If I ever get around to fathering children (us guys got a biological clock too you know), then there is one piece of advice I cannot wait to impart.
You know how children always tell their parents what they want to be when they grow up?
Well, if any of mine ever say they want to be prime minister, I’m not going to do say “go for it”.
Nah. I’m going to gently point them to the happenings of 2020 and give them an idea of what goes into running a country.
The simple fact is there are some jobs that come with a whole bunch of hassle which not everybody can handle.
Right now, the head of any Government must have lost a few pounds and torn out a few strands of their hair.
COVID-19 has shown us that not everyone who is in charge really knows what they’re doing. The decision-making of some governments has been downright head-scratching. Nah call nuh name.
For Jamaica land we love, personally think we’ve been doing quite well. It ain’t perfect but only a few countries can really say they’ve had COVID ‘success’; New Zealand, Taiwan and Sweden come to mind.
But in times of crisis, governments are marked decidedly harder by the people.
But here’s the thing, COVID-19 is called the novel coronavirus for a reason. Novel in this case doesn’t mean the romance book you like to read; it denotes ‘new’.
There have been many other viruses, so if you’re battling something that the world has never seen, how do you expect every nation’s leaders to get it ‘right’?
We need to look no further than right here in Jamaica to see that no matter what you do, somebody isn’t going to be satisfied.
When the Government locked down St Catherine, some people ran for the hills as soon as the announcement was made.
People complained that they shouldn’t have given them prior notice of the lockdown. OK, so when the Government closed down three communities in St Mary, people woke up to see the security forces.
Guess what? Some people still complained that they weren’t given notice. Eh, so wha di people dem did fi do?
When the Government closed down the bars and nightclubs, people complained that they would have nowhere to socialise.
Now that they’re considering reopening bars (by the time you read this the Government may have allowed that) other people criticised the thought, and wondered why bars were so important.
When there were calls for an islandwide lockdown, people bawled “no!” Then as positive cases began to rise, others asked: “so why we never lock down the country?” Can’t win.
When you’re in the seat of power, it seems like nothing you do will make everyone happy. Hazard of the job.
By the way, let me be very clear. I’m no JLP, PNP, no P at all, not even a movement or coalition. I’m just calling it the way I see it.
But good news for the current politicians. These pandemics only seem to happen every 100 years or so. So next time around, you won’t get the cussing.

Link me at daviot.kelly@gleanerjm.com