A former senator from western Jamaica created a stir on social media this week when he posted a photograph of a beautiful cast-iron fountain in the Westmoreland capital, Savanna-la-Mar. Frederick Hamaty reminded his followers that the fountain was...
Autonomous weapons pose a clear and present danger to the Caribbean. Action to ban them should be seriously considered now. This is one of four recommendation that I made in an address to a conference on September 5, organised by the Caribbean...
When I saw an article in the Trinidad Guardian ‘Port-of-Spain plagued with problems’, I immediately felt that the plagues, like so many other health problems in Trinidad and Tobago (T...
If success were merely vicarious, then Monsignor Gladstone Wilson College, which began its first in-person classes in Montego Bay this week, would need go no further than its name. Except that Jamaica is littered with schools named for outstanding...
‘ Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ are two words that capture a deep philosophy. It means ‘the world is one family’. This is an all-embracing outlook that encourages us to progress as one universal family, transcending borders, languages, and ideologies....
It must be frustrating being a member of Jamaica’s Integrity Commission. On the one hand the commission must detect and identify corruption among politicians and senior members of the public sector; that is the easy part. The hard part is to get...
In an editorial comment published on September 7, The Gleaner questioned why the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) had not used its presumed powers under the law to determine fares for Jamaica’s public transport sector. In fact, by an Order in...
LAST WEEK, I wrote about the awesome power of the media to control and manipulate minds. I spoke about the lessons that the Nazi propagandists of the Third Reich had taught us, and showed how dangerous a weaponised mass media can be. I acknowledged...
Cultural Icon Louise Bennett-Coverley is celebrated annually on September 7, which is the anniversary of her birth. To commemorate her life and legacy, we host events and have even mounted a monument in her honour. All these things are good, but...
Published:Wednesday | September 6, 2023 | 10:15 AM
The public outcry over the Government paying to keep Stocks and Securities Limited (SSL) on life support is not completely surprising. But that reaction misses the bigger picture, including the public interest value of the move, as well as the...
Published:Wednesday | September 6, 2023 | 12:06 AM
Political revolutionary winds of change are sweeping across West Africa in countries such as Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, and Gabon. These political upheavals is driving terrible fear in the crooked hearts of corrupt political leaders and giving...
Published:Wednesday | September 6, 2023 | 12:06 AM
I have been following the reparations discussions and have written at least one article in this column addressing the subject. I am wading in again. There is a report in the Loop News of July 31, 2023 titled ‘The Repair Campaign, founded by Denis...
Jamaica, as a small island, is well rated on the international scene. The country has been progressing on many fronts, but it is slow, and a lot of it boils down to our disregard for customer service. For persons who have travelled to some of the...
The Dunce was lectured by Gene Autry about thinking first; playing after. I posed double-six; Dessie played six-blank; Autry blank-deuce; The Dunce double-deuce. Then I went two-sixes. Dessie passed. Autry played six-five. The Dunce triumphantly...
The excessively hot classrooms to which students and teachers are returning after the summer recess is another of the effects of the global climate crisis that could exacerbate learning loss in Jamaica even before the island has a chance to catch...
These are queries which became unavoidable while listening to or reading the major news last week. PUFFERY If the International Monetary Fund is so happy with the state of the Jamaican economy, why aren’t people who live here happy too? How come...
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has, without a doubt, been the most popularly used term since the beginning of 2023. While the technology is not new, significant advancements have shed new light on creating greater opportunities for the use of AI in...
The plan to divert minibuses from adjacent streets into the Half -Way Tree Transport Centre is a sensible idea. So, too, in the circumstances is the declared intention to offer credible fare increases to the island’s route taxi and bus operators...
Salmon’s article, ‘Pragmatic reparations versus noise’, published in The Gleaner of August 31, calls for comment. The article has misconceptions, some of which, concededly, may be due to the manner in which the Report on Reparations for...
Jamaica may be affected more than others by the exodus of teachers from classrooms for better-paying jobs elsewhere, including abroad. The problem, however, isn’t uniquely Jamaican. It’s across the Caribbean and poses serious threats to the...
What if Jamaica was one big constituency allowing for every vote to count instead of a voting system from the Middle Ages operating in 63 individual constituencies? What if we used the Constitutional Reform Process to reimagine Jamaica’s electoral...
We are becoming accustomed to hearing the phrase “they were in the wrong place at the wrong time”. This is usually followed by unpleasant anecdotes of innocent people being accidentally swooped up in a police operation or people being injured or...
It might be shocking to him that hardly anybody in Jamaica knows of Stephen A. Smith. In fact, among the majority of the 4.5 billion people who live in Asia, his name wouldn’t even ring a bell. And what is, perhaps, sad is that so caught up in his...
Rifling through the pockets of a gravely injured gunshot victim, as reportedly happened in the Airy Castle community recently, is an example of tampering with a crime scene and, more significantly, it is a form of obstruction of justice. The police...
The tragedy of the complete destruction of Lahaina on Maui by a raging wildfire has gripped the attention of the world. Hawaiians search for answers to what caused such an unprecedented disaster, why the authorities issued no warning, how the...
