By Tyrone Reid, Staff ReporterTHE RIGHT Honourable Michael Manley would have been 80 years old this year, and in commemoration the Michael Manley Foundation yesterday launched a programme of events to mark the anniversary.
The planned activities, to be staged under the banner 'The Vision Lives On...', will span seven months, starting May 1 and culminating on December 10, the birth date of Mr. Manley.
The list of scheduled activities range from the launch of the Michael Manley Foundation web site where the public and research students can access information and learn more about the life and work of the former prime minister, to the unveiling of the refurbished Michael Manley monument at National Heroes Park, Kingston.
Mr. Manley was Prime Minister of Jamaica twice: 1972 to 1980, and 1989 to 1992.
Chairman of the Foundation, Danny Roberts, in his keynote address at the Terra Nova launch, said that the monument would be "recast in Italian granite to ensure permanency and exquisiteness befitting the great man, on Labour Day, May 24."
Labour Day is also the designated day for the Foundation's Labour Day Project, which will be done in collaboration with Mr. Manley's alma mater, Jamaica College.
The Michael Manley Essay Awards and the Foundation's fund-raising dinner will be hosted in June and July respectively.
MAN OF SUBSTANCE
In his address, the chairman lauded Mr. Manley, whom he said was a pragmatist and one who "lived the life of a true intellectual."
"There is no doubt that Michael Manley's lucid thinking and boundless political energy had set about the dynamics of forging a new post-Independence governance structure to ensure, not a mere survival, but a central role for the disadvantaged, the weak, the dispossessed..." said Mr. Roberts, in continued acclamation of the political pioneer.
The premier event of the Foundation's campaign will be the Michael Manley Award for Community Self-Reliance.
Mr. Roberts said the Foundation would select a community project that best exemplifies the spirit of self-reliance and bestow the award upon them.
The ceremony will be held at the Little Theatre, 4 Tom Redcam Drive, St. Andrew. Diane Abbott, Member of Parliament for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, London, England, will be the guest speaker.
November will mark the launch of the Michael Manley Centre at 1A Hope Boulevard, Kingston 6.
The centre will house papers, documents, speeches, memorabilia and other works of the late politician. And, finally, on the 80th anniversary of his birth December 10 the third annual Michael Manley lecture will be held.
The Michael Manley Foundation was established in 1999 two years after the death of Mr. Manley with the mission statement of preserving and promoting his intellectual, political and philosophical legacy.
