‘Men at some time are masters of their fates: the fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.’ William Shakespeare

Jamaica is in a sense one of the world’s purest democracies. For the system of government that has evolved here since we gained independence is almost entirely a product of the collective will of the people.

He who desires power, wrote Machiavelli in his famously cynical political treatise “The Prince”, “should do what is right if he can; but he must be prepared to do wrong if necessary”. In democracy of course, we must add “as long as he doesn’t break the law”. But when power is at stake anything legal goes, as the recent US presidential elections have shown.

Of the 22 countries where democracy has existed continuously since 1950, 18 have parliamentary governments - Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Costa Rica, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and the UK. France has a hybrid system and Switzerland a plural executive. Only Costa Rica and the US have presidential governments.

Who was Jamaica’s greatest prime minister? This may be an unanswerable question, for politics has many facets. Who did more for their country, Gandhi or Lee Kwan Yew?

I am a firm believer in the Italian proverb that “A beautiful woman is the strongest argument in favour of the existence of God”, and find the idea of a man being sexually attracted to another man incomprehensible. And like most persons raised in Jamaica, I find the very concept of homosexuality extremely distasteful.

As a student in business school I once complained to a professor that he was giving us more assignments than we could possibly complete properly. He laughed and said this was true and by design. Business school after all was designed to prepare students for the real world where there was never enough time to do all the things that needed to be done. He was teaching us how to prioritize.

Politics consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable - John Kenneth Galbraith

Faced with a seemingly endless recession and a merciless crime wave, Jamaicans are crying out for change. Neither the JLP nor NDM appear more capable than the present government. But what if they joined forces?

“He who is not a socialist at 20 has no heart. He who is still a socialist at 40 has no brain.” Like many witty oversimplifications Georges Clemenceau’s quip rings true. “All for one, one for all” and “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” are immensely attractive concepts to the tender hearted young. But bitter experience teaches alas that man in general is a weak and selfish creature who rarely puts others before himself and works hardest for his own interests.

“… I can state unequivocally that a large per cent of those who complain and protest most are unwilling to take responsibility for anything, including their own actions.” So wrote finance minister Omar Davies in a recent letter addressing “people’s responsibility for themselves…” And he is absolutely right that “When individuals begin to assume greater responsibility for their own behaviour… then the dominant role of any politician, or any administration, in their daily lives will be reduced, as it should be.”

Most Jamaicans have stopped trying to keep track of the JLP’s never ending quarrels. But opposition leader Edward Seaga’s dismissal of party whip Karl Samuda for reported insubordination made many people laugh. For during his PNP sojourn Mr. Samuda accused the JLP head of being a ‘dictator’ whose deputies were ‘a bunch of wimps’.