If you seem to be having bad days consecutively in the last month or so, spare a thought for some members of the Cabinet.

Health Minister Ruddy Spencer, Finance Minister Audley Shaw and Prime Minister Bruce Golding are probably the three guys you would least like to be right now. Budget this and reclassification of that all make for a testing period if you're a member of the government. Throw in the fact that the Opposition has serious material to work with when it comes to spitting out gibes (they would be spitting anyway), uneasy must be the heads wearing the crowns.

Some will say 'a good' or 'tek up wha dem caan manage'. Apart from the perks (and, to be fair there, are many), the leadership life is not easy. Anything goes wrong, it's your fault. Anything goes right, you have a talented team behind you and they're the ones doing all the work. The Jamaica Labour Party did not help itself by making a bunch of promises, some they haven't quite kept (I know I'm being conservative here). But, kind of like Barack Obama, I think a little too much was expected in the beginning. Of course, politics can be brutal.

And yet, as bad as things are for Golding's administration, they could be worse. If all the public sector workers were as vociferous as the nurses, the steam would definitely start spewing from the PM's ears. His listening organs actually look like mini volcanoes getting ready to blow right now. Honestly, if I were in his shoes and the full weight of the workers who feel ignored/underpaid/disres-pected was to come down on me, I would have to show my bird shooting skills. I would probably have gone primal on somebody by now.

That's another problem I have with leadership. It seems sub-human if you lose your cool. PM Golding has been clearly upset at times, but can you imagine him getting really, 'dark' with nurses association president, Edith Allwood-Anderson? Sound bite of the year it would be, but the popularity meter would fall faster than a pessimist's self-esteem.

While I was thinking about the whole impasse and the state of the country's finances in general, the song Life (Life soon sort out) by GWhizz popped into my head. I found it rather ironic that all the individuals involved are probably singing the same thing.

The nurses, teachers and all others who are feeling short-changed must be wondering when the good times will roll again. The members of the Cabinet who are constantly under fire for all sorts of stuff must, likewise, be wondering when they'll ever be lauded for doing something right. Life!

I'll hear from you at daviot.kelly@gleanerjm.com

Kelly