Although there are yet no complaints of the problem infecting Jamaica, the authorities should move to place beyond doubt that using artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to create, and distribute, non-consensual sexualised images of real people...
On Saturday, January 3, 2026, the eyes of the world turned to Venezuela. The response of CARICOM was pilloried. I have no issue with CARICOM’s terse diplomatic statement which touched the right notes and aligns well with the view that we are “...
As the then-outgoing Caribbean Community (Caricom) chair’s end of year message made clear, “[t]his year [i.e. 2025], Caricom made meaningful progress in advancing regional integration and economic growth.” But despite this progress, nearly a year...
Two Fridays ago Peter Espeut wrote an entertaining column ( The new builds on the old) challenging my advice to throw away the Old Testament. I’ve always maintained that, among The Gleaner’s mostly excellent columnists (with one glaring exception...
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines empathy as “ The action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the...
The central government’s continued control of where, when and how to undertake major capital works on courts cries out for a reform of, not only this anomaly, but of facets of the justice system. These include the process by which judges are...
Proposed and enacted reforms to rental housing laws overseas are renewing debate in Jamaica about how far governments should go in regulating private property, as England prepares to implement sweeping changes under its Renters’ Rights Act later...
More than a year ago, before Donald Trump’s formal re-occupation of the White House, this newspaper urged Jamaica and its Caribbean Community (CARICOM) partners to begin a strategic expansion of their global alliances, including seeking to do more...
“No limit except my morality.” You think is joke the man joking about the extent of his power? That statement coming from the commander of the world’s largest economy and most powerful armed forces cannot be parsed away or walked back. It bespeaks...
Jamaica is experiencing a rare and welcome moment. Murders are falling significantly. Yet, alongside this achievement lies a troubling counter-trend. Fatal police shootings have increased sharply, demanding scrutiny if today’s progress is to remain...
Modern economics used to treat uncertainty like bad weather. When recession threatened, uncertainty rose. When growth returned, it eased. During supply shocks or financial disruptions, you wait until things settle down. You listen to the weather...
Approximately 50 years ago, in the rustic rural community of Bailey’s Vale in St Mary, I was exposed to the frightening challenges of dementia. My grandmother was diagnosed with the disease that would pose major challenges for the family. At the...
Sunday cornmeal and peas, cooked with coconut milk. No chicken from the store or corner shop. The rooster, ‘Bigga’, was sacrificed to feed us. A beautiful Dominica fowl with black, white and grey mottled feathers was dinner. Rice was scarce in a...
I was drawn to The Gleaner editorial of Saturday January 3, ‘HIV treatment at crossroads’. It outlined and went into depth regarding Dr Richard Amenyah’s warning that “some of the global gains against the spread of HIV/AIDS could be in danger...
In the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa, Jamaicans are again confronting a familiar but uncomfortable truth: disasters do not affect all groups equally. Some communities quickly regain normalcy while others are thrown into prolonged disorder. This...
Now that the winds from Hurricane Melissa have subsided, Jamaica finds itself at a moment that demands reflection rather than routine recovery. Across the island, lives were disrupted, livelihoods damaged, and communities tested. Such experiences...
The recent recognition of Jamaican climate scientists Professor Donovan Campbell and Dr Shanecia Lester of The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, is commended and welcome. They contributed to the Global Environment Outlook, Seventh Edition...
I was in Barbados where my column was named, ‘Saturday’s Child’ and I got enough jokes by the people about how this “show-and-show” man could be called a “child”. My response was, “I think your wife trying to change the subject,” or “You better...
With Chief Justice Bryan Sykes having again warned of the unlikelihood of Jamaican judges “trying” their way out of the backlog of cases in the island’s high court, it is past time that Delroy Chuck, the justice minister, keeps his promise to...
I have written here before that I wish that the science of logic would be taught in every high school in Jamaica. As a start, it should improve student performance in mathematics, which is a refined form of pure logic; reasoned essays would be...
For months leading up to January 3, the US special forces had been rehearsing its step-by-step capture plan for the arrest of Nicolás Maduro from his home in Caracas, Venezuela. At roughly 2 a.m. in Caracas, US helicopters arrived on the compound...
A new year might mean new viral threats. Old viruses are constantly evolving. A warming and increasingly populated planet puts humans in contact with more and different viruses. And increased mobility means that viruses can rapidly travel across...
Jamaica is rebuilding. Not in theory. Not in headlines. Not in forecasts imported from somewhere else. But in real time – board by board, block by block, family by family. