As there is so much to say about Hugh Shearer..

**Tropicana** · 05-02-2012, 05:50 PM

Re: As there is so much to say about Hugh Shearer..

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Wahalla</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Well Marcus and Mandela were both Gallis as well..

Norman well there were roumours....

</div></div>

....faint way.

**Wahalla** · 05-02-2012, 05:53 PM

Re: As there is so much to say about Hugh Shearer..

Well Cudjo did have 3 wife in one tradition....

**evanovitch** · 05-02-2012, 05:55 PM

Re: As there is so much to say about Hugh Shearer..

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Wahalla</div><div class="ubbcode-body">sorry Evan deh lie an story mi did hear was wid Busta as deh progatonist!!!

Deh fust time mi hear it was in 1969!

but jackmandora mi nuh chose nun!

I dont think shearer had an ideology.. the man was a trade unionist who supported free enterprise, and coorporated with NGO... this was before the west became aware of this mobilisation technique...! </div></div>

well maybe Busta had his own biting but i fully memba di uproar ovah Shearer's....dat was my time ...i ongle can memba dat people would seh at least di Chief married Ms Gladys fi him knighting so she got to be a Lady... i was listening at the knee of workers etc....

**Tuff Gong** · 05-03-2012, 01:19 AM

Re: As there is so much to say about Hugh Shearer..

All i have to seh it seems like did post led to a role reversal. I think Jamaica owes Mr. Shearer an apology!
Rodney was a confused foreigner loud mouth that should never have set foot on Jamaica's soil.
Norman Manley did run out the Communist out of the PNP long before Rodney knew wheh fi fine pumping station soh he was offering anything that we never had rejected before.
It was interesting that during the Rodney Demonstrations that was a split along class lines and some of the UWI folks never side with him.
I think<span style="font-style: italic"> (I am not sure the Lecturers who was on his side was dressed in dem red gowns)</span>, maybe someone will remember better.

Anyway mi get teargas fi nutten!

**Tropicana** · 05-03-2012, 01:28 AM

Re: As there is so much to say about Hugh Shearer..

The security reports that are now accessible reveal the concerns that the Jamaican Government had about Walter Rodney. The Americans apparently felt that there was overreaction. Had Walter Rodney been calling for:

- violence?
- overthrow of capitalism?
- rule of Jamaica by only Black people?

It would be interesting to see transcripts of his speeches. It is unlikely that any videos are around...but you never know. Of course there is How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. I need to dig that up and give it another read.

Also:

African History in the Service of the Black Liberation

African History in the Service of the Black Liberation

http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/rodneylib.html

<span style="font-style: italic">This is a transcription of a lecture given by Walter Rodney on 12 October 1968 at the Congress of Black Writers in Montreal, Canada. </span>

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> <span style="font-weight: bold">The prime minister of Jamaica, a black man (you know he looks black anyway), 3 was approached with a request to let African history and an African language, Swahili, be taught in the schools, and he said, "No, we can't have any of that." He gave some reason--a curious reason--something about there being so many different races in Jamaica. Very curious. I mean, 95 percent of the people are black but he can't teach an African language. They teach Latin, French, Spanish, and everything else.</span> A lot of different reasons don't seem to come into that. But it shows that the colonial structure is itself aware of the fact you can't separate a new conception of self, which should spring from historical investigation with a new actuality, [from the] revolutionary process to change the situation that presently exists. So that for the Jamaican, the system makes it impossible for him to come to this new awareness of himself because it doesn't want him to be involved in a revolutionary process. For any historian who seeks to reconstruct the African past, to reconstruct the past of black peoples in this continent, in such a context he cannot say that the revolution will wait until people are re-educated and that re-education reaches an advanced stage because he isn't even allowed to engage in that process of re-education. Consequently, the revolution is with us already. The history will have to be subsidiary to that, it will have to come during and after the revolutionary process. In other words, the Jamaican freedom fighter will have to be a man [who] will, perhaps in his spare time, read some African history.

