The video was simultaneously bizarre and disturbing. It was recorded at Homestead Primary and Infant School and showed a grade-three student repeatedly picking up rocks off the ground, walking up to a classroom, and throwing them in the room...
There are many matters in Jamaica’s crisis-riddled education system that require urgent remedial action. But just as important as any that commands the public’s attention is the need to end the frittering away of taxpayers’ money on maintaining...
Last Tuesday, this newspaper challenged the ever-optimistic Planning Institute of Jamaica to explain how the more than three-quarters of a million Jamaicans of working age who are outside of the labour market, could be brought within it to reduce...
The job of medical doctors is far more difficult than it appears. Aside from the very broad spectrum of problems that we see, we are also faced with several obstacles when trying to reduce the risk of disease, or adverse outcomes of diseases that...
When in June, Adrian Stokes announced October 30 for the first town hall-style meeting of his committee that has oversight of the project to transform Jamaica’s education system, this newspaper lamented that the date was “a distance too far”. It is...
The faded record jacket is still in a prized corner of my cabinet after 43 years, with its blurb asking the question, “How can a company mining for bauxite strike gold?” The answer has been documented over those many years on the cover of the long-...
A couple of weeks ago, one of my friends sent an email with this subject line, “My favourite activist …” She asked, “Do you know if the Cement Company plans to expand towards Rockfort mineral bath closing it off permanently? I’d be heartbroken...
In 2015, as the president of the Jamaica Medical Doctors Association (JMDA), I spoke out about the dangerous conditions in the health sector. Many chastised me as a political activist and, at best, an alarmist. After all, how was it possible that...
Somewhere in this world of warped priorities, there is the need to push a multicoloured flag in the face of the host nation, despite them and FIFA making it clear that doing so was not acceptable. True, there are sodomy laws affixed to the death...
Like most Jamaicans, this newspaper celebrates the receipt by the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) of 50 additional garbage trucks and its launch this week of a campaign to remove garbage pile-ups across the island. The clean-up...
Like most online humour these days, my column starts with a Donald Trump joke. It seems that loads of people are turning away from voting for him because he has promised that, if he is reinstalled as president, he will ban shredded cheese. This...
Throughout the world, people and their governments and central banks are worrying about inflation, or the rate of increase in the cost of living. In many countries, this concern about the cost of living has become a prime consideration in general...
Four decades on, HIV/AIDS, from which over 40 million people worldwide have died since the first diagnosis in 1981, isn’t the rampant killer it used to be. It doesn’t have to be a killer at all. But people still contract the disease. Globally, 38.4...
I spent all of last week in the south of Brazil (Porto Alegre) attending a conference. This coincided with Brazil’s first match in the 2022 World Cup Finals and I took the opportunity of sitting in the market square to watch it, along with a large...
The recent gone-viral video of a licensed firearm holder pulling a gun on a woman, supposed to be homeless, in New Kingston, has brought to the fore one issue that we can’t ignore for much longer – the dangers associated with homelessness in...
Mark Golding’s exhumation of a proposal allowing for relatively lengthy precharge detention in Jamaica is a good starting point for discussions between the Government and the Opposition over the conundrum in which the Holness administration finds...
I confess that I do not know much about the curriculum of the West Indies Academy. In a recent CG United Super50 Cup match, I watched the Academy play against the Jamaica Scorpions. I was impressed with the wealth of talent, determination, team...
Since 1988, the world has celebrated World AIDS Day in remembrance of those who died of AIDS-related illnesses and those living positively and bravely with HIV. World AIDS Day remains as relevant today as it has always been, reminding people and...
Published:Wednesday | November 30, 2022 | 12:08 AM
Given the declared premise of the scheme, we assume that we ought to applaud that the trade unions representing around 60 per cent of public-sector employees have signed compensation reform deals with the Government, which should give the workers...
Published:Wednesday | November 30, 2022 | 12:06 AM
I have been reading some interesting reports and statements on regional trade by some prominent officials, former and present, within the region. The fifty-fifth session of CARICOM’s Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) started in...
One of Haemorrhoid’s best shaggy dog tales was his story of the man who had two women. Remember Haemorrhoid? Ernest H. Flower was a lazy Articled Clerk (student lawyer before UWI’s Law Faculty took over) whose constant complaint about “piles and...
The good news from the Planning Institute of Jamaica’s (PIOJ) recent quarterly review of the island’s economy was that it remained on a growth path. For the three months up to the end of September, real output increased by an estimated 4.3 per cent...
It has been four years since the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) began discussions on the adoption of a front-of-package labelling system to protect population health in the region. As a public- and global-health lawyer, I can confidently...
Saturday’s decision by the Biden administration to allow the American company, Chevron, to resume limited oil production in Venezuela, and the agreement between Nicolás Maduro’s government and the opposition to unfreeze billions of dollars for...
I attended the 35th Neighbourhood Watch Conference at the Kendal Camp and Conference Centre in Manchester on Saturday, November 12. The conference was extremely interesting, educational, and inspiring. This year’s theme was ‘Neighbourhood Watch...
