In 1980 violence in Jamaica had reached civil war levels. A parliamentary candidate was killed, and the possibility of bullets and not ballots determining political power became a frightening reality. (True we had fewer murders in 1980 than 1997. But such violence was then unprecedented in our history. We have alas become insensitive.)

‘Things fall apart / The centre can not hold / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world’. W.B. Yeats lines, some say, aptly describe Jamaica’s current situation. At times it is difficult not to agree. The nightly news is a regular litany of murders, riots, bankruptcies, and layoffs. Many of our increasingly illiterate young men seem interested only in drugs and crime. Our rate of deforestation is the highest in the world, our coral reefs are nearly dead, and our beaches may be next.

Blame it on our wonderful weather and seductive scenery, but Jamaica has never had a strong work ethic. Our ‘miracle economy’ GDP growth between 1952 and 1972 was fuelled by bauxite and tourism. Our governments since then have simply borrowed and spent, with the electorate’s full approval. While we have produced a few world class businesses, many enterprises here have thrived not because they were run efficiently, but because they were well connected and protected from foreign competition.

Murder, bankruptcy, unemployment, debt, illiteracy  - the news in Jamaica is increasingly depressing. Some say this unending litany of gloom is creating a feeling of hopelessness, and the media should concentrate on the positive - talk about what’s right with the country and not what’s wrong. But journalists are only telling it like it is, and shooting the messenger never solved anything. Indeed perhaps the most heartening aspect of Jamaican life is the fact that the media is able to and willing to tell us all what we are doing wrong.

Jamaica faces a linguistic paradox. We realize that language is a vital part of our culture, and that Jamaican patois, or patwah, must not be stigmatized as inferior. Yet many students leave school unable to speak standard English, severely compromising their employment opportunities and social mobility. Language, like dress, has to vary with the occasion.

Politics and corruption seem to be inseparable everywhere. In one week in March alone the world witnessed the resignation of the entire European Commission over a damning fraud  report, the conviction of former anti-apartheid activist Allan Boesak for stealing charity donations, the expulsion of six International Olympic Committee members over a votes-for-favours scandal, and the first conviction for electoral fraud of a sitting British Member of Parliament since 1859.

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.

Over 200 years ago Samuel Johnson remarked that “Men know that women are an over-match for them… If they did not think so, they never could be afraid of women knowing as much as themselves.” And time has certainly proved that women can do anything men can do. (The converse is of course not true. An old joke has a woman ask a man “What’s the difference between us?”  “I can’t conceive” he answers.)

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?

According to Prime Minister Patterson’s post gas riot speech “The old order - the closed, distant and authoritarian sys­tems of governance - is being forced to give way to a structure which is inclusive, responsive, and accountable… We must change our approach to governance, or we will become part of the problem to be swept aside by the emerging new social order.”