"I have no time!" No matter how many times one said it still left the opponent standing waiting to hear what there was no time for. While he or she expectantly stood waiting for the quarrel to develop, then you would swing around, place your chin firmly in the air and stride off, to do something, less time consuming? It was beautiful, an incomplete sentence said so much to the triviality of your opponent's argument, and the inconsequence of your opponent.

I had forgotten that phrase, a favourite in high school and beyond. But this morning as I sat before this computer trying to craft six hundred words to express my frustration over recent news only four came to mind. "I have no time!"

After all, what can you really say to reports that Minister Derrick Smith was dissed by the recent appointment of Trevor MacMillan as minister of national security, when the matter of crime and indiscipline is crippling the nation?

Hard-nosed approach

Few can dispute that Colonel MacMillan inspires confidence, and his hard-nosed approach as commissioner of police and afterward certainly had its merits; his weakness seemed to be that from within the police force. They felt he was an outsider. Well, now as minister of national security he will be more of an insider than any before him. Sounds good to me; now all he has to do is get to work!

Then, there was the shocking story that Spanish investors were thinking of pulling out of Jamaica because of the "investor climate". Simply put, because our planning officials did not allow a Spanish hotel to barricade our airport, thus attempting to prevent our very own accidental twin towers incident, these investors are throwing a full-blown tantrum. I am not in the slightest bit concerned about this. I suspect that the Spanish will soon appreciate that regulations are the friends of investors, and that might well be what protects them, or maybe they'll just buy a newspaper that works too! I have no time!

Then Dabdoub files his appeal; the country is falling to pot and we are bickering about whether we can give a man another chance to win a seat he's already won, now that he has given up his citizenship to the United States.

In his defence, Dabdoub is concerned with the law, and it does surprise me that finally someone cares about the law. It would even be heartening if he were not to be the sole beneficiary in this matter of law.

Dabdoub clearly is a visionary, and tough to boot. Just think what positive could be done with that energy and determination.

'Sweetheart' deals

As for the 'sweethearts', well, old ones are left heartbroken, new ones pay off debts, and the cycle continues. Sweetheart deals are a standard part of business, businesses lobby for them, and then jump into bed with the power-brokers to seal them.

Problem is, you lie with dogs and you catch fleas, but what is a flea or two, when you are making millions? NCB, in fact most of the FINSAC debacle involved a sweetheart deal. If businesses can take advantage of an incompetent or broke government, they will, and their shareholders never mind all that much either.

I have little time to chase these profit-seekers when we have outright corruption going unpunished, and these criminals walking around as demigods.

Oftentimes these news items are simply a manipulation of some kind, be it political or economical. Yet, with the reality we face I have no time for these games, we have a country to save.