"In politics, nothing is often a good thing to do and always a good thing to say." - Will Durant

A year ago, Portia Simpson Miller was chosen as president of the People's National Party and Prime Minister-designate to the kind of popular acclaim not seensince Michael 'Joshua' Manley's 1972 election victory. Since then crime has fallen, tourist arrivals have set a record, and the economy has grown at its fastest rate in years.

Is cricket dying in Jamaica? It certainly appears so on the face of it. Practically no one watches our club and schoolboy leagues. Even first-class matches draw few spectators.

Why does Jamaica have what is probably the highest murder rate in the world? Is it poverty? Is it education? Is it inequality? Is it politics? Is it over population?

Actions speak louder than words. So you have to wonder if, despite all the public lamentations, Jamaicans really want to change anything in this country. Sure, everyone says they want more jobs and less crime. But no one, from top to bottom, seems willing to make even the slightest alteration in their lifestyle to attain any of these goals.

'Search for Lyns leads to dump', The Observer, December 22, 2006.

'26 slain in four days', The Gleaner, January 5, 2007.

'7th violent attack on police so far this year', The Observer, January 8, 2007.

Jamaica is one of the most beautiful islands on the planet. Jamaicans are among the most exuberant people on Earth. By all rights, this should be one of the best places in the world to live. But can the people in a country with daily headlines such as those above be happy?

"There can be no greater error than to expect or calculate upon real favours from nation to nation. It is an illusion, which experience must cure ..." - George Washington

Who shows no pity deserves none. Not even the saints shed tears at Saddam Hussein's hanging. He began as an assassin, gained power through blood, and ruled without mercy. Perhaps 100,000 died in his 1987-1989 Anfal anti-Kurdish campaign. In 1988 he used chemical weapons to kill at least 5,000 civilians in Halabja.

From a coldly rational point of view Christmas is as ridiculous a notion as mankind has ever deluded itself with. A man marries a supposed virgin, discovers she's with child, learns from an angel in a dream that she has conceived by the Holy Spirit, and they travel to his hometown where there's no room at the inn so the Lord our Saviour is born in a manger?

Augusto Pinochet and Fidel Castro both ruled with iron fists. They suppressed all opposition and did not allow freedom of speech or multi-party elections. Pinochet is now dead and the likely terminally-ill Castro's political career is probably over. The obvious question is whether they did more harm than good to their countries.

In A Conflict of Visions, Thomas Sowell posits two fundamental political outlooks, the constrained and unconstrained visions. The first is best expressed in Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, which accepts man's moral limitations and egocentricity as inherent facts of life. Rather than wastefully attempting to change human nature, it tries to make the best of the possibilities existing within that context.

They should have talked of cut and glance

described the dance

he did on such or such a day

on what green floor

on what astonished field

Instead, they said he was a gentle man,

praised him as a model for his race,

noted with aplomb he took his place

as Senator; a leader cherished

by his men, in friendship steadfast,

who, in spite of bitter recollection,

loved his country at last

Any clown can play the gentleman.