Don't you go down/Keep your head above water/One day things must get better." — Buju Banton>IT'S 2007 and the impact of living in what's been termed the post-modern era is making itself felt here in Bermuda. Frankly, there are times when just trying to make ends meet is the equivalent of living in a pressure cooker - a pressure cooker lacking a safety valve.You just have to read the newspapers or watch the satellite news broadcasts to see that many other people in many other parts of the world do in fact have it worse off than us. But their problems — war, starvation, mass migration — are usually the result of want and scarcity. In Bermuda we are in the odd position of having to deal with social problems that largely result from an excess of plenty — too much money, too much building, too much success.

Let me address some aspects of daily life in the Bermudian pressure cooker.

Friday is one of the two days I dread driving, the other being Monday. These are the days I have to drive into the City and endure the frustration of the perpetual gridlock that clogs all roads leading into and out of Hamilton. Most times the commute from my apartment — less than two miles away from the gateway to the City — is painfully slow. But unlike Middle Road and South Shore Road, where the flow of traffic between 7.30 a.m. and 9 a.m. often comes to a complete halt, there is constant (albeit slow) movement on my route — movement that would be somewhat faster if we banned the traffic coming down Strawberry Hill where it meets Harbour Road.

The problem is that some would-be helpful drivers always stop to allow traffic off Strawberry Hill in the middle of the rush hours — a car or two, a bus, a whole gaggle of motorcycles — thereby bringing the traffic flow on Harbour Road to a virtual standstill.

This last Friday a large number of well-intentioned Harbour Road commuters clearly decided to be kind to the backed-up traffic on Strawberry Hill. The net result was that there was no slow but steady progress on Harbour Road. There was, in fact, a complete traffic jam of the type more normally associated with mid-town Manhattan than Bermuda.

I am stunned that the Powers That Be have yet to recognise the magnitude of the problem — nor grasp the easy solution. Strawberry Hill should be closed to traffic (aside from the residents) during the morning. Traffic coming off this feeder road is now disrupting one of only three main arteries leading into Hamilton — an artery that until recently was the most easily traversable.

To be fair, if Bermudian drivers did not demonstrate the sort of road courtesy that they do at the junction of Harbour Road and Strawberry Road I imagine all traffic on Bermuda's roads would grind to a complete halt.

Why the complete lack of movement last Friday? Parents driving children to school could not be blamed for the gridlock in this instance. For even those Moms and Dads who leave home extra early — at 6.30 or 7 a.m. — were still stuck in the traffic until almost 9 a.m. (I imagine Bermuda's cell phone system must have been close to crashing on Friday morning; I witnessed dozens — if not hundreds — of frantic parents caaught up in the unmoving river of cars calling schools to explain why their kids weren't there).

In the end it took me just over a hour to complete the short journey from my home to Hamilton. As I was entering the City, those of us who had been so thoroughly inconvenienced discovered what had hindered our progress.

It was another one of those infamous Police road blocks, this time one backed up by officials who looked like they were from the Transport Control Department. Now I know these people have a job to do and I know too many Bermuda drivers are lax when it comes to renewing their licenses. But the whole procedure made me feel like one of those animals in a game park who has had the unfortunate luck to be chosen for a cull. That's my honest opinion of how both the Police and the TCD handle Bermuda's traffic problems: they take an approach that makes all of the road users feel like potential victims — and potential criminals even when we have all of our TCD paperwork fully in order and up to date.

Pressure cooker living in Bermuda also extends to the political arena. I understand Opposition leader Wayne Furbert temporarily left the country given what could be termed the latterday "Black Power" revolt that has broken out in the United Bermuda Party's ranks (no, I'd better take that back before someone accuses me of misrepresenting the situation. According to newly installed UBP chairman Shawn Crockwell, Mr. Furbert is off the island attending a conference. Mr. Crockwell mentioned something about his leader needing a rest on Sunday's Shirley Dill radio show. But a word of warning to Mr. Furbert — don't forget the sad fates of all of those African and Caribbean leaders who have been overthrown while travelling).

The ongoing crisis in the UBP has led to many Opposition supporters openly calling for a new direction and firm new leadership. While the Progressive Labour Party Government tends to get the blame for most things these days, ever since Dr. Ewart Brown assumed the office of Premier criticism of that kind has slowed up considerably. But that hasn't prevented certain factions within the UBP from blaming Dr. Brown and members of his Kitchen Cabinet with orchestrating the current Black Power uprising. There is even talk of a so-called PLP conspiracy to destroy the UBP from within, leaving the island as a de facto one-party state.

But what all of these fevered imagings fail to take into account is the fact Bermuda remains a fully-functioning democracy — and no matter what (if any) shennanigans politicians get up to in terms of trying to discredit "the other guys", at the end of the day it's still the people who make the final decisions about what they do or don't believe in the privacy of the polling booth.

We've seen dramatic political splits before. In the run-up to the 1968 General Election there was in-fighting in the Progressive Labour Party that led to the creation of the Bermuda Democratic Party (never heard from again after it was overwhelmingly ignored by voters). Then in the mid-1980s there was another civil war in the PLP's ranks that resulted in the explusion of four MPs who went on to found the National Liberal Party. Former UBP Premier Sir John Sharpe was essentially driven from office by factional fighting engineered by his internal opponents in the mid-1970s. And then, in the waning days of the UBP's 30-year rule, we all witnessed the emergence of the so-called "Gang of Five" Members of Parliament who were opposed to both Independence and the continuing leadership of Sir John Swan.

However, I don't recall any internal ruction which can match the current UBP split in terms of bitterness and open hostility. The resignations of MP Jamahl Simmons and former chairwoman Gwyneth Rawlins followed by UBP stalwart Maxwell Burgess' announcement he will not seek re-election if former running-mate Mr. Furbert is still heading the party have galvanised even those among us who normally choose to ignore the political street fighting which is now such a fixture in Bermudian public affairs.

What an ironic turn of events for the UBP, a grouping that once used to style itself as the natural party of Government in Bermuda. UBP founding father Sir Henry (Jack) Tucker, who brought many black Bermudians into the fold during the party's hey-dey in the late 1960s and early '70s, used to boast that at times it seemed likely "The House That Jack Built" could take every Parliamentary seat in Bermuda. Those who have taken an extremely dim view of Premier Brown's recent comments about the sun finally setting on the UBP as a capable and organised Opposition would do well to remember Sir Henry's prediction (which didn't come true, either).

On a personal note, my boss the Postmaster General was down at the main mail sorting facility in St. George's recently in the wake of some public criticisms of the Post Office's efficiency.

I don't know if he was making a joke or simply stating a grim fact when he told us the Post Office had finally hit the big time — it is the subject of more Peter Woolcok cartoons in The Royal Gazette than most of the politicians in Bermuda combined.

But I would like to say on behalf of myself and my fellow Post Office workers that we work hard to provide Bermuda with the best possible service that we can and will continue to do despite some of the recent mean-spirited criticism. Life in the Bermudian pressure cooker goes on ...