glasses and I recalled the glasses splintered, leaving one part of the frame on my face. He broke the glasses in my eye and at that point I pulled my gun and I fired it towards his belly. It didn't catch him in his belly, it went a little lower, because at that time I wasn't good enough at shooting," said Charles.
"I knew that I wasn't going to kill him, because I knew where I should shoot if I was going to kill him. I then looked at Michael Manley, with the gun in my hand, and said, 'is you cause this'.
"Manley said something to me that I would never forget: 'You damn fool, I am trying to save you.'
"By this time, because of the shooting of the guy, everybody scattered, but Michael Manley never took one step back. He stood up beside me with that gun and watched me shoot that guy, and I pointed the gun at him and he never stepped back. I learnt a lot from that," said Charles.
"I ran towards my car that was parked down the bottom and when I jumped in I heard one guy say, 'Lawd Pearnel, no leave me, man. When I stopped I saw hundreds of stones coming on the car. I recalled one dropping on the windshield and it coming right in and back out, and I reversed away," said the father of seven who was born in the rural village of Macedonia in St Ann.
Again, Charles ended up at hospital, this time at the University Hospital of the West Indies where doctors again decided that he should have no visitors, for safety reasons.
A day after he was admitted he received the chilling news that two men had turned up at the hospital around midnight insisting they be allowed to see him.
The nurses on duty managed to convince them that he had been transferred to another hospital earlier in the day, as they did not appear to be men offering him flowers and chocolates.
"They came for me," Charles reflected, as he leaned back in his chair at his swanky St Andrew home during the interview with the Jamaica Observer.
The man who later went on to become vice-president of the BITU, was charged days later with shooting with intent, but was acquitted by an 11-member jury in the Supreme Court — a trial in which Manley also testified.
"The Alpart incident was the closest I had come to feeling danger. I had always travelled by myself to Alpart, leaving Kingston at four o'clock in the morning in a Buick, flying past anything on the road and at that time you had to move like a bird to catch me," Charles said.
Charles also felt the fury of Winston Blake, alias 'Burry Boy', an infamous PNP bad man who traversed sections of Central Kingston, East Kingston and Arnett Gardens in South St Andrew.
Burry Boy, whose funeral was attended by Manley, amid much outcry by political critics, fired at a vehicle driven by Charles, as he headed to a JLP meeting in the PNP-dominated Central Kingston during the 1970s.
"I was driving the car with Mr (Edward) Seaga beside me, and when we got to Potters Row, we came under attack," said Charles.
"I knew Burry Boy. When I drove up I saw him sitting on top of a Zephyr 6 motor car with a long gun and as we drove in, he started firing. Seaga shouted to me, 'let's turn around', and when I was driving off, a guy said, 'Pearnel, no lef we', and two JLP supporters jumped into the car.
"We left unhurt, drove along Windward Road where we saw police stopping us, but I slowed and drove off fast again and only stopped when I reached Tivoli, where the police caught up with us," said Charles, who also spent time in the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation as a two-time councillor for the Denham Town Division.
Charles, who has served as member of parliament for St Thomas East where he still runs a large sugar cane plantation, has been caught in the middle of several political clashes over the years, including a by-election in St Mary during the 1970s in which he, while travelling with Seaga again, came under a sustained stone-throwing attack.Comment
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I agree but they at least had a measure of success with the Governments they have been a part of. Consider this. Their Constituents keep voting for them and one cannot deny that the JLP has been riven with infighting since the late 60s yet these guys have been constant in the Party.Originally posted by remo View Post
The names I have mentioned, in the Comrade Leadership, have never been part of any Jamaica Government that has seen success, except in winning Elections.Comment
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........BTW Remo I agree with you that it time Mike Henry and Pearnel Charles buy a comfortable couch, but I think the JLP has lees left over baggage than the Comrade Leadership.Comment
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Not sour grapes concern... Less than 50_% voted who could vote.... The % of young people who voted is extremely low....Originally posted by evanovitch View Post
I believe in our Parliamentary system... This lack of participation will leave our potential go erment at the mercy of small minority...
I would like to hear Eddie's thoughts on it. Remember 83 election without PNP participation? I would like to see a significant number of Senators with independence of both parties...
Eddie did just that in 1983.... He appointment Trevor Munroe. His ideological opposite... But Eddie of whom I am not a fan agrees with me on the Parliamentary system...Comment
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