Yow, I just observe a lickle drama all by myself myself and had such a great time laughing with myself, I decided to share it wid di whole a unnu. Here's how it go.

I passed a little man selling stuff on the streets in downtown Kingston. Well he wasn't just selling. He was also playing an exciting game; a comical blend of hide-and-seek, police-and-thief, and stuck-in-the-mud with the authorities.

They were after him, not only because he was vending on the streets illegally, but also because the items he was selling sounded too provocative for the police. As the vender shouted to get the attention of passersby, he sounded as if he was shouting the name of that United States-based law firm that has become the source of great intrigue and entertainment for Jamaica: Manhatt, Phelps and Phillips.

But the man was merely announcing that he was selling 'Man hats (felt) and Phillips (screwdrivers). Dat a one weird combination, don't? Well he was selling, but nobody was buying. Heheheh ... OK, that drama didn't exactly happen inna real life. It actually occurred in the wonderful world of my sometimes warped and overactive imagination.

But guess what peeps; what happened in that drama in my head is the same thing that's happening with the Government's Manatt-Dudus Commission of enquiry. Fi real mi friends. Any promise that this commission will unearth truth, identify wrongdoing and punish those culpable is the announcement of an attractive sale, but nobody nah buy dat. You buying it? Even if it did a give out fi free, me nah tek it!

entertaining or embarrassing

The way I see it, the sittings of the commission have so far been nothing but a spectacle. And the spectacle is either entertaining or embarrassing, depending on how seriously you choose to frame it.

People have been treating it just like how they treat their favourite soap opera. Yeah man, they follow it religiously, they enjoy it immensely and they discuss it passionately. They argue with each other about the characters and they anticipate shifts in the story and developments in the plot as if it's a real-life situation, but they're well aware that they players are simply actors following a script and performing for the entertainment of the viewing public.

A couple years ago, a brother of mine asked a bartender in a rural bar to serve him a screwdriver. Apparently ignorant about the fact that 'screwdriver' is another name for a mixture of vodka and orange juice, the young bartender asked my brother what exactly he planned to screw up, and whether he'd prefer a flathead or a Phillips.

Well, I know I shouldn't make fun of other people's ignorance, but I laughed that day till I nearly choked myself to death. And is same way di whole world laughing at Jamaica now. Yeah, dem busy laughing at the ignorance and the hypocrisy of it all. In the last episode I watched in the entertaining saga, it was indirectly suggested that maybe the man who ignited the whole shebang, former Minister of National Security Dr. Peter, is really a Phillips - the tool; that screwdriver may yet 'screw di driver'

What unnu think?

box-mi-back@hotmail.com

Any promise that this commission will unearth truth, identify wrongdoing and punish those culpable is the announcement of an attractive sale, but nobody nah buy dat.