The United States claims to be the land of the free. But like many television ads, the reality is very different from the image. The US contains only 5% of the world’s population but over 25% of its prisoners, and America’s incarceration rate of over 730 per 100,000 is the highest on earth. (Jamaica’s 135 per 100,000 is fairly normal.) In 1980 there were 500,000 inmates in the US. There are now over 2 million, two thirds of whom have been convicted for non-violent crimes, mainly drug offences. Average prison sentences have also increased, partly as a result of “three strikes and you are out” legislation mandating long fixed jail terms for repeat offenders. All this is the result of laws making it easier to arrest and convict suspects.

The world once regarded Robert Mugabe as a hero. Blacks in Rhodesia had to fight a bitter guerilla war against an oppressive white minority regime to gain equal rights, and many predicted revenge and racial massacre after independence. But when Mugabe took the helm of the renamed Zimbabwe in 1980, he talked only of democracy, peace, and reconciliation.

Julius Nyerere was widely admired for his unquestioned sincerity and integrity. Almost uniquely among African leaders of his generation he lived simply and was not corrupt. Under his one-party rule Tanzania was politically peaceful and was spared civil war. On the other hand his social experiments almost ruined the country economically. Though honest himself, his regime was bedeviled by widespread theft of foreign aid. He preached justice, yet had political opponents and persons accused of economic crimes jailed without trial.

Though satellite dishes, cable and the internet have made the outside world more difficult to ignore, Jamaicans are parochial at heart. Perhaps it because we are an island with no bordering countries - certainly we have little contact with our closest neighbours Haiti and Cuba. We might follow overseas sports and soap operas avidly, but we are great navel gazers in political and social affairs. How many Jamaicans can name six world leaders? Even most university educated persons probably get stuck after Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and Fidel Castro.

Why did Alexander Bustamante break with the Norman Manley led People’s National Party in 1942 and form the Jamaica Labour Party? Some say Manley and Bustamante were ‘two bulls in a pen where only one could rule’. There is probably something to this. Politicians are by definition egotists. A man must think well of himself to ask others to vote for him. All election campaigns boil down to ‘I am the best man for the job.’

The National Democratic Movement has considerably raised the level of political debate in this country. And having brilliant young minds like Wayne Chen and Stephen Vacianni involved in national affairs must be a good thing for Jamaica. But a political party is a group of persons organized to acquire and exercise political power through election. Until the NDM wins seats in parliament it will remain a glorified think tank.

To some people Jamaica’s political system is the root of our problems, and constitutional reform will be the nation’s salvation. But many successful countries have systems like ours, and Jamaica has never experienced assassination, revolution or civil war. So how can our governmental model be considered a complete disaster?

“History is nothing but a record of the crimes and misfortunes of man” wrote Voltaire. A famous Chinese proverb agrees - “Fortunate countries have no history”.

Compared to the often chilling chronicles of our nearest neighbours - Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic - Jamaica’s past makes pretty tame reading. We have no ‘Remember the Maine’ invasions, Citadelle Lafferriere horrors, or Trujillo massacres to contemplate with fascinated dismay. The Sam Sharpe slave uprising, the Morant Bay rebellion and the Frome riots would scarcely rate footnotes in these countries a mere 100 miles away. Jamaica did have to endure the unspeakable brutalities of slavery, but that was an almost universal New World experience. Even then slaves in the English speaking Caribbean were freed by decree a generation earlier than anywhere else, and there were no brutal liberation wars here as in Haiti.

Except for Switzerland and Sweden, the only countries to enjoy uninterrupted democratic rule between 1914 and 1945 were Great Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. This was no accident. As the black American Economist Thomas Sowell wrote.

In a news article on March 1 Richard Coe, CEO of Courts Jamaica, claimed some radio talk show hosts were destroying the country’s psyche through the irresponsible use of freedom of speech. According to him ‘the more outrageous they are the more they appeal to the lowest denominator amongst us, the more audience they get. Those who control the media have a huge responsibility, those who mould public opinion need to encourage positive productive action.’