Thank you, dear Jamrock, for reminding us that our own parliament doesn’t hold the monopoly on ridiculousness. Via Ria Bacon’s Stet blog, I learned of this photo, which was carried on the front page of the Jamaica Observer on October 18. It’s a close-up of the hands of Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller as she doodles on a square of paper during — get this — a debate on a no-confidence motion brought by the Opposition party! Maybe I would doodle too if my party held the kind of majority enjoyed by the ruling People’s National Party (PNP), and the debate did last seven hours; but I have to say I’m not all that impressed with the Honourable PM’s drawing skills.

You’ll want to read Ria’s entertaining attempts at analysing the meaning of the Mrs. Simpson-Miller’s imagery and also the later post where she reports on the restrictions since put in place for journalists sitting in on parliamentary sessions. Yep, instead of taking away Portia’s notepad and pencil, they’ve banned journalists from sitting in the gallery above the members, corralling them instead into a 6′ x 6′ press box. Which isn’t entirely surprising, but you sort of wish that one day the government would surprise us by reacting with a bit of imagination. Like, for example, by announcing that the Prime Minister had signed up for drawing lessons at the Edna Manley School for the Arts?