Cricketing first-class bullies excel at the regional level but flop on the international stage. You can't predict in advance who will step up. graeme Hick scored a record 50-plus first class centuries before his 25th birthday, yet was an infamous bust in tests.

Similarly, many politicians shine on the campaign trail but don't make good administrators. Portia Simpson Miller has been our most popular elected representative for years. But her performance as Prime Minister has been uneven. The unanswered Trafigura questions and bewildering 'Ask the PNP!' retort have many wondering if K.D. Knight and Maxine Henry-Wilson were right. 'Portia Not Ready?' Leighton Levy asked in The STAR of October 27, and the polls show he's not alone.

George W. Bush's party ran, but couldn't hide from Iraq and Katrina. Karl Rove couldn't fool all the people all the time. And the supposedly terminal ills besetting American democracy - such as seat gerrymandering, unmatchable incumbency spending and an imperial president - have apparently been cured by, well, more democracy.

Politics can be fascinating, if it concerns your own country. But there’s nothing so tedious as other people’s politics. Affairs of state dominate the intellectual discourse in most countries. But a nation’s campaign obsessions are usually meaningless to outsiders.

It's human nature to seek truth, or at least plausibility. So when we hear about fairy godmother multi-nationals flying from abroad unasked to donate US $585,000 with no strings attached, the natural response is 'bull shoots'. Trafigura won't be history until Jamaicans hear a convincing explanation from the Prime Minister. Nowadays not even eight year olds believe in fairy tales. And governments that take voters for fools get laughed at on election day.'

West Indies cricket once conjured up memories of halcyon glory. Nowadays, it usually means shameful humiliation. But, what one win can do. The Windies' victory over Australia on Wednesday put a smile on everyone's face and once again sportscasters waxed deliriously about the 'glorious uncertainty of cricket'.

Criticise the People's National Party (PNP) and you are a Labourite. Call the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) to book and you are a socialist. Yet partisan politics is a fact of life in most countries.

Places like Scandinavia seem rather dispassionate about parties. But watch any U.S. political show and it's obvious that Americans, for instance, are scarcely less tribal than Jamaicans. Though at least they have buried the 'Support my side or I'll kill you' mindset that occasionally flares up here.

First, it was Contractor General Greg Christie persistently pointing out the lack of accountability at Sandals Whitehouse. Then it was Dr. Lloyd Goldson and colleagues exposing the horrific conditions at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital. And now, it is whichever person provided Bruce Golding with the documented Trafigura money trail from Amsterdam to Team Jamaica. Yes, Mr. Golding did a fine job of presenting it to the public, but as Opposition Leader that's his job. It's the unsung hero who provided the smoking gun cheques that really deserves the praise in this instance.

Portia Simpson Miller proved again last weekend that she is our most inspirational Prime Minister since Michael Manley. 'Sista P' not only brought out the largest PNP conference crowd since Joshua's halcyon days.

Crime as a career - repeat offenders are 80 per cent of arrests, cops say - The STAR, September 4, 2006.

"Repeat offenders contribute to over 80 per cent of crime locally, according to police. And despite rehabilitation programmes in prisons and extensive periods of incarceration, they choose to stick to their illegal ways" ... "some men are simply unable to be rehabilitated," said a courts office worker.

"Most of the persons we are now arresting are repeat offenders," explained Inspector Clayton Ritchie. "We (police) get the impression that these criminals are just getting fat and waiting to come out to commit more crime," charges Sup. (Derrick 'Cowboy') Knight."

"You are what you eat," proclaimed Anthelme Brillat-Savarin in 1825, and he was probably right. But, a week in Beijing cheering on Jamaican athletes at the World Junior Games convinced me again that you are also what you speak.

Since both my grandfathers were born there, visiting China should be a bit of an ancestral pilgrimage. But, not knowing a word of Mandarin made it difficult to feel any spiritual bond with the place.