PM Golding pays tribute to Greg "Farmer Greg" Gordon

Kingston, June 29, 2009

HARD WORK WILL BE SUPPORTED - PM GOLDING

Prime Minister Bruce Golding has hailed the work ethic of "Farmer Greg" Gordon and said that he represents all Jamaicans who are honest workers. He was speaking at the funeral of the slain pig farmer on  Sunday, June 28.

"Farmer Greg' is a symbol of what you can achieve if you are prepared to stay on the straight and narrow and work. And the kind of assistance that will come to you if people see that you are serious about what you are doing and willing to work hard," the Prime Minister said in tribute at the Christian Gardens Worldwide Church of God in St Catherine.

He noted that although ‘Farmer Greg' was no more important than many other persons who had been killed young, it was worthwhile to remember how he lived his life.

"Farmer Greg was special in so many ways....work to him was a stepping stone, a ladder to pull himself out of any difficulties he found himself in...He had the courage and he had the confidence in himself to believe that he could make it on his own because he knew the capacity that he had for hard work and he knew that if he muscled up and worked even harder, he could make it," Mr Golding said.

The Prime Minister recalled that the farmer only wanted access to land and that he made good with the help that he received from Government through Minister Daryl Vaz.

"All he would say is give me a chance and look at what he did. Can you imagine what this would have been like ten years from now? Can you imagine the whole heap of young people he could have helped during those ten years?"

Consoling his family and Nadine Gordon, the widow and mother of Farmer Greg's two children, Mr Golding said the Government would continue to support the farm to ensure its continued success. He said that help was also waiting on other industrious people.

"We want to send a signal to young people out there. ...If you willing to work hard, if you are  willing to get your hands dirty, if you are  willing to get serious about your life, as tough as things are, as difficult as all of the challenges that government has to face, we will find a way to help."

Farmer Greg Gordon started as a labourer on a pig farm but launched   his own farm after he received the gift of one pig. Last year he received assistance from the government after land was identified for him to have stable tenure to grow his farm. He was slain leaving a stable farm of some 700 heads of swine and which employed several persons.

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