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Bio-Sketch
Aduku Addae, born in 1959, is a Jamaican by
birth and an internationalist freedom fighter by choice and
conviction.
As a young boy he roamed the hills of his rural village,
Bohemia, located at the southwestern tip of the "Garden
Parish," St. Ann, dreaming about Maroons (the reputed
ancestors of his paternal grandmother) and fighting many shadow
(imaginary) battles against the British Army of colonial times.
The ultimate "mental assassin" in his daydreams he
never lost a single conflict to the enemy, the "Red
Coats."
more bio
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* * * * The idea that the working class woman can choose what to do with
her body is inconsistent with the fact that the body of the
worker (man or woman) is both an instrument of production and a
commodity. The workers in the factories and offices are
merely extensions of the equipment in these corporate environs,
therefore, instruments of production. Workers are even
more dispensable than the equipment! They are bought and
sold on the labor market in much the same way as bread and
cheese are bought and sold. Hence, they are commodities.
The actions of the working people are determined not by
choice but by necessity. Necessity is the driving force
behind the decisions that poor people make. Rich women are
pro-choice because in a practical sense they can make choices.
Workingwomen have to yield to necessity. The feminist
movement is interested in "rights" (read choices) and
privileges, which are buttressed on consumerist notions.
The movement's organizational and agitational efforts are not
directed to realize social equity. Feminism
and the Criminallization of Masculinity
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* * * * My father was a “comrade” to the bone and
in his 70 years of life never wavered from that conviction up to
his passing in 1997. He was born, lived and died a “PNP man”
and an incorrigible Manley supporter.
Passion as strong as was my father’s belief
in the People’s National Party (PNP) touches everyone that
comes into contact with it. This passion affected us as children
without exception. To this day my siblings remain faithful to
the People’s National Party.
As intimated earlier, Manley was the Messiah,
the Christ redeemer in my father’s household. As such, he
exercised considerable influence over me during my formative
years. For about 5 years, between 12 and 17 years of age, I ran
around with the rest of the 'sheep' waving my fist in defiance
and shouting "Power!"
Manley's Legacy
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* * * * It must be pointed out that women are as
anti-homosexual as men are. If this non-acceptance of
homosexuality represents a phobia, a fear, then women fear
homosexuals just as much as men do.
Extending the writers logic, women fear masculinization
just as men fear feminization.
So homophobia for women is masculinophobia
(if I may coin a word) as it is femmephobia
for men. Homophobia is both femmephobia and masculinophobia, not
just the former as the writer asserts. The writer’s theorization
produces a lopsided analysis that implicitly incorporates the
fictive non-analytical notion that “homophobia” is a male
affliction. So, even in this subtle manner, heterosexual men find
themselves under attack.
In any event, it is absurd to say that people
who are not pro-homosexual are homophobic.
Most people simply find this conduct abhorrent and are not
any more afraid of homosexuals than they are of heterosexuals (men
and women) who are profligate.
Gay women are the ones, who evidently need to
be fearful of the "repository of power," the punaany,
for, finding themselves subordinate to other women, they are the
ones who are conquered by it. The
men in this drama, of course, have something more repulsive to
fear – the overpowering penis. Homophobia (read, in the biased
language of the author of the Jamaica Gleaner articles,
fear of the phallus) is the appropriate response.
The DJs have properly identified this source of fear.
The academician is wrong. It seems, though, that all these
fears must be ascribed to homosexuals and not heterosexuals.
Reflecting
on Love Puny Bad
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* * * * Rhygin is the epitome of ghetto manhood.
"Single handedly and unaided, he had killed . . .
armed men, themselves intent on his life." (It is the
ultimate act of survival and this is the essence of life in the
ghetto – survival). In
the mind of the ghetto youth this is a hero of legendary
stature. If the old
rude boys had to invent or adopt (and adapt) heroic figures for
their roles in the ghetto drama the new rude boys are able to
find these in the folkloric tradition of the ghetto.
The drama now unfolds as ghetto theatre on the dancehall stage.
Ninja Man is not Billy the Kid. He does not inhabit the Hollywood tale.
He is not walking in the blight of John Wayne’s shadow.
He is a dramatist, with a contemporary Jamaican voice,
cast in the role of Rhygin.
Even as Rhygin was standing at the gates of eternity he was not afraid.
In fact "[h]e had to fight the laughter that rose up
in him. . . . He realized with great astonishment that Babylon,
with all their long guns, were afraid of him."
Ninja Man boasted of his arsenal of “long guns”. The implication is
astounding.
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Michael Manley (1924-1997) was
Jamaica's fifth Prime Minister. He served two terms --
1972-1980; 1989-1992. He became leader of the People's National
Party (PNP) in 1969 at the death of his father. Considered
a man of the people, he often mingled among the people in causal
dress. Though white, he maintained an amiable relationship with
Jamaica's black majority. A socialist, he was a friend of Fidel
Castro. His economic programs had mixed success. Manley is
also credited with initiating a culture of political violence by
his party funding street gangs during elections to ensure
support and political success. The 1980s election was considered
extremely corrupt. |
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Edward Seaga, leader of Jamaica's Labour
Party, became the next prime Minister. The 1980 campaign left a
1,000 Jamaicans dead. Seaga also supported with troops Ronald
Reagan's invasion of Grenada. Manley was returned to Prime
Minister 1989, but retired in 1992 because of reasons of health.
Percival James Patterson, then Deputy Prime Minister, succeeds Michael Manley as party leader
and prime minister. |
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P. J. Patterson, born 1935 at St Andrew, Jamaica, was elected to a
fourth term in October 2002 as prime Minister of Jamaica. His
father was a farmer and his mother a teacher. He studied
University College of the West Indies and London School of
Economics.
Patterson is also a lawyer by training. He became an active member of the People's National
Party in the 1950s, nominated to the Senate when he was
32 and joined the House of Representatives in 1970. During 1972-80 he served in a number of
portfolios, including minister of finance and deputy prime
minister. |
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Paul Bogle, commemorated in song by
Bob Marley, was born a free man circa
1822 in the parish of St Thomas, during the height of Jamaican
slavery. He was an ordained Baptist deacon who sought reforms on
behalf of the black poor, believing that better governmental
polices could improve social and economic conditions.
On 11 October 1865 Bogle
organized a peaceful march that turned violent -- later called
the Morant Bay Rebellion. It resulted in the execution of over
five hundred persons and harsh punishment for countless others,
including Bogle, who was hanged on October 24, 1865. |
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updated 13 October
2007 |
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