Christmas is at once the most hedonistic, commercialized, and holiest time of the year. Technically it is Easter Sunday – the day of resurrection - and not Christmas which is supposed to be the most important Christian day. Yet even devout churchgoers generally pay more attention to Christmas than Easter. And resent as they may the calendar expectation of happiness, even humbug scrooges find it hard to completely resist its spirit brightening festivities and gift exchanging pleasures. It says much about man’s paradoxical nature that this mix of deity, merry making, and mammon is the focal point of our calendar.

‘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.

“What do they know of cricket who only cricket know? West Indians crowding to Tests bring with them the whole past history and future hopes of the islands.” CLR James. Beyond A Boundary

What happens to a culture when its strongest unifying force dies? The English speaking Caribbean may be about to find out. After the recent string of humiliating defeats we have to face the reality that West Indian cricket may be dying. All the excuses in the world cannot hide the basic reality - the West Indies no longer contains enough good cricketers to field a competitive test side. If things continue as they have the Australian tour might have to be called off for lack of competition. Sponsors are already preparing to desert the sinking ship.

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.

Weston Gregory joined the Jamaica Constabulary in 1989 when he was 20. Weston is not your average policeman. He recently published a book of poetry “Thoughts And Emotions” and has another book of verse and a novel planned. How did he become a police and a poet?

America is the land of hype, but the presidential race between Al Gore and George Bush surpassed all advanced billings and was indeed the closest, most exciting and strangest election in living memory.

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?

“The way to avoiding violence in the political system is clear but presents an enormous challenge because it involves tackling the basic economic and social structural problems of Jamaican society. An army of twenty thousand men, a massive police force, and armed citizens defending their front porch could not bring an end to political or criminal violence and are no substitute for the economic and social policies which alone can solve the long-term problems of Jamaica. Meanwhile there is little chance of coping with the problems of economic and social development in Jamaica if rackets and gangsters are able to corrupt and undermine Jamaican society.

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.