So the<span style="font-weight: bold"> guerrilla fighter, the freedom fighter in Jamaica,</span> would read some African history but he isn't waiting on that to move. He has to move because the only way that he can establish a relationship with his own past is, in fact, by breaking the present bonds which restrict and constrain us.
</div></div>

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> The Jamaican petty bourgeoisie is a comprador class, the neocolonialist class. They don't have any confidence because they don't have any capital. They know they exist on handouts from the metropolitan system so they are very shaky and very uncertain of themselves. And they will even stop you from, as I said, studying African history</div></div>

Let's see what he actually said. Of course you were there to hear him Tuff Gong and supported him at the time.

How come you were allowed to go to rallies when you were younger but you weren't allowed to hear Third World perform at the Jamaica House Garden theatre?

**Tropicana** · 05-03-2012, 01:50 AM

Re: As there is so much to say about Hugh Shearer..

Okay in his own words:

<object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/o4_sbAx7Ocw"></param> <param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/o4_sbAx7Ocw" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"> </embed></object>

**Tropicana** · 05-03-2012, 02:13 AM

Re: As there is so much to say about Hugh Shearer..

Another POV About PM Hugh Shearer...Tuff Gong and makabush will probably like this one:

<span style="font-weight: bold">Disrespecting Shearer, forgetting history</span>

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">When the $1,000 bill with Michael Manley's portrait was put into circulation, no one objected. So why the protests about putting Hugh Shearer on the new $5,000 note? He is just as worthy as Alexander Bustamante, Norman Manley, Donald Sangster, and Michael Manley. To argue otherwise is ignorant disrespect of a great Jamaican.

My July 8, 2004 Sunday Gleaner article, 'Hugh Shearer - Jamaica's greatest prime minister?' statistically analysed each prime ministerial regime using four measures - life expectancy, literacy rate, GDP per capita and murder rate per capita. The numbers ranked Hugh Shearer (1968-72) Jamaica's most effective prime minister, followed by Edward Seaga (1981-89), Alexander Bustamante/Donald Sangster (1962-7), the 1990s' Michael Manley (1990-1992), P.J. Patterson (1993-2002) and the 1970s' Michael Manley (1973-1980).

Shearer's was the only administration where Jamaica did better than the global norm, while we suffered our largest relative decline under the 1970s' Manley. Life expectancy and literacy rates changed at similar rates during both regimes. For 1968-1972, our annual GDP growth rate was 3.5 per cent greater than the world average, and our murder rate increase per annum was .2 per cent less than in the US. For 1973-1980, our annual GDP growth rate was six per cent less than the world average, and our murder rate increase per annum was 9.1 per cent more than in the US.

Numbers may not tell the whole story, but they speak without bias. Sources and methodology are outlined in the aforementioned article. </div></div>
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
<span style="font-weight: bold">Race</span>

Hugh Shearer had also previously urged then Prime Minister Bustamante to appoint the black former school teacher Clifford Campbell as the first Jamaican governor general, when others had been recommending someone from the light-skinned elite.

</div></div>

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Shearer was Jamaica's first visibly black head of government - his predecessors, Bustamante, Norman Manley and Sangster were all brown. One of his first significant moves was the establishment of national Jamaican honours and awards to replace British ones. He also instituted a deliberate policy of gradual 'Jamaicanisation', whereby locals slowly replaced the white English expatriates who held most senior civil services posts at Independence.

</div></div>

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Then there was the Walter Rodney affair. In October 1968, the black power activist Rodney was a lecturer at the University of the West Indies' Mona campus. He attended a black writers' conference in Montreal, but on his return was refused re-admittance to Jamaica, for "carrying on activities which constituted a danger to the security of the nation". [6] This sparked a demonstration by UWI students, which degenerated into a riot that claimed three lives and caused over £1 million of property damage.

</div></div>

Now this is interesting:

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">A parliamentary motion upholding the Government's decision to ban Rodney was passed without dissent. T<span style="font-weight: bold">hen Opposition leader Norman Manley said, "Let me state that I am satisfied on those facts that they put before us, that Walter Rodney is an undesirable person.</span>"

Manley added, "It is good for Jamaica to know that the reason why Dr Rodney was expelled from this country was because h<span style="font-weight: bold">e was engaged in organising activities which advocated violence and the overthrow of those things which are highly treasured in this country - our progress toward a multiracial society in which a man is not as good as his skin, but as good as his merit. And anything that tends to undermine our motto - in spite of our hardship, in spite of our suffering, in spite of our troubles ... is bad for Jamaica."</span>

</div></div>

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Years after, Shearer reflected:

"Black ambition, black equality of opportunity, black dignity, economic strength and self-respect. That's black power! ... when Sir Alexander Bustamante made Isaac Barrant a minister, a man who started his working life as a side man on a truck, and the middle class opposed the appointment, that was black power in operation! And when Edwin Allen, minister of education, prescribed that 70 per cent of the places in secondary schools should be reserved for Primary School children who passed the Common Entrance Examination, and 30 per cent for preparatory school children, that was black power! And when Sir Clifford Campbell was appointed governor general, that was a move in furtherance of black power! And don't forget the strong and vulgar criticism about the appointment of this black man to the highest post in the land. And when we decided to send for the body of Marcus Garvey to give him eminence in his own country, that was black power!
</div></div>

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">It's almost criminal that a man who contributed so much to building his country should be belittled today because of sheer ignorance. Which itself is partly, if not largely, a product of the virtual elimination of history as a separate subject in our schools. To put it bluntly, misguided government policy is causing Jamaicans to forget their past. Do our public and school libraries even have copies of Hartley Neita's Hugh Shearer: A Voice for the People?</div></div>

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Reactions?

**Tuff Gong** · 05-03-2012, 02:45 AM

Re: As there is so much to say about Hugh Shearer..

The important point that we are missing here is this:
Walter Rodney and his ideas eventually won.
The very next Election saw the victory of a man exposing the same foolish ideas and our country has suffered for it.

Saint Michael Manley campaigned against everything that could have unified Jamaica.
He claimed better must come for Blacks
That the suffering of the poor was due to the 21 Families (Capitalism, later Imperialism).
His rule was filled with physical and physiological attacks on his perceived enemies.
these are all the things Walter Rodney espoused.

Every PNP Leader since have used the same class, rich versus poor, income distribution and race warfare template.
Even today Jamaicans are quick to divide up ourselves along colour and class lines.

The Walter Rodneys' won, Jamaica is much poorer for the victory.

**Derek** · 05-03-2012, 03:24 AM

Re: As there is so much to say about Hugh Shearer..

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Jamaicans, the report quotes Rodney as saying, are “predominantly black and not a multiracial community. Therefore they should be governed only by black people.”</div></div>

And what's wrong with that?
Isn't that the norm in most countries?

**Wahalla** · 05-03-2012, 03:26 AM

Re: As there is so much to say about Hugh Shearer..

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tuff Gong</div><div class="ubbcode-body">All i have to seh it seems like did post led to a role reversal. I think Jamaica owes Mr. Shearer an apology!
Rodney was a confused foreigner loud mouth that should never have set foot on Jamaica's soil.
Norman Manley did run out the Communist out of the PNP long before Rodney knew wheh fi fine pumping station soh he was offering anything that we never had rejected before.
It was interesting that during the Rodney Demonstrations that was a split along class lines and some of the UWI folks never side with him.
I think<span style="font-style: italic"> (I am not sure the Lecturers who was on his side was dressed in dem red gowns)</span>, maybe someone will remember better.

Anyway mi get teargas fi nutten! </div></div>

Being in a demonstration is never a waste of time! If we dont then we are not taking the most basic step to push back against the state... So well done...

I know that because of the preponderance of yanki influence that comment may make me out to a rightwinger, but that is not the case.

The reaction is because of the comments that Rodney made he is some sort of nationalist freedom fighter. To me he was just another acedemian.. Compare his record to that of shearer... How many schools did he build ?

another thing we should tink about... Both Shearer and that forgein born yanki base retiree Dudley Thompson worked for Jamaican Independence... Give them their due... But their record post independence which was more positive ??? Am I being disengeneous to thompson because I see him tared by Green Bay ??? Am I letting Shearer off the hook for his role in the use of the Mobile Reserve in the harasment of the Rasta ? Should sheared have stamped out the gangs in the urban centers ??

Shearer comes back to me as a more humble gentle character, a man of dignity with little room for popularist histronics of Seaga, thompson, Duncan, Manley or Portia...

To be honest.. Busta, Charles, Shearer seem to have taken the same route... The non acedemic- worker focus..

Portia seems to have that route, yet am I being sexist when I say I get the impression that there is a lack of focus, lack of analystical critical thinking....

**Wahalla** · 05-03-2012, 03:30 AM

Re: As there is so much to say about Hugh Shearer..

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tuff Gong</div><div class="ubbcode-body">The important point that we are missing here is this:
Walter Rodney and his ideas eventually won.
The very next Election saw the victory of a man exposing the same foolish ideas and our country has suffered for it.

Saint Michael Manley campaigned against everything that could have unified Jamaica.
He claimed better must come for Blacks
That the suffering of the poor was due to the 21 Families (Capitalism, later Imperialism).
His rule was filled with physical and physiological attacks on his perceived enemies.
these are all the things Walter Rodney espoused.

Every PNP Leader since have used the same class, rich versus poor, income distribution and race warfare template.
Even today Jamaicans are quick to divide up ourselves along colour and class lines.

The Walter Rodneys' won, Jamaica is much poorer for the victory. </div></div>

And then we had vibz cartel bleaching himself causing half the population to hate him!

so who are these 21 families??? Can someone send a list... (It went down to 14 then 7 families!)

**Tropicana** · 05-03-2012, 04:12 AM

Re: As there is so much to say about Hugh Shearer..

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><span style="font-weight: bold">Essays on Power & Change in Jamaica</span> (edited by Carl Stone),<span style="font-weight: bold"> Stanley Reid identified the famous '21 family' groupings </span> as the major centres of power in the early 1970s.

According to his findings, 125 of the 219 existing directorships and 70 per cent of the chairman in Jamaica's corporate economy were drawn from the 21 families.

The supergroup

A 'supergroup', including the

1.Ashenheims,
2.Desnoes-Geddes,
3Harts,
4.Henriques
5.and Matalons,

.....were the key families, occupying one of every three directorships. Their span of control and influence covered finance, construction, manufacturing and distributive trades.

6.The Issas
7. and McConnells

... were important elements of the corporate landscape in the distributive trade, tourism and agriculture.

Attorneys-at-law and legal firms in 1972 represented the second-largest source of mortgage finance, and this grouping was dominated by the Ashenheims, Harts, and others who were connected to the 21 families.

The construction sector in those days, in terms of building supplies, was in the hands of the
8. Ashenheims,
Matalons,
9.Mahfoods,
10.DaCostas

, and Henriques through their ownership in Carib Cement, ICD, Lascelles, Pan Jam, etc.

New names have emerged and corporate wealth and power have shifted somewhat in the last 30 years with the entry of some important new players, the decline of others, and increased foreign ownership in a number of areas.

Jamaica's corporate economy has, however, been lacking in dynamism, which partly accounts for our under-performance in economic development. Traditional key groups still control the levers of economic power, although the faces are less prominent.

</div></div>

Page not found | Jamaica Gleaner

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20110318/business/business51.html

Also on the list were the:

11.Lindos - Appleton rum
12. Alexander/Kennedy - Grace Kennedy

I don't have the names of the other famlies.

Interesting that 7 of the 21 were of Portuguese Jewish heritage at a time when there were fewer than 500 Jews in Jamaica.

<span style="font-weight: bold"> Not one of the 21 families dominating the economy was of African descent</span>

Tuff Gong, I disagree with you but will have to tackle this some other time.

**Wahalla** · 05-03-2012, 06:56 AM

Re: As there is so much to say about Hugh Shearer..

Thats 12.... thats the 70's...

And mentions the Blacks Brothers, Butch Stewart, or Chen of super plus...there is one more who's name I cannot mention... but I suspect may be worth more than any of those families mentioned...

Appleton is owned by the Jamaican goverment.. the sugar industry is bankrupt and has been for the last thirty years......
the cement factory is owned by the Trinis...
Bauxite is owned by the Russians
Largest investments in Tourism by the Ria group....
Jamentel once owned by the matalons is now ownedby Luime
D&G by Guiness

So the verasity of that is at best uncertain....

Guess that guy Powel who owns a private jet is not among the 21 families....

**Derek** · 05-03-2012, 07:28 AM

Re: As there is so much to say about Hugh Shearer..

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tropicana</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> <div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><span style="font-weight: bold">Essays on Power & Change in Jamaica</span> (edited by Carl Stone),<span style="font-weight: bold"> Stanley Reid identified the famous '21 family' groupings </span> as the major centres of power in the early 1970s.

According to his findings, 125 of the 219 existing directorships and 70 per cent of the chairman in Jamaica's corporate economy were drawn from the 21 families.

The supergroup

A 'supergroup', including the

1.Ashenheims,
2.Desnoes-Geddes,
3Harts,
4.Henriques
5.and Matalons,

.....were the key families, occupying one of every three directorships. Their span of control and influence covered finance, construction, manufacturing and distributive trades.

6.The Issas
7. and McConnells

... were important elements of the corporate landscape in the distributive trade, tourism and agriculture.

Attorneys-at-law and legal firms in 1972 represented the second-largest source of mortgage finance, and this grouping was dominated by the Ashenheims, Harts, and others who were connected to the 21 families.

The construction sector in those days, in terms of building supplies, was in the hands of the
8. Ashenheims,
Matalons,
9.Mahfoods,
10.DaCostas

, and Henriques through their ownership in Carib Cement, ICD, Lascelles, Pan Jam, etc.

New names have emerged and corporate wealth and power have shifted somewhat in the last 30 years with the entry of some important new players, the decline of others, and increased foreign ownership in a number of areas.

Jamaica's corporate economy has, however, been lacking in dynamism, which partly accounts for our under-performance in economic development. Traditional key groups still control the levers of economic power, although the faces are less prominent.

</div></div>

Page not found | Jamaica Gleaner

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20110318/business/business51.html

Also on the list were the:

11.Lindos - Appleton rum
12. Alexander/Kennedy - Grace Kennedy

I don't have the names of the other famlies.

Interesting that 7 of the 21 were of Portuguese Jewish heritage at a time when there were fewer than 500 Jews in Jamaica.

<span style="font-weight: bold"> Not one of the 21 families dominating the economy was of African descent</span>

Tuff Gong, I disagree with you but will have to tackle this some other time. </div></div>

21 families control Jamaica; 13 families control the world...

**evanovitch** · 05-03-2012, 07:56 AM

Re: As there is so much to say about Hugh Shearer..

If u di note dat a Hart was thrown out of PNP for being the C word yet an still n still di Hart name appears in the supposed 21families much bandid about by Joshua wagon sits...if dat kine a dbl chat don't sum up yaad in many a way , I dont know wat will... I have said before dat people killing dem selves over politics wile the stirrers of dem ire meeting afterwud wid all n sundry so drink mimosa n watch dem run rung like mad ants

As there is so much to say about Hugh Shearer..

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