Hunting "Dudus".

"Welcome to Jamdown, poor people a dead at random Political violence, can't done! Pure ghost and phantom, the youth Dem get blind by stardom Now the Kings Of Kings a call Old man to Pickney...To see the sufferation sicken me Them suit no fit me, to win election dem trick we" ~Damian Marley~

Because of some personal reasons-some obvious, some not so much- I have tried to avoid blogging about the following story. It involves an alleged Jamaican drug dealer, Chris "Dudus" Coke, and the A-merry-can governments attempt to have him extradited to this country.

Mr. Coke has been charged with leading an international drug ring by the authorities in New York. He fled to the rock where a government that is friendly to his political leanings is in power, and where he has been sheltered ever since. Even with the United States threatening all sorts of sanctions, Bruce Golding, the Jamaican Prime Minister, has refused to extradite the man to Uncle Sam. They have even paid a firm to lobby on his behalf.

Now, sadly, the streets of Kingston- to use the parlance of the natives-a gu bun like fiah.

"Jamaican authorities declared a state of emergency in Kingston after gang members supportive of an alleged drug lord wanted by the United States attacked police stations and blockaded a large swath of the city.

Two police stations were evacuated after being hit with Molotov cocktails, while the status of a third was unclear. Gang members blocked off a miles-long area of Jamaica's capital city -- mostly in West Kingston -- using vehicles, sandbags, barbed wire and anything else they could find."

My people my people, when will you learn? Robin Hood was only cool when he was in Sherwood Forest. Dons are not modern day Robin Hoods, and they sure as hell do not respect the life of the innocent. Political violence is a way of life on the rock, and we Jamaicans like to rally around each other, but why the hell are we rallying around Dudus Coke?

And here is the irony: the JLP who is the party Coke is affiliated with, has traditionally been the party of the right and more aligned with A-merry-ca. When the CIA destroyed the Manley government in the seventies, it was to put the pro western, A-merry-can friendly government back in power. Now, as Malcolm famously said: "The Chickens have come home to roost." JLP Dons have been in and out of A-merry-ca for years, and they have had no problem moving between both worlds. No one would be surprised if they had set up lucrative drug organizations (or posses as they have been called) and profited greatly from them. And, if you know anything about us yawdies, it's that we don't like to do anything small, so it's not only A-merry-ca that has been touched by this problem, but across the pond in Britain they are worried as well.

Chrisopher Dudus Coke is the latest in a long line of powerful political Dons from the rock who would moonlight as drug dealers. (Google Claude Massop) They were paid well by politricksters in charge to do their dirty work, which often involved killing entire families in the areas that were populated by political rivals. It's still going on, and it's as brutal as ever.

Jamaicans can be beautiful and loving people, but I am going to keep it real with you; Jamaicans can be the most vicious people you will ever want to meet. I have some stories.

Still, I love my people, I am who I am. But I have to call out my peeps when we do wrong as well.

This latest dust up, largely inspired by Laborites in Kingston, (Google Tivoli Gardens & JLP) is a perfect example of poor people with twisted loyalties. But this is to be expected when politricksters use people as pawns to profit from their political games. Jamaicans don't play games too well. Not when it comes to our politics. What was it that Damian Marley's dad said? Oh yeah, "a hungry mob is an angry mob."

"At Coke's direction and under his protection, members of his criminal organization sell marijuana and crack cocaine in the New York area and elsewhere, and send the narcotics proceeds back to Coke and his co-conspirators," the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency said in a release accompanying the charges.

"Coke and his co-conspirators also arm their organization with illegally trafficked firearms," the DEA said in a statement at the time." [Article]

Translated: Coke would allegedly bring guns and weapons into Jamaica to arm his political allies in exchange for drugs and cash stateside. Thirty five years ago Uncle Sam knew about it, he still does. It's just that this time he is calling it illegal.