Last year the human genome “Book of Life” project confirmed what every intelligent person already knew, that there is no scientific basis for the concept of race. Only a fraction of the three billion letters in the human genetic code differ among individuals, so biologically we are all 99.99% the same. Persons from different ethnic groups can be more genetically similar than individuals within the same group, and there is more genetic variability within Africa than outside it. Meaning that from a biological perspective all of us are Africans, either residing in Africa or in recent exile.

Planes crashing into skyscrapers; huge exploding fireballs; towering buildings collapsing; billowing clouds of black smoke; crowds running in panic down the streets – surely we had seen this all before in countless disaster films.

Beauty is a short-lived tyranny. Socrates

Beauty is the promise of happiness. Stendhal

Beautiful woman, beautiful trouble. Jamaican proverb

Who is the smartest woman that ever lived? Surely the one who invented make-up. For cosmetics irrevocably shifted the balance in the war between the sexes in favour of females. By artificially emphasizing all those attributes of nubile young girls in their reproductive prime that disable the male brain – smooth skin, glowing eyes, lustrous eyelashes, ripe lips, shining nails, silken hair - cosmetics transformed women’s slight natural advantage in physical attractiveness into an unassailable weapon of subjection. And modern tools like face lifts, hair extensions, and breast implants have only reinforced this female power. How many men who would not walk across the street to talk to a woman in her natural state become virtually willing to sell their souls for one night with the same female decked out in glittering synthetic glory!

It’s amazing how many intelligent Jamaicans go around claiming that our murder rate really isn’t that bad since violence has increased all over the world. Well anyone who pays the slightest attention to world affairs knows this is rubbish. As a brief international comparison of homicide rates shows, the violence we take for granted would be accounted astonishing in all but a few countries.

“All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own, and if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.” Samuel Johnson

A few days as a tourist doesn’t make anyone a foreign expert. As the old proverb says “Come see me and come live with me are two different things”. But even hurried sight seeing abroad can leave strong impressions. And while glad to be home after a month in China, Singapore and Thailand with a group of fellow Jamaicans, I can’t help feeling a little sad and angry. Because we Jamdowners abroad all agreed that the biggest difference between these distant lands and our native isle was the sense of safety we felt there and lack here. Why, we kept asking ourselves, were we able to roam these foreign streets freely even at night while back a yard we are literally afraid to walk to our gates after sunset?

Like most English speakers I was brought up to believe that the best leaders are those freely chosen by their people. If I have heard Churchill’s “Democracy is the worst form of government ever devised, except for all the others” once I have heard it a 100 times. (Of course Churchill also claimed that “The strongest argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter”.)

While in Toronto Canada last week I went to a live free performance by Jamaica’s international star Shaggy. The massive crowd, composed mostly of young females of all races, enjoyed itself immensely. At one point Shaggy brought a young girl of about 12 on stage and serenaded her while the crowd cheered. When he did his signature piece “It Wasn’t Me” the place went wild. (Why are women of all ages invariably the biggest fans of “old dog” songs?) Afterwards Shaggy gave a studio interview shown on big screens around the venue where he came across as bright, articulate and humble. Having tasted stardom once before and then been almost forgotten, he realized fame was fickle - “Another guy might soon come along to take my place, so I’ve just got to enjoy it while I can”. Shaggy made me feel proud as a Jamaican – “What a nice guy” everyone kept saying. The crowd left feeling happy and in high spirits, which after all is what entertainment is supposed to be about. All in all it was first rate stuff. The man deserves to have sold 10 million records.

Jamaica may be an island of only 4,411 square miles and 2.5 million people. But pound for pound, as they say in boxing, there is no more country more full of contradictions. For this nation combines a decidedly third world standard of living with a virtually first world life expectancy. It is one of the world’s most stable democracies but has one of its highest homicide rates. It probably has both more churches per square mile and a higher out of wedlock birth rate than any other place on earth. Its most famous sons Marcus Garvey and Bob Marley are international symbols of racial pride, yet it is likely the only state to have more than once elected a visible minority leader.

“The ‘good old times’ - all times when old are good –

 Are gone”. Lord Byron

Whenever there is an upsurge of violence in Jamaica there is always much talk about the “good old days” when people could walk in safety wherever they wished at any hour of the night and everyone slept with doors unlocked. Nor is this all nostalgic fantasy. In 1955 there were less than 25 murders committed in Jamaica and our homicide rate was 1.2 per 100,000. In 2000 we had 887 murders and our homicide rate was 34.4 per 100,000, an almost 30 fold increase. It is doubtful that any country not at war has seen such a comparable explosion of violence.

“All my life I have sacrificed everything – comfort, self-interest, happiness – to my destiny.”

Napoleon wrote this in 1807 at the height of his glory when he dispensed laws to half of Europe. And if the most famous political figure in history at his zenith could speak of his career in such melancholy tones, what must be the thoughts of lesser mortals who devote their entire lives to politics and never achieve any real acclaim?