Neighbouring North-East St Ann is different. While in South-East St Ann people have lived for generations and know each other, North-East St Ann is populated with many newcomers.

Places in North-East St Ann like Ocho Rios through St Ann's Bay to Priory are largely people who have moved into those areas for employment in the tourism and bauxite industries. For that reason, it was easy to bring into North-East St Ann, politicians from outside like Wills Isaacs in 1967, Hazel Hamilton (who won a by-election in 1973 and died in 1974) and Vivian Blake who won the by-election in 1974 when Miss Hamilton died.

But in South-East St Ann, many voters have deep roots for many generations. Everyone seems to know everyone else, and with two of their longest-serving MPs (Dr Ivan Lloyd and Seymour Mullings), having been insiders in this snug, family community; it is a different kettle of fish. As a good party man of many years, Seymour Mullings has decided to rally around Lisa Hanna. For all intents and purposes, Mullings is the kingpin in South-East St Ann but will his perceived support work, as many voters are angry? We will see what we will see.

I believe that PJ Patterson understands these dynamics in South-East St Ann far better than I do. As a young man who was seeking a seat in the house he steered clear of South-East St Ann when a by-election presented itself on the resignation of Dr Lloyd in 1969. He had wanted to run in South-East St Elizabeth in a by-election 1967 but withdrew in favour of Vivian Blake.

Patterson had also expressed interest in East-Central St Andrew for the by-election in 1969 when Norman Manley left Parliament. But again he deferred. This time to Dr Kenneth McNeill. Finally, his opportunity came in 1970 in the then South-East Westmoreland with the death of Maxwell Carey, yet he did not make any attempts to get the PNP candidacy in South-East St Ann and one has to ask why. But party discipline is party discipline, and Patterson did the politically correct thing in defending the Lisa Hanna decision.

What sort of security arrangements are there for private meetings at the PNP headquarters these days? I will not comment on whether Portia should have said the sort of things at what should have been a private meeting of the South-East St Ann PNP constituency executive. What is of interest to me is that those statements found their way into sections of the media.

So the pathologist insists that Bob Woolmer was murdered, just when we thought that closure had been put to the case. In the early stages, it went from inconclusive to strangulation to poisoning to natural causes. There are all sorts of detective serials on television that can be viewed every single night on some TV channel or other.

In many of these TV drama cases, the investigation leads to this then that, accusing one person at one time, then it is found to be another. And these acted-out dramas are many times based on real-life stories, but only the names are changed. The point I am making is that it is the nature of investigation of cases of death for the investigations to lead to this and then to that.

In the Bob Woolmer case, the police issued a press release for every step of the investigation because had they simply said that there would be no comment until the end of the investigation, there would have been loud cries of "cover-up". So every step of the case was publicised. Now the blame is being placed on the government pathologist who, not to be outdone, is insisting that his earlier story is indeed correct.

But in other jurisdictions that are far more advanced than we are (read First-World countries), police have been led down the wrong path too. And the reason for them being misled can vary from one reason to another. Please remember that the sitcoms and serials on TV are based on real-life situations. Indeed, the strategy of the sitcom writers is to create suspense by showing prolonged investigations where it is difficult to pinpoint the real reason for death or the real culprit.

Part of mental slavery of which Marcus Garvey wrote and Bob Marley sang is this business of always degrading ourselves. And we are doing it again in the Bob Woolmer case. At least in this case, the Englishman Mark Shields was in charge of the investigation. But as with many serials on TV, the saga continues, because the pathologist insists that Woolmer was murdered. Apparently, this matter will not go away in a hurry.