Too bad all the people who know how to run the country are busy driving taxi cabs and cutting hair.
- George Burns

OR MR. Burns might have added, writing newspaper columns and hosting radio talk shows. But though things always look simple from the outside, politics requires a special breed.

Most people, when they get up close to the reality of actually trying to get elected and help to move the levers of government, usually recoil in horror at the mind-numbing boredom and grinding repetitiveness involved. Giving the same speech 200 times and immersing yourself nightly in the pages and pages of dense legalese which parliamentary bills consist of would probably drive most people stark raving mad. But it's the kind of stuff successful politicians thrive on.

Democracy is the worst system of government, except for all the others.- Winston Churchill

CHURCHILL'S DICTUM has always been accepted in these parts as a self-evident truth. But lately a lot of Jamaicans have begun to wonder if this island is not an exception to the general rule.

Our murder rate is not only the highest in the world, it's headed toward a level unprecedented for a country not at war. And how can a nation do much worse than not being able to guarantee the most minimum of human rights to its people ­ namely freedom from violent death?

MAYBE IT'S wishful thinking. But I get the increasing feeling that Jamaica is undergoing a mental revolution. The Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) lockdown and Emancipation Park Declaration seem to have struck a chord, at least with the chattering classes. A friend asserts that Monday's Jamaica House discussions among the People's National Party (PNP), the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), the PSOJ, and civil society leaders are the first such multi-partisan meeting to put political garrisons squarely on the agenda. It seems the powers that be have finally woken up to the reality that crime threatens to destroy the very fabric of the nation.

"JAMAICA IS a failed state". I used to suck my teeth when I heard anyone say that and dismiss the speaker as an ignorant fool. Only a dunce could talk like that about a country with one of the planet's most stable democracies, a combatively free press, and the world's 63rd highest healthy life expectancy.

A WEEK ago, like most Jamaicans, I was in a state of despair about the country. Three policemen and two security guards had been killed in less than 24 hours, and the forces of anarchy seemed on the verge of overwhelming the nation. Was there any hope for this island? Was this the kind of country I wanted my children to grow up in?

HOW DO you describe a society that has the highest murder rate in the world and the highest absentee father rate in the world? The word 'dysfunctional' comes to mind.

Our nightly television news must be the bloodiest on earth. Violence-jaded Jamaicans shrug at the usual litany of bloodshed.

NO ATHLETE has ever given me more pleasure than Brian Charles Lara. Whatever his off the field shenanigans ­ and he is far more of a gentlemanly role model than say Viv Richards ever was ­ at the crease, the man is an endless fount of joy. Just as cricket is easily the most aesthetically pleasing of sports, so is Lara far and away the most attractive batsman I have seen. Lawrence Rowe might have been a touch more graceful, but BCL is much nimbler and more athletic. And he has played many more memorable innings than Yagga.

LIKE MANY Jamaicans, I had high hopes for Bruce Golding. I have grown thoroughly sick of the aggressively confrontational, name-calling nonsense that goes by the name of politics in this country.

And, for 10 years, Mr. 'New and Different' has been assuring us that though he used to be part of the 'old-time politricks', if we gave him the chance he would put an end to irresponsible posturing and guttersniping by taking the high road and, thus forcing his opponents to do the same.

CRIME IS Jamaica's biggest problem. How could it be otherwise when we have probably the world's highest murder rate? No wonder everyone has a crime-fighting plan.

At one end of the spectrum are the 'complete transformers'. They argue that to bring crime under control, we need to rebuild our entire society - educate the young, revamp our economy, transform our justice system, re-engineer our security forces and reform our constitution.

IN NOVEMBER 2003 tens of thousands of Georgians demonstrated for weeks against tainted election results until President Edward Shevardnadze resigned in what was called the 'rose' revolution. A year on similar scenes in Ukraine brought new elections and a new regime in the 'orange' revolution. This week mass marches sparked by former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination swept the Syrian-backed Lebanese government from power in what is being dubbed the 'cedar' revolution.