Advertisements reflect a society’s dreams and desires. And though they vary from nation to nation in tone and emphasis, a high proportion of ads everywhere feature nubile women. Sex sells all over the world.

“… 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’.

A young Jamaican police detective tells his story.

“My friend Jimmy and I joined the police after high school. We saw a lot of behaviour we didn’t like on the streets and the force was a way to help change things.

The mapping of the human genome is one of man’s great intellectual achievements. And the sequencing of the 3 billion DNA letters of our genetic code will one day enable millions to live longer and happier lives. But to some the ‘book of life’ also shows that living things, including humans, are merely information-processing machines.

Is Jamaica better off today that it was when the PNP came to power 11 years ago? The facts say no. In 1988 there were 414 murders in Jamaica, the economy grew by 5%, and it took less than 6 Jamaican dollars to buy 1 US dollar. In 1999 there were 848 murders, the economy shrunk and the exchange rate was 42 to 1. A government with such a dismal record should have no chance of being re-elected. Yet the PNP is odds on to win its fourth consecutive term.

Never say never is the first rule of politics, so it may be premature to write the National Democratic Movement’s obituary. But with declining poll ratings, ineffective leadership and muddled policies, the NDM increasingly appears a spent force.

Jamaican political parties are often said to lack imagination. But over the past decade the Jamaica Labour Party has consistently come up with new and innovative ways to alienate voters and damage its electoral credibility. The gang of 5, the western 11, the local government boycott, the Mike Henry and Abe Doubdab affairs, the committee for the rebuilding of the JLP – not even the PNP in its wildest fantasies could have envisioned such a litany of Labour self-destruction.

AIDS now kills more people worldwide than any other infectious disease and is mankind’s fourth leading cause of death, after heart disease, strokes and respiratory infections. And more people died of AIDS in 1999 than in any previous year.  In many affected countries the improvement in the quality of life that has taken place over the past fifty years is being reversed. In Zimbabwe over 25% of adults are HIV positive - the world’s highest infection rate - and some estimates there show life expectancy falling to 38 years, 17 years shorter that it would have been. “Healthy life expectancy in some African countries is dropping back to levels we haven’t seen in advanced countries since medieval times” says one UN Health Agency director. This is a far worse disaster than anything foreseen when worst-case HIV scenarios were first discussed. US Government analysts now say that a quarter of southern Africa’s population is likely to die of Aids, and the epidemic could follow a similar course in South Asia and the former Soviet Union.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and gorgeous scenery comes in many forms – snow capped mountains, gleaming lakes, immaculate gardens. But to most people paradise is a tropical isle, and Jamaica is undoubtedly the loveliest of them all. “The fairest island eyes ever beheld” wrote Columbus. Or to quote the ‘South American and Caribbean Handbook’ – “It would be difficult to imagine a greater variety of tropical scenery in an area of similar size”.