NOTE-WORTHY: David vs Goliath fantasy

David and Goliath stories are very popular, no doubt, all around the world and particularly in societies where a minority feels oppressed. Such is keenly the case in Jamaica, whose history is full of the clever slave outwitting the dumb or brutish master.

The significance of that somewhat 'fantastic' popularity, however, the truth and longevity of it, so it seems, never remains for long in the cruel reality that more often than not surrounds the story in both time and place. 'Fantasy' as in 'fantastic' seldom does.

When O.J. Simpson is acquitted, when Air Jamaica is saved from disappearance, when 'Dudus' remains in his environs safe from all threats save domestic, even more so, when the long shot comes in at Caymanas Park, always, Jamaicans cheer.

But as the years go by, we find the truth is that O.J.'s life and unrepentant reputation go down to a tarnished obscurity, Air Jamaica gets passed around like an old, worn-out pot at the back of the stall, Mr Coke is locked in a self-made prison of his own, and the odds-on favourite runs strong most of the time at the track.

All of what we wanted to hear, what we would have liked to have been rather than what was and what is, eventually passes into a history of which we aren't often quite so proud or boastful, and in the end the hurrahs are forgotten, or as legend and myth we recreate them to suit our memory.

Indeed, the 'good book' says "pride goeth before a fall" and so it goes and so it went, oddly enough, even with both Goliath and little David as well.

Something to remember.

Ed McCoymmhobo4@juno.com

Would courts satisfy US?

I wonder about the usefulness of turning over the Coke extradition request to the courts at this stage. Is it that a court, by its very nature, is incapable of the kind of cover-up that the Golding administration is now accused of?

My suspicion is that unless the court gives the nod, which nod would be signed off on by the attorney general, and Coke is sent off, the US is no more likely to be impressed, than if Mr Golding continued to preside over the matter.

So, unless the Golding administration can find a way to sway the US to sympathise with its position, then it has only cornered itself into a stalemate.

Charles Evanscharock01@yahoo.com