Holness’s House A Product Of Envy Manley Sowed.….

There were steps tak­en by Michael Manley’s Socialist régime of the 70’s which are direct­ly impact­ing Jamaica over four decades lat­er . These steps have had tremen­dous con­se­quence, and are still impact­ing the con­tem­po­rary body-politic.

MOBILIZATION

The People’s National Party mas­tered the art of mobi­liz­ing in the 70’s. One of Michael Manley’s strengths was his abil­i­ty to bring peo­ple along with him on his ideas.
Not just that, Manley was able to mobi­lize his par­ty, from the high­est placed func­tionary to the least edu­cat­ed grass-roots sup­port­er to buy into what he was selling.
Among the left­ists lead­ers who dot­ted the land­scape of the time, from Latin-America , the Caribbean, to the dis­tant shores of Africa ‚no Leader was more gift­ed in mobi­liz­ing the masses.
With soar­ing rhetoric and his deep bari­tone deliv­ery Manley ignit­ed the down-trod­den mass­es of Jamaica the Caribbean and around the Globe.
Today Jamaicans and parts of the Caribbean still think of Michael Manley as a Messiah who came with a mes­sage of Self-reliance and self-deter­mi­na­tion for the poor­er class of peo­ple large­ly peo­ple of African Ancestry.
A detailed non-biased look at this per­cep­tion how­ev­er yields much more than that which meets the eyes.
The results how­ev­er would have to be con­sid­ered by an edu­cat­ed elec­torate capa­ble of sift­ing through the pro­pa­gan­da with a view to har­vest­ing poten­tial nuggets of value.
When the entire­ty of the pros and the cons are con­sid­ered objec­tive­ly, the rhetoric may not match the facts.
Hans Christian Andersen’s “Pied-Piper of Hamlin” did free the Town of rats but he also led the entire town’s chil­dren away. Those chil­dren were nev­er seen again.
Some Jamaicans did gain a degree of free­dom from the shack­les of men­tal Colonialism but the inno­cence , peace, and progress the coun­try lost has not been seen since.
You do the math.

PROPOGANDA

The PNP under­stood that whomev­er con­trolled the mes­sage con­trolled the masses.
Michael Manley and the PNP went about politi­ciz­ing exist­ing Media-hous­es of the day and cre­at­ing oth­ers for the pur­pose of mass indoctrination.
The Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation, (JBC) , Radio and Television for all intents and pur­pos­es became arms of the PNP.
Under Manley the Jamaica Daily News was cre­at­ed , a now defunct news­pa­per which was com­plete­ly ded­i­cat­ed to indoc­tri­nat­ing the mass­es with the Governing PNP’s agenda.
The Jamaica Information Service(JIS), anoth­er Government Medium was politi­cized and used in the most vul­gar ways to dis­sem­i­nate PNP propaganda.

MALIGNING

Under Michael Manley Jamaicans who worked hard and acquired mate­r­i­al pos­ses­sions were maligned and made out to be greedy Capitalists who did not deserve to have the pro­ceeds of their labor.
Manley and the PNP active­ly taught poor Jamaicans that they were enti­tled to have half of what­ev­er their neigh­bors owned as part of his Socialist philosophy.
Jamaica was for­ev­er changed because of this, many Jamaicans who had inher­it­ed some mate­r­i­al pos­ses­sions and oth­ers who ben­e­fit­ed through the sweat of their brows feared for their lives and they fled in droves.
Manley’s brig­ands moved into their homes, a move which lit­er­al­ly ghet­toized once pris­tine neigh­bor­hoods. This is a trend which Jamaica has not been able to reverse.
Many Jamaicans were killed for no oth­er rea­son than that they had mate­r­i­al possessions.
That rapa­cious men­tal deprav­i­ty is pret­ty much par for the course in con­tem­po­rary Jamaica, where peo­ple are sum­mar­i­ly slaugh­tered, even when their assailants need not take their lives.
Just recent­ly an elder­ly cou­ple who returned to the Island became vic­tims of that depravity.
The ongo­ing debat­ed about a house the leader of the Opposition Labor Party Andrew Holness has under con­struc­tion is anoth­er exam­ple of the depraved envy which char­ac­ter­ize the very core of the PNP.
It is incom­pre­hen­si­ble and shock­ing­ly cyn­i­cal that the PNP would ques­tion any­one’s integrity.
The PNP has been a can­cer­ous cesspool of cor­rup­tion which has sucked the life-blood from the once thriv­ing Island, reduc­ing it to a waste-land of beg­gars and mur­der­ous blood-thirsty demons.
I have no idea where Holness sourced the fund­ing for the house he is build­ing. Neither do I know where Portia Simpson Miller earned the sup­posed US$20 mil­lion she is worth.
Neither have intel­li­gent Jamaicans above” cur­ry goat and Red-stripe Beer” learned the where­abouts of bil­lions of dol­lars which have dis­s­a­peared in the litany of scan­dals under the cur­rent PNP administration.

PATRONAGE
Manley’s machis­mo on behalf of the down-trod­den should not be con­sumed with­out a full under­stand­ing of cap­tured homes and prop­er­ties, their own­ers hav­ing fled out of fear for their lives.
Let’s bring some per­spec­tive to this cha­rade which has metas­ta­sized for too long. Let’s push back against the revi­sion­ist historians.
Jamaica is enjoy­ing the bit­ter fruits of Manley’s labor.
Whatever good was derived from Manley’s tenure must be mea­sured against the neg­a­tives which emanat­ed after.
Open your minds and think.