When Jamaicans go to the polls this year - and the indications are that it will be sooner rather than later – not many are going to concern themselves with race or ideology. Perhaps a few diehards will be thinking about skin colour and socialism and globalization. But the majority of voters will be wondering which party can cut crime, fix the roads, and give us a consistent water supply. The question most of us will ask as we dip our fingers in ink is “Who can run this country properly?”

The other day a friend told me about an engineering job he had been hired to do in India. He was keen on seeing a new part of the world. But the war talk between India and Pakistan was making him think of cancelling his trip. Isn’t it amazing, we laughed, how safe Jamaica seems nowadays?

“Boxing” George Foreman once said “is the sport to which all others aspire”. Meaning that all competition between men really is sublimated fighting - an assertion proven true every time football, basketball, or baseball players lose their tempers and start throwing punches.

Jamaican politicians agree on almost nothing. But they all seem to feel the media is biased. Comrades, labourites and democrats are forever accusing the press of “distorting the facts”. As if the media is responsible for the government’s failure to control crime or maintain our roads. Or the opposition leader’s seeming inability to speak publicly in anything but an aggressively confrontational manner. Or the NDM’s lack of coherence.

Whatever else he may be, Edward Seaga is unique. He must be the only non-native born white man ever elected prime minister of a predominantly black country. And has anyone else in recent times played such prominent roles in both the cultural and political development of a nation? A pioneer in Jamaican anthropology; a driving force behind the popularization of ska; an originator of Festival; arguably our best finance minister; the prime minister with the second longest term in office; the longest serving parliamentarian ever - no one else has influenced modern Jamaica in so many ways.

It’s amazing how many intelligent Jamaicans go around claiming that our murder rate really isn’t that bad since violence has increased all over the world. Well anyone who pays the slightest attention to world affairs knows this is rubbish. As a brief international comparison of homicide rates shows, the violence we take for granted would be accounted astonishing in all but a few countries.

“All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own, and if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.” Samuel Johnson

A few days as a tourist doesn’t make anyone a foreign expert. As the old proverb says “Come see me and come live with me are two different things”. But even hurried sight seeing abroad can leave strong impressions. And while glad to be home after a month in China, Singapore and Thailand with a group of fellow Jamaicans, I can’t help feeling a little sad and angry. Because we Jamdowners abroad all agreed that the biggest difference between these distant lands and our native isle was the sense of safety we felt there and lack here. Why, we kept asking ourselves, were we able to roam these foreign streets freely even at night while back a yard we are literally afraid to walk to our gates after sunset?

Like most English speakers I was brought up to believe that the best leaders are those freely chosen by their people. If I have heard Churchill’s “Democracy is the worst form of government ever devised, except for all the others” once I have heard it a 100 times. (Of course Churchill also claimed that “The strongest argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter”.)

While in Toronto Canada last week I went to a live free performance by Jamaica’s international star Shaggy. The massive crowd, composed mostly of young females of all races, enjoyed itself immensely. At one point Shaggy brought a young girl of about 12 on stage and serenaded her while the crowd cheered. When he did his signature piece “It Wasn’t Me” the place went wild. (Why are women of all ages invariably the biggest fans of “old dog” songs?) Afterwards Shaggy gave a studio interview shown on big screens around the venue where he came across as bright, articulate and humble. Having tasted stardom once before and then been almost forgotten, he realized fame was fickle - “Another guy might soon come along to take my place, so I’ve just got to enjoy it while I can”. Shaggy made me feel proud as a Jamaican – “What a nice guy” everyone kept saying. The crowd left feeling happy and in high spirits, which after all is what entertainment is supposed to be about. All in all it was first rate stuff. The man deserves to have sold 10 million records.

Jamaica may be an island of only 4,411 square miles and 2.5 million people. But pound for pound, as they say in boxing, there is no more country more full of contradictions. For this nation combines a decidedly third world standard of living with a virtually first world life expectancy. It is one of the world’s most stable democracies but has one of its highest homicide rates. It probably has both more churches per square mile and a higher out of wedlock birth rate than any other place on earth. Its most famous sons Marcus Garvey and Bob Marley are international symbols of racial pride, yet it is likely the only state to have more than once elected a visible minority leader.