Tweet
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>History facts and folk tales</SPAN>
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>Michael Burke
Thursday, October 26, 2006
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=80 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>Michael Burke</SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>Today, October 26 is the 95th anniversary of the birth of Sir Donald Burns Sangster, Jamaica's second prime minister of independent Jamaica. He died after 48 days of being prime minister. Ironically, Donald Sangster had acted for three years for Sir Alexander Bustamante who was ill.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Bustamante, who in his lifetime was the only living national hero, was so popular that he could get away with being bedridden for three years, yet continuing to be prime minister. Being blind and bedridden was not enough, however, to stop Bustamante running the country. It is said that Sangster hardly made a move without consulting "the chief".<P class=StoryText align=justify>Bustamante did not seek re-election on February 21, 1967. The Jamaica Labour Party won and Sangster was sworn in as prime minister. Forty-eight days as prime minister is one thing, but Sangster did not serve for fully a month before being struck down by illness. On the very day that Sangster died, April 11 1967, Hugh Lawson Shearer was sworn in as prime minister, the third in independent Jamaica. Incidentally, Shearer never received a "mandate" as he lost the 1972 election.<P class=StoryText align=justify>In his column, "Don't cry for me, Jamaica", on Tuesday, Lloyd B Smith wrote of Portia Simpson Miller that "it is already being predicted that she will end up being the shortest- serving prime minister in the country's history".<P class=StoryText align=justify>While it is absolutely correct that some are saying that, just as Mr Smith wrote, those who are saying so are actually speaking the impossible. Portia Simpson Miller has already been prime minister for about seven months and has therefore long surpassed the 48 days Sir Donald served in that office.<P class=StoryText align=justify>By the way, I hope that my mathematical calculation is correct. Sangster was sworn in on February 22 and died on April 11. I get 48 days, as February 22 to March 22 is 28 days, to March 31 is 37 and then to April 11 are 48. I have made the mistake in the past as calculating it at 56 days. I stand corrected, not by anyone else, but by myself.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Today I am addressing popular myths and once again I am making an attempt to correct them. One such myth has to do with our national symbols. As I have pointed out time and again, the constitution of Jamaica does not speak to a national dish.<P class=StoryText align=justify>I suspect that the myth about ackee and saltfish being the national dish was created by restaurateurs. It is a great marketing tool for tourists to buy the preparation. The only problem is that students have been misled from the time of political independence in 1962.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Let us be accurate on this thing. We have a national anthem, national prayer, national song, national flag, national bird, national tree, national flower and a national fruit. If I have left out any of the national symbols please add it, but if you add a national dish you are wrong, because up to now there is none. And I am fully in agreement with there being no specific national dish. Because if we were to have a national dish, which one would you choose from among the several folk dishes?<P class=StoryText align=justify>Another myth has to do with toll roads. As I have written before, toll roads were not introduced in Jamaica for the first time in 2003. There were toll r
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>Michael Burke
Thursday, October 26, 2006
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=80 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>Michael Burke</SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>Today, October 26 is the 95th anniversary of the birth of Sir Donald Burns Sangster, Jamaica's second prime minister of independent Jamaica. He died after 48 days of being prime minister. Ironically, Donald Sangster had acted for three years for Sir Alexander Bustamante who was ill.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Bustamante, who in his lifetime was the only living national hero, was so popular that he could get away with being bedridden for three years, yet continuing to be prime minister. Being blind and bedridden was not enough, however, to stop Bustamante running the country. It is said that Sangster hardly made a move without consulting "the chief".<P class=StoryText align=justify>Bustamante did not seek re-election on February 21, 1967. The Jamaica Labour Party won and Sangster was sworn in as prime minister. Forty-eight days as prime minister is one thing, but Sangster did not serve for fully a month before being struck down by illness. On the very day that Sangster died, April 11 1967, Hugh Lawson Shearer was sworn in as prime minister, the third in independent Jamaica. Incidentally, Shearer never received a "mandate" as he lost the 1972 election.<P class=StoryText align=justify>In his column, "Don't cry for me, Jamaica", on Tuesday, Lloyd B Smith wrote of Portia Simpson Miller that "it is already being predicted that she will end up being the shortest- serving prime minister in the country's history".<P class=StoryText align=justify>While it is absolutely correct that some are saying that, just as Mr Smith wrote, those who are saying so are actually speaking the impossible. Portia Simpson Miller has already been prime minister for about seven months and has therefore long surpassed the 48 days Sir Donald served in that office.<P class=StoryText align=justify>By the way, I hope that my mathematical calculation is correct. Sangster was sworn in on February 22 and died on April 11. I get 48 days, as February 22 to March 22 is 28 days, to March 31 is 37 and then to April 11 are 48. I have made the mistake in the past as calculating it at 56 days. I stand corrected, not by anyone else, but by myself.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Today I am addressing popular myths and once again I am making an attempt to correct them. One such myth has to do with our national symbols. As I have pointed out time and again, the constitution of Jamaica does not speak to a national dish.<P class=StoryText align=justify>I suspect that the myth about ackee and saltfish being the national dish was created by restaurateurs. It is a great marketing tool for tourists to buy the preparation. The only problem is that students have been misled from the time of political independence in 1962.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Let us be accurate on this thing. We have a national anthem, national prayer, national song, national flag, national bird, national tree, national flower and a national fruit. If I have left out any of the national symbols please add it, but if you add a national dish you are wrong, because up to now there is none. And I am fully in agreement with there being no specific national dish. Because if we were to have a national dish, which one would you choose from among the several folk dishes?<P class=StoryText align=justify>Another myth has to do with toll roads. As I have written before, toll roads were not introduced in Jamaica for the first time in 2003. There were toll r
Comment