“The world” said Horace Walpole “is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.” Charlie Chaplin gave a film director’s corollary “Life is a comedy in long shot, but a tragedy close up”.

Julius Nyerere was widely admired for his unquestioned sincerity and integrity. Almost uniquely among African leaders of his generation he lived simply and was not corrupt. Under his one-party rule Tanzania was politically peaceful and was spared civil war. On the other hand his social experiments almost ruined the country economically. Though honest himself, his regime was bedeviled by widespread theft of foreign aid. He preached justice, yet had political opponents and persons accused of economic crimes jailed without trial.

Though satellite dishes, cable and the internet have made the outside world more difficult to ignore, Jamaicans are parochial at heart. Perhaps it because we are an island with no bordering countries - certainly we have little contact with our closest neighbours Haiti and Cuba. We might follow overseas sports and soap operas avidly, but we are great navel gazers in political and social affairs. How many Jamaicans can name six world leaders? Even most university educated persons probably get stuck after Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and Fidel Castro.

The latest Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index ranks Jamaica 50^th out of 99 countries, and even sanguine observers must find it worrying that we are seen abroad as more dishonest than notoriously corrupt nations like Brazil and Zimbabwe. It is cold comfort that we are tied with South Korea and above Argentina. Relatively strong economies may be able to support the costs of corruption, but unchecked it can virtually ruin weak ones – look at Indonesia and Nigeria.

While in exile on St. Helena Napoleon was urged by his aides to write a book on military strategy. Why not let the world know the secrets of history’s finest general? The great man laughed. It would be easy to describe the details of his maneuvers. But what would be the point? It was not the theory that counted, but the actual doing. Execution was everything.

Marguerite Narinesingh, a former principal of Priory Junior School, is passionate about Jamaica’s gifted and talented children. She speaks of them with an infectious and excited fervour. Working with children of exceptional ability, she believes, is her true calling in life. How did she come to realize this?

On October 11, 1865 several hundred black people led by Paul Bogle marched into Morant Bay. They confronted the white and brown militia protecting the St. Thomas vestry (the parish assembly) and fighting erupted. By nightfall the crowd had killed 18 people and wounded 31 others, while 7 members of the crowd died. Disturbances spread across the parish and martial law was declared. By the time it ended a month later, 29 whites and browns had been killed and nearly 500 people executed in retaliation.

Man is said to be logical. But our opinions often seem determined as much by emotion as by reason. We have all heard the rational pro and con arguments, yet most people’s views on capital punishment remain based on feelings and not facts.

Jamaica and Cuba are only 90 miles apart, but their historical paths have completely diverged. Since it gained independence in 1898 after the Spanish American War, Cuba has known only American occupation and military dictatorship. Pre 1958 administrations were primarily noted for corruption, and social insensitivity - especially toward Afro-Cubans. Fidel Castro is, in many ways, an unquestionable improvement on his predecessors. Yet Cubans still enjoy little political freedom. Earlier this year four prominent opposition activists were jailed for criticizing the Communist Party and calling for political and economic reforms. Cubans remain unable to choose their leaders, and the ultimate guarantor of Castro’s power is not the people’s will but military force.

‘Can the past make nations ill as repressed memories sometimes make individuals ill? Can a people be reconciled to its past by replacing myth with fact and lies with truth? All societies forge myths of identity that allow them to forget their unhealed wounds. Nations, like individuals, cannot bear too much reality. But if too much truth can be divisive, how much is enough?’