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.

A YEAR AGO, P.J. Patterson was sitting pretty. Crime was falling ­ 1139 murders in 2001, 1045 in 2002, 975 in 2003. The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) was in its usual disarray with the ageing Edward Seaga showing no signs of going anywhere. The move to repatriate Jamaica's legal system by doing away with the Privy Council as last court of appeal seemed to be going smoothly. And his planned handover of the People's National Party (PNP) leadership and hence the post of prime minister to Peter Phillips was right on track.

THE BOB Marley peace day is a great idea. But it's a pity that the focus is only on Bob, because with all this big Marley hoopla you would think is him alone make reggae and guys like Jimmy and Toots and Peter Tosh and Dennis Brown never existed. Personally, I prefer Tosh to Marley any day. And you ever notice how all you ever hear on the radio is Marley's Island stuff? They hardly play tunes like Small Axe or Nice Time or Trenchtown Rock, which personally I feel is his best song. Is pure Redemption Song and Three Little Birds and One Love.

TWO CHEERS for Dubya! That was my reaction at seeing BBC pictures of jubilant Iraqis lining up to cast their ballots last Sunday. For George W. Bush has steadfastly maintained that ­ as the old pop song goes. ­

'All the world over, so easy to see. People everywhere just wanna be free. Ask me my opinion, my opinion will be. Nat'ral situation for a man to be free'.

"That a the new style weh the whole place a do
Rock Bogle dance from music sweet you
Bogle a run the place night and day
So just rock Bogle dance from your tune a play"

'GOD IS dead', wrote Friedrich Nietzsche in 1882. Sigmund Freud agreed - "The more the fruits of knowledge become accessible to men, the more widespread is the decline of religious belief."

LIKE MOST Jamaicans I grew up scorning and laughing derisively at homosexuals as the lowest form of human life - disgusting perverts whose sexual practices were vile abominable acts to be stamped out by any means necessary. But age and experience have changed my outlook on life.

Business and culture don’t often mix. And it’s rare when an idea promises to both make someone a lot of money, and help preserve and promote a vital part of our heritage. But such seems to be the case with de Windies Grill, the cricket themed restaurant which opened in Mandeville recently.

“A Dog lay in a manger, and by his growling and snapping prevented

the oxen from eating the hay which had been placed for them. "What a selfish Dog!" said one of them to his companions; "he cannot eat the hay himself, and yet refuses to allow those to eat who can."  Aesop’s Fables

“Osama wins it for Dubya” is how many sum up George Bush’s victory in the US presidential election. And there’s some truth to this. In the days before Osama Bin Laden appeared live and well on video, John Kerry was surging in the polls and in the betting markets. After Osama’s appearance the money shifted sharply to Bush, and once again the London bookies had it right.