Why, I wondered to a friend last week, do some people place such importance on sports? Isn’t it ridiculous for grown ups to waste so much time and energy worrying about essentially childish pastimes over which they have no control? But he disagreed. Sports, he said, provide emotional training. Thrilling to victories and agonizing over defeats is an excellent preparation for the inevitable ups and downs of life.

I once heard some young men and women arguing about whether men and women can be ‘just friends’. The women all said yes, but the men disagreed. As one put it ‘Anytime a man pays attention to a woman, no matter how brotherly he acts, in the back of his mind he wants more than just friendship. Sooner or later the male beast will break loose’.

AVID READERS lead double lives. One is the flesh and blood reality of family and sex and work. The other is a mostly secret dialogue with ourselves about imaginary characters. For fellow book lovers are scarce, especially if you have a taste for what used to be called the classics, but which, these days, are labelled dead white European male ­ or dwem ­ literature.

IN 1980, the homicide rate in the United States reached an all time high of 10.7 per 100,000, having doubled in 15 years.

There was much 'woe is us' hand wringing. Could nothing be done to stem this seemingly inexorable rise?

WHEN HIV was first discovered in the mid 1980s Caribbean countries reacted in different ways. Haiti lacked the resources to take any preventative measures.

WHEN RONALD Reagan was elected President of the United States I was stunned. How could Americans prefer this bumbling moron to the brilliantly eloquent Jimmy Carter?

Only an arrogant neo-imperialist too senile to understand that all societies develop in their own way could call the Soviet Union an 'evil empire'. The thought of such a simpleton with his hand on the nuclear button made me shudder.

DESPITE THEIR pathetic record, the West Indies have created some unforgettable memories over the past five years. In 1999 there was Brian Lara's 'resurrection' 213 at Sabina, and his 'one wicket win' 153 at Kensington. Antigua in 2003 saw the fourth innings winning record 418 for seven.

A pioneer in Jamaican anthropology; a driving force behind the local and international popularization of ska and reggae; an originator of Festival; arguably our best finance minister; the prime minister with the third longest term in office; the longest serving parliamentarian - no one has influenced independent Jamaica in so many ways as Edward Seaga.

IF YOU judge countries by how many people want to visit and stay, America must be the best place in the world to live. There are huge line-ups at the U.S. embassy in every country, and even Castro's anti-American rhetoric doesn't stop Cubans from risking their lives to reach American shores.

Back in the early 1990s a friend and I had a discussion about kidnapping, which was even then rife in South America though not yet a problem in Trinidad. How was it, we wondered, that murder was so prevalent in Jamaica and yet abduction for ransom was so rare?