TO HEAR Jamaicans talk our government agencies are among the most wasteful and inefficient in the world. And yet the January 2004 World Bank study 'Jamaica: The Road to Sustained Growth' says the quality of the bureaucracy here is rated high in comparison with other countries and is comparable to Chile, Hong Kong and France. Yes, it's hard to believe. But since the World Bank has no reason to be biased, I'll take it at its word.

I’ve never liked the Olympic motto. For man’s glory is his mind, not his body. We will never run faster than cheetahs, jump higher than kangaroos, or lift heavier weights than elephants. Which is why the athletes who impress me are not those who dominate by sheer physical superiority but those who triumph through mental strength.

LET'S GET things in perspective. Jamaica has not suffered a Haitian-style coup. There have been no terrorist bombings here. My loved ones - knock wood - are blessedly healthy. Furthermore grown-ups don't obsess about matters over which they have no control. And it's only a game.

ALAS POOR Haiti - seemingly condemned to perpetual instability and on the verge of an ecological disaster. And there's little the outside world can do. Talk about CARICOM 'helping out' in the present crisis is nonsense. As if our tiny armies could make any difference in a country with a bigger population than the entire English speaking Caribbean put together.

BORN TO humble circumstances in a small country with a few million inhabitants, Robert was one of history's great songwriters. His lyrics championing the poor and oppressed are recited and sung the world over. A free spirit who praised the pleasures of intoxication, he fathered 11 children from six women and died when only 37. His nation's most famous son, Robert's birthday is celebrated by countrymen and admirers around the globe.

"JAMAICAN WOMAN love to suffer!" So I've heard many men declare, and at times it's hard to disagree. When we see yet another Jamaican woman make a rationally inexplicable romantic choice, we male onlookers can only shake our heads and murmur 'Bwoy dem like hardship!"

For there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.

LOVE IT or hate it, none can deny the power of dancehall. Whether for good - as in Sean Paul's phenomenal international success, or for bad - as in the recent 'terror at Sting' - this music has an uncanny ability to excite people.

NO SPORT matters more to a people than cricket does to West Indians. It is to us not so much a game as part of our heritage. But these are painful days for the faithful. So far have the once mighty Windies fallen that Brian Lara is seeing our latest innings defeats as positives because, "At least we are fighting hard and reaching the final day now."

Maybe it’s his supercilious smirk. Or his arrogant mumbling. Or his cynical opportunism. Whatever the reason I find it hard to admire George W. Bush. His reckless adventuring abroad and his irresponsible overspending at home are in my view seriously damaging his country’s long term interests. When America sneezes most of the world catches a cold, and highly economically dependent countries like Jamaica get pneumonia. So the man is just plain bad news all around.

BEING VERY young at the time my memories of the 1972 election are hazy, but I do recall nearly all of us at school shouting 'power' at passing motorcades. This wasn't only because of any specific PNP policies ­ about the only campaign issue that penetrated our immature brains was 'Joshua's rod of correction'. But having known only a JLP government I guess our unformed minds assumed any change must be for the better, and most first-time voters then probably thought the same way.