Happy American Thanksgiving to one and all. This week I learned that I have a devoted and faithful female senior citizen of 70 who reads this review. Madam, I thank you for your support and may God continue to bless you.

Our Thanksgiving present this year was a Royal Visit, to help celebrate Bermuda's 400th Anniversary. This is good for Bermuda, good PR, should have been used to generate more tourists, etc., but I digress. Speaking of tourism, I must give praise, credit and props even to those who negotiated the deal to cause WestJet to compete with Air Canada and fly to Bermuda. I can only say: "Thank you Jesus!" More on this after the Top 20.

Improving to #1 it's the monster dance anthem I Know You Want Me by Pitbull. Up to #2 is Successful by Drake featuring L'il Wayne. Soaring to #3 is Mary Mary with God in Me.

Climbing to #4 is Run This Town by Jay Z, Rihanna and Kanye West. Falling to #5 is Last Chance by Ginuwine. Slipping to #6 is Breakup by Mario featuring Gucci Mane and Sean Garrett. Ego by Beyonce tumbles to #7.

Up to #8 is Obsessed by Mariah Carey. Halting its advance and tumbling to #9 is Celebration by Madonna.

Up to #10 is this week is Would've Been The One by Solange, a dance hit and a former essential selection. Improving to #11 is Wasted by Gucci Mane featuring Plies or OJ Da Juiceman. Up to #12 is Under by Pleasure P. Moving on up at #13 is Whitney Houston's Million Dollar Bill.

Up to # 14 is Boom Boom Pow by Black Eyed Peas, who gave one of the best performances at last Sunday's American Music Awards. Highlights from the AMAs were Rihanna's performance and songs selected they were both odd and weird at best. Carrie Underwood is hot. Lady Gaga continues to impress, despite being a weirdo/freak. She can sing, dance and plays the piano competently; and has a smoking body. J-Lo, the Bronx Bombshell dropped a monster hip hop hit in an amazing comeback performance.

Improving to #15 is S.O.S. (Let the Music Play), by Jordin Sparks. Up to #16 is a previous essential new tune; Make me by Janet Jackson. Slipping to #17 is Throw it in the Bag by Fabolous featuring the Dream. Up to #18, it's Bad Habits by Maxwell. Improving to #19 is Release Me by Agnes.

Falling to #20 is Maxwell's slow jam Pretty Wings.

Now back to this week's word – West Jet and tourism. I am thrilled to see this come to fruition and must give credit to the Minister of Tourism and Transport, who also happens to be our Premier; the Director of Tourism; the general manager at LFW Bermuda International Airport and the team of negotiators who made this happen.

We should implement this same strategy of having competing carriers on all major routes to Bermuda; starting with Her Majesty's homeland and its major gateway city, London. Bermuda is said to be BA's most profitable route and this suggests that there is room for competition. Let's approach Easy Jet or another carrier, since Richard Branson (Virgin Airways for the unenlightened) has made it clear that he does not wish to compete with BA.

Now for my other pet peeve. Had we introduced Air Bermuda, as I and many others recommended light years ago, we could provide the competition ourselves. I always felt that we could fly Air Bermuda out of Heathrow, Gatwick or another airport, perhaps Manchester or one of the others! BA, which is linked to the British Government, always objects to competition and, not surprisingly, the UK Government usually agrees with BA to the extend that such deals are seldom successful. Does anyone remember Zoom Airways? I'm not selling Independence today, but if we were independent, we would not need the UK Government's approval to determine who can fly to Bermuda. Just a thought.

Having said, I support the decision thus far not to invest public money in an airline business, because governments worldwide have not demonstrated the ability to run them at a profit. Governments worldwide have not demonstrated they can run anything at a profit! In fact, most island destinations that run airlines run them at a loss.

However, whilst we're wasting millions on the Music Festival, that money could have gone to fund Air Bermuda at a cost of a lot less per visitor than the (probably) $1,000 per visitor (if we're lucky) that it costs us to get a few people to come here for the music fest.

Still, WestJet is great news. We must now make sure that it succeeds. I travel on Air Canada extensively; as do many of my friends and family. We wish they were starting on December 1, 2009, not May 2010. Air Canada has had a monopoly on this route for several years and I submit that it is probably their most profitable route as well. They are charging $1,000 for tickets this Christmas, as much as BA charges for a flight that is more than twice as far away. That's what happens when there is a monopoly.

Since the beginning of time, monopolies have never been good for consumers. They have served best their shareholders. When there is competition, prices drop, service usually improves, responsiveness goes up significantly and the fat gets trimmed.

God save the Queen! Hey, don't hate me; 60-plus percent of Bermudians don't want independence! In case you all forgot, we are still Her Majesty's subjects. But, really, who wants to be a subject?

Peace ...