- Article
- By Kevin O'Brien Chang
- March 16, 2008
It must be a miserable experience to live in a country with the world's highest homicide rate, and one of the lowest official GDP growth rates over the past 20 years. Or, maybe not. According to the February 24 Sunday Gleaner poll, 59 per cent of those living in statistically broke and murderous Jamaica say they are happy.
- Article
- By Kevin O'Brien Chang
- April 6, 2008
From 1944 to 1989, Jamaica was a two term land. Each administration was voted back in once, and no more. But the PNP governed for four straight terms from 1989 to 2007. And like many political parties left in charge too long, the Comrades started acting - as a lady once exclaimed angrily to me - "like dem daddy dead and lef dem the country!"
- Article
- By Kevin O'Brien Chang
- April 20, 2008
LAWS ARE MADE to serve people, not people to serve laws. So when a piece of legislation that once made sense ceases to do so, the reasonable response is not to keep forcing it on the populace, but to alter it to suit the times.
- Article
- By Kevin O'Brien Chang
- May 4, 2008
Hard-core tribalists feel their party can do no wrong, and the other side no right. Criticism of their team or praise of the opponents - no matter how justified by the facts - is unmitigated bias.
But to non-diehards, it's usually no better herring, no better barrel. Wearing orange or green does not make a politician better or worse. The important thing is to swap them every 10 years or so. And honest commendation or blame must be based on actual performance, not party allegiance.
- Article
- By Kevin O'Brien Chang
- September 7, 2008
There has never been and never will be an ideal government. But this doesn't stop many from judging their rulers by a standard of perfection not found on Earth. Places we Jamaicans look up to as models of democracy and prosperity - Britain, United States, Canada - regularly show large majorities thoroughly dissatisfied with their politicians.
In contrast, many abysmally governed places freely re-elect leaders who keep them mired in poverty and violence. Between 1989 and 2007 for instance, the murder count in Jamaica went from 429 to 1574, and the economy grew by an official cumulative total of less than 10 per cent. Yet the PNP won four straight terms and only missed winning a fifth by 3,000 votes.
- Article
- By Kevin O'Brien Chang
- November 2, 2008
Will President Barack Obama have any kind words for George W. Bush in his inauguration speech? He certainly should.
No individual has been more responsible for Obama's triumphant march to victory in the United States on November 4.
- Article
- By Kevin O'Brien Chang
- April 22, 2007
Well, there may be more enjoyable excursions than a leisurely drive through the Jamaican countryside on a Sunday afternoon, but short of entering paradise it is hard to imagine one. Especially if you start out from Negril.
Every time I go for a swim on that glorious seven-mile beach and bask in the mild crystal-blue water, I marvel at my luck in living a country where this kind of magical experience is available every day of the year. Sure, not everyone can afford an all-inclusive. But anyone with gas money or bus fare has access to the powder-white sand.
- Article
- By Kevin O'Brien Chang
- July 22, 2007
Politics is a messy, convoluted business because human beings are messy, convoluted creatures. The average public office seeker is probably no less honest or truthful than the average voter. But, while we quickly adjust our own opinions to life's unpredictability, politicians are pilloried for changing their minds when the facts change. Very often, we condemn them most vigorously for the sins we feel most guilty of. How many private lives would pass muster if put under press scrutiny?
- Article
- By Kevin O'Brien Chang
- January 29, 2006
"THE BEST laid schemes o' mice an' men, Gang aft a-gley" go oft awry. In politics, where personalities loom so large and the media glare magnifies every mishap and mistake, Robbie Burns' old saw goes double. Take the situation in Israel and Palestine.
- Article
- By Kevin O'Brien Chang
- April 30, 2006
ISAAC NEWTON was the greatest scientist in history and, perhaps more than anyone before or since, changed the world with his ideas.
'Nearer the Gods' said Edmond Halley 'no mortal may approach'.
Newton never had any children and is believed, like Adam Smith and Immanuel Kant, to have died a virgin. So arguably, the three most influential intellectuals of modern times never had sexual relations with a woman. Maybe there's a lesson there.