Dudley Thompson passes

[Don1]

Former Cabinet minister, MP Dudley Thompson is dead
BY HG HELPS Editor-at-Large helpsh@jamaicaobserver.com
Friday, January 20, 2012



FORMER Jamaican Cabinet Minister Dudley Thompson died this morning in New York, USA, one day after he celebrated his 95th birthday. Thompson served as minister of national security and justice, as well as foreign affairs minister.
Known as one of Jamaica's finest lawyers of his generation, Thompson was a firebrand minister of national security and Member of Parliament under the Michael Manley-led People's National Party regime of the 1970s.

Thompson, a Mico College Rhodes Scholar, also served as Minister of Foreign Affairs during the period, and later ambassador and high commissioner to several African countries, including Nigeria, Ghana, and Namibia.
He had lived in Florida for several years and was in New York to attend a meeting when he died.

His infamous statement that 'no angels died at Green Bay' following the killing of five civilian supporters of the Jamaica labour Party by local army personnel at a firing range in the hills of St Catherine in 1977 caused much controversy.
The Green Bay massacre occurred 34 years ago on January 5, 1978. Five men from Gold Street and Higholborn Street in the Central Kingston community of Southside were lured into an ambush at the Jamaica Defence Force firing range and shot dead.

They had gone there based upon a promise of getting jobs. Among the five killed was outstanding former Santos Football Club and Jamaica midfielder Norman 'Gutto' Thompson.


Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...#ixzz1k2IMjSQS

[Islandman]

A man not without his faults and flaws but a giant nontheless.

Anyone who help defend Kenyatta against dutty Babylon haffe get some props from me.

[Don1]

A man not without his faults and flaws but a giant nontheless.

Anyone who help defend Kenyatta against dutty Babylon haffe get some props from me.

Righteous

[Skeng DX]

people nuh know that.....DUDUS nickname .....

[Rudi]

RIP to the first Jamaican Burning Spear. Dun talk.

[Rudi]

By the way Skeng, when certain man and certain subjects are being discussed don't soil the conversation with mention of YOUR President seen.

[Skeng DX]

ok SIR


RIP

DUDLEY..................yuh live long

[Hortical]

"No Angels died at Green Bay" - Dudley Thompson

Minister of National Security, Dudley Thompson, scoffed at the (Green Bay) outcry. His now infamous statement, "No angels died at Green Bay".

Green Bay Killing by Big Youth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK0nwvhIfOI

[Skeng DX]

his explanation about...green bay

watch this video @ http://www.televisionjamaica.com/Pro...x/Videos/15243

[Exile]

Indeed a giant despite his small stature. Dudley Thompason was the Minister who use to wear a knitted cap or tam back in the day and REFUSED service in a Jamaica North Coast Hotel....despite being a member of gov. Staff didn't know it seems....that started a whole social upheaval certainly in terms of nationalism and the right of all Jamaicans....

My father told me a story years ago as well. He was part of West Indian contingent in the RAF during WW11 in England and were poorly treated by the British. Well there was literally a mutiny at a camp...guns drawn etc... and Dudley Thompson was called in to mediate (also in the RAF). Turns out the West Indians were able to get their own mess hall, cook, sports room and improved living conditions....

[Baddaz]

rip comrade dudley thompson... real proponent of justice... one of the great men who trod the earth...

[Baddaz]

i-man... comrade tan up gense babylon an mek dem free up de original burning spear, jomo kenyatta...

[Baddaz]

real talk... nuff said...

[Karl]

Observer EDITORIAL: Dudley Thompson — Jamaican hero

Dudley Thompson — Jamaican hero


Sunday, January 22, 2012

THE Hon Dudley Thompson OJ, QC who died on Friday in New York at the age of 95 was a genuine Jamaican hero whose important contributions extend beyond this island to the Third World, Africa and the African diaspora.

Indeed, his years of service and advocacy on behalf of the African people influenced the Organisation of African Unity to name him an ‘African Legend’.

War veteran, lawyer, politician, government minister and Ambassador, his stature is not fully appreciated because he was a controversial politician associated with the Green Bay operation in which he said “no angles died”. However, he later issued a public apology, a precedent which others who have far more to apologise for should follow.

He was a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force during World War II, a rare distinction for a black man from the colonies. After his war service he returned to Jamaica, joined the People’s National Party and was among the leaders who championed the cause of the disgruntled returning servicemen.
He was a graduate of Mico College and his academic brilliance won him the coveted Rhodes Scholarship which he took up at Oxford University, graduating with an MA in Jurisprudence and was called to the Bar at Gray’s Inn in London in 1950.

While in England, Mr Thompson was a colleague of Messrs George Padmore, CLR James and Kwame Nkrumah.

Ambassador Thompson, who was president of the Jamaican Bar Association and was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1963, established his early legal practice in Tanganyika (later renamed Tanzania) and Kenya where he defended Messrs Jomo Kenyatta during the trials for leading the Mau Mau rebellion and Julius Nyerere.

Fortunately, he chronicled these exploits in his 1993 book: From Kingston to Kenya. The Making of a Pan-Africanist Lawyer. These efforts were the start of his life-long anticolonial, anti-imperial struggle which characterised his tenure as minister of foreign affairs during the Michael Manley Government of the late 1970s when he defended Cuba’s right to self-determination and the countries of the Non-aligned Movement.

A distinguishing highlight of Dudley Thompson’s career was his return to Africa as Jamaica’s first Ambassador to Nigeria.

But outside of his service to Jamaica and the world, Ambassador Thompson will be remembered most for his sharp mind and ability to take the most complex brief in a few minutes and then expound on it authoritatively at length.

He was articulate and had a flair for the dramatic. His timing and changes of expression and tone of voice carried over to all his social interactions. He was also a very witty raconteur and story teller who always held his audience in rapt attention.

The appellation ‘Burning Spear’ by which he was known was apt as he was fearless in his fight for justice and human rights. In recent years he was a passionate reparations advocate and was a member of the Group of Eminent Persons of the Movement for Reparations to Africa and the Diaspora.

Ambassador Thompson’s goals, spirit, conduct and accomplishments were heroic. His life is an inspiration to all who seek justice and development for the people of Jamaica and the African diaspora.


Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/edito...#ixzz1kMRRYmEm