40 years ago, on June 27, 1973, Florizel Glasspole was sworn in as Jamaica's third governor general, the second one born in Jamaica. The last colonial governor, Sir Kenneth Blackburne, was Jamaica's first governor general.
After Blackburne was in office for four months, Sir Clifford Campbell
was sworn in as Jamaica's second, but more importantly, first native
governor general. The elevation of the Campbells as governor general
and first lady is a great story about a rural man and his humble wife
who went to King's House. There was a lot of envy and they suffered. But
they eventually won the hearts of all Jamaicans.
 Florizel Glasspole, Jamaica's third governor general 1/1 
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Florizel Glasspole was born on September 25, 1909, and died on November
25, 2000 at the age of 91.
The Glasspole story is yet to be written, but
it was the rise of an accountant who doubled up as a streetside
entertainer. In 1990, when John Major succeed Margaret Thatcher as prime
minister of Great Britain, much media space was taken up with the fact
that Major, at one stage of his life, was employed to a circus as a
clown.
In Jamaica, however, not much was said or written that Florizel
Glasspole was in a duo with Eric Coverley (husband of the late Louise
Bennett Coverley) as Ike and Mike -- Coverly being Ike and Glasspole
being Mike.
Bim and Bam on the one hand, and Ike and Mike on the other, were parts
of the cultural revolution that was itself a part of the social and
political revolution that brought about the birth of Jamaica's
nationalism of the late 1930s. Out of this same nationalism would come
the National Reform Association, in 1935, that was pushing for self-
government.
The National Reform Association, for all intents and purposes, evolved
into the People's National Party in 1938. And out of that same
nationalism would come the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union, also in
1938. By 1943, the BITU was the base out of which Alexander Bustamante
formed the Jamaica Labour Party.
Glasspole worked for the Hanna stores on King Street and at the time was
a founding member of both the Clerks Trade Union and the Clerks Credit
Union. So Glasspole was also a credit union pioneer.
Indeed, although the Roman Catholic Church brought the credit union
concept to Jamaica, the Clerks Credit Union was registered before
Sodality, which was the first credit union -- though unregistered at the
time -- in Jamaica. NB: In 2009, the City of Kingston Credit Union and
the Sodality Credit Union merged to become the COK Sodality Credit
union.
Glasspole entered politics as a member of the PNP. He represented
Eastern Kingston and Port Royal as its member of the House of
Representatives (1944-62) and Member of Parliament from 1962 to 1973.
Glasspole served as an elected member of the legislature for nearly 29
years. He was minister of labour from 1955 to 1957, minister of
education from 1957 to 1962 and again between 1972 and 1973.
Glasspole was a conservative politician in a radical party. The fact
that the PNP was pushing for self-government, Universal Adult Suffrage
and political independence was radical enough in 1938, and for this
Glasspole had no problem with the PNP. But Glasspole never seemed
comfortable with the fact that the PNP declared itself a socialist party
two years after its founding in 1940.
Just last week, I mentioned in my column that Ken Hill, his brother
Frank Hill, Richard Hart and Arthur Henry (the so-called Four Hs) had
been expelled from the PNP for ideological reasons in 1952. Some have
never forgiven Wills Isaac and Florizel Glasspole for their role in
changing the socialist orientation of the PNP at that time, as they were
among the principal campaigners for the expulsion of the Four Hs.
One anecdotal story is that both Wills Isaacs and Glasspole approached
Norman Manley and said to him "it is either them (the Four Hs) or us".
The Four Hs however were expelled by the vote of the PNP's National
Executive Council. Indeed, it is widely believed that Glasspole was
'kicked upstairs' when he was made GG in 1973 to get him out of the way
so that Democratic socialism could be implemented.
It is quite ironic that Glasspole's 40th anniversary of being sworn in
as GG should come at the same time that there are riots in Brazil caused
by the building of several stadia to host the 2014 Olympics, that are
seen as a waste of money because they will not be used after the
Olympics.
Between 1961 and 1962 there was much controversy about building of the
National Stadium in St Andrew, Jamaica. But even more ironic, Glasspole
was minister of education when the present building housing the
education ministry was built, which was seen as a colossal waste of
money. The building was nicknamed Glasspole's Glass House and Hotel
Glasspole.
Whose fault is it really when stadia are underutilised? Have you seen
anyone with the requisite rental funds rushing to use Greenfield in
Falmouth or the stadium in Sligoville that have been stopped?
My own position is that Jamaica should be a republic. I believe that
Jamaica should have a ceremonial-type republic -- like Trinidad and
India -- rather than a republic with an executive presidency, like the
USA. I am of the opinion that we need non-partisan national referees.
Jamaica is too polarised by our political parties to have a national
president that comes from one of the parties.
At the swearing-in at King's House, 40 years ago, Glasspole (later Sir
Florizel) gave his views about the name King's House. This conservative
politician who was on the right wing of the PNP said: "King's House was
a bit of an anachronism."
Dudley Thompson moved a resolution in the Senate to have King's House
renamed State House, but the general view was that such changes should
wait until Jamaica becomes a republic. Forty years later we are still
not a republic because of those who are opposed to the piecemeal
approach. But the true question is, will Jamaica ever become a republic?
Dogū, Ebisuda Site in Tajiri, Miyagi Prefecture, 1000–400 BC.
- See more at: http://www.ancient-code.com/the-strange-looking-dogu-figurines/#sthash.MWCTfeYJ.dpuf
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