“All my life I have sacrificed everything – comfort, self-interest, happiness – to my destiny.”

Napoleon wrote this in 1807 at the height of his glory when he dispensed laws to half of Europe. And if the most famous political figure in history at his zenith could speak of his career in such melancholy tones, what must be the thoughts of lesser mortals who devote their entire lives to politics and never achieve any real acclaim?

There are peoples who like keep their own counsel and are reluctant to express their thoughts to others. Jamaicans are not among these. Any opinion we have is worth sharing, and at the top of our voices. Of course verbal remarks that prove wrongheaded are easily denied or forgotten. Printed mistakes are permanent black and white embarrassments.

When I came back to live in Jamaica in 1989 after being away at school for over a decade I used to wonder how a land so God blessed with natural resources could be so poor. Having lived and done business here for twelve years I now wonder how a country so lackadaisical and careless has not sunk under the sea.

Anyone grateful for the benefits liberal democracy has conferred on this country – due process, a free press, and the opportunity to choose our leaders – has a moral responsibility to vote. Those who don’t vote obviously don’t care who governs them and have no right to complain about anything the government does.

The North East St. Ann by election was a minor triumph for Jamaican democracy. For once there were no cries of bogus voting. And from all reports violence was almost non-existent, continuing the trend towards peaceful campaigns that has became quite noticeable over the past few elections. We’ve come a long way baby since the near civil war of 1980.

“Big a yard and small abroad” goes an old saying. And since I was in Canada on March 8^th it certainly rang true for me about the North East St. Ann by election. The Jamaican newspapers that week talked of little else, but in the Canadian media it warranted no mention at all. Which is hardly surprising. After all Jamaicans don’t pay attention to Canadian by elections either.

The Caribbean Court of Justice debate has been an excellent exercise in the democratic exchange of ideas. Every conceivable point of view has been expressed in the media, and anyone interested has been able to contribute to the discussion via radio talk shows or newspaper letters. But then Jamaicans and West Indians are used to nothing less. The idea of our governments making important changes without extensive public discussion is a completely alien concept.

''The icons of the past relied on political instinct. Now, Presidents can use scientific polls and focus groups.'' So wrote Dick Morris, former political strategist for Bill Clinton, in ‘The New Prince: Machiavelli Updated for the Twenty-first Century’.

“It's not true that life is one damn thing after another - it's the same damn thing over and over”. Edna St. Vincent Millay’s quip pretty much sums up Jamaican politics. For while the names and dates might change, political events here always seem to point to the same conclusions - the PNP continues to be incompetent, the JLP remains disorganized, and the NDM is still incoherent.

“Liberal political and economic institutions depend on a healthy and dynamic civil society for their vitality” wrote Francis Fukuyama in his book “Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity”. If a society has a culture of trust and particularly if its members have the capacity to trust people outside their families, it generates “social capital” which is “critical to prosperity and to what has come to be called competitiveness”. In short, Mr. Fukuyama argues, countries where people trust each other tend to be richer than countries where they do not.