Many members of the Fortis family love to write. Oh! They love to write. Hardly a week ever passes without some old boys or present lads contributing an article in Jamaica 's Daily Gleaner or the Jamaica Observer, penning a letter to the editor , launching or publishing a book , or writing a play.
Take the category of letter writers .The four most prolific writers usually cop the award as letter of the day. None has ever won the Gleaner Silver Pen award, which according to one scribe, is "infra dig" to the fortis men who always strive for gold Three of the penmen write under sobriquet. Winston Stewart is the "Messengjah", Dennis Smith is " Joe Dog " and Clive Savage is "Pork Rum". David Gregory Batts is the fourth scribe. His letters are hard hitting and so lengthy that often the local print media upgrade it to a contributor article. He focuses primarily on human rights issues, especially the death penalty and the Caribbean Court of Justice. His advocacy has saved many a death row prisoner from the hang man's noose with his profuse mantra of Pratt and Morgan . Presently, he is writing a book about his family history along lines similar to Alex Haley 's Roots . It is not surprising to often hear his idiosyncratic mumblings of " Kunta Kinte , Kunta Kinte ."
We next move to another category of scribe we can call "book writers." Hardly a year ever passes over the last decade without some Old Boys launching a book. No wonder they call us astronauts. There have been launches at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, at Kings House, in Washington , DC or UWI Mona Visitors' Lounge, the Phillip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts, St Augustine 's Chapel, the list goes on.
The titles sometimes convey the image of a horror story. There is Ossie Harding 's Near death experience ; Ian Wilkinson 's, Magnificence in Bled and John Hall 's, Clinical Embrace . Next to H. Orlando Patterson, Senator Anthony Johnson is the most prolific, and the most celebrated with his piece being The History of KC 1925-1995 . Eye brows were raised amongst the Marxist crowd when Delano Franklin launched his, Right Move , at the Jamaica Pegasus . A sigh of relief went up with the publication of his, We Want Justice . Poet laureate, Raymond Mair , had his launch of, These days I celebrate, at Philip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts. Arnoldo Ventura has the distinction of having two launches of his book, The Dilemma of Science - one in Washington , DC and the other in Kingston .
There are two old boys yet to have a book launch- chartered accountant Wilfred McKenley and statistician Jimmy Richard . It is rumored that Mckenley's launch of ABCs of Becoming a Millionaire has been delayed because none is available as all of the first edition have been sold, "hot off the press" and the author is hard pressed to explain whether he has already made his million. Richard 's Statistics of WI Cricket: 1865-1989 relies on "word a mouth," guerilla marketing and brief case selling.
Then there are the playwrights. Patrick Brown is the most celebrated and prolific with his latest offering being Class of '73 . Lest we forget, Norman Rae , Ed Wallace and Ginger Knight ruled the roost in their heydays
The final genre of KC scribes is called columnists/contributors. Mark Wignall heads the list because he commands the largest readership and hence appears twice a week, Thursdays and Sundas in the Jamaica Observer. He is controversial and pulls no punches. Politicians are bashed as Stale bulla and better light a candle than curse the darkness. He exhorts readers to Mark my words when he publishes the Carl Stone polls. One of the finest investigative journalists, Wignall picks up information from an assortment of rum bars along Whitehall Avenue, Cassava Piece and Morant Bay; he will go mingling for a story with the ladies of the night on the Knutsford Boulevard hip strip; travel incognito and use surreptitious movements in Grants Pen while bravely whisking in and out of Tivoli Gardens. He never fails to mention his "Chupski" and he has never forgotten his KC roots. One of his famous episodes at the "Kollege" went like this:
When I attended KC I joined the cadet corps and lasted two days in it.
One day an 'officer' shouted at me. I promptly shouted back at him and left.
The articles of two fortis Rhode scholars, Stephen Vasciannie and Delroy Chuck , usually appear once per week on the editorial page of the Daily Gleaner. They are also highly sought after as guest speakers at corporate award functions and service clubs luncheons and their speeches and pronouncements are widely publicized and reproduced in the press . Identified as Professor of International Relations and Deputy Solicitor General, Stephen 's Monday articles mainly relate to his specialty of international law and they address matters such as treaties, protocols and conventions. Word has it that he is enamored with US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice . Check out his article, Rice and Please . Recently the Sunday Observer carried an edited version of his speech made on March 25, 2006 at Scotiabank's Long service Awards Presentation. Much to the consternation of human rights activists, the advisor to the Chambers of the Attorney General declared, "Yes, hang them, but first make sure that they are guilty!" Some in the fortis family see Vasciannie's outburst as his own dilemma citing the analogy with Portia in Shakespeare 's Merchant of Venice when she dared the persistent Shylock to cut his pound of flesh, but spill no blood; The quality of mercy is not strained .
The articles of MP Delroy Chuck usually appear on a Wednesday and his column is essentially the propaganda mouth piece of the Opposition Jamaica Labor Party (JLP). He lashes out at the government for 'inept' macro-economic management and widespread corruption and laments the distressful state of the current justice system.
Tuesdays are usually the reserved for the KC toddlers in the Jamaica Observer's Teen Herald. Shomari Cooke is the most noted of the four Fortis writers. Described as a 'chip off the old block,' his early
writings were seen as 'left leaning' as he has often lashed out against the US imposed embargo against Cuba . It is suspected that he has toned down somewhat as most of his recent articles are on light sports topics.
Sundays open a flood gate for the Fortis contributors. Here I count some six contributors: two in the Gleaner and four in the Observer. In the Gleaner, we are have Robert Buddan 's current affairs pieces on the Politics of Our Time and the story telling articles of Michael Reckord 's Artie . Mark Wignall unfolds his Agenda and Norman Rae critiques with his A Line from the Tower of Babble . Leachim Semaj contributes in the arena of organizational psychology and behaviour. He is also in demand on the cocktail circuit, corporate seminars and award functions. He incurred the wrath of Muta when he called on rasta to update themselves. My late mother wondered whether it was to 'ward off duppy' why he spelled his name back ways. Calabar seems to have followed suit recently with Rabalac in an effort to shake the KC monkey off their backs.
Finally, under the writers' category in the Sunday Observer, is Tony Robinson . His domain name is seido1 and as the name suggests his articles are raunchy, x-rated, "tongue in cheek," subtly and overtly slack and controversial. The language is bawdy and insulting and considered downright rude by the ladies. His articles are aptly summed up by Caroline Cooper ' s, man and woman story sweet. One of his classics is written in the Sunday Observer under the title, Daddy Oh :
It's all in the stimulation and young girls do stimulate younger men.
It is felt that older men would love the pleasure.
But all been said with geriatrics and pediatrics, little bun going to drop now and then.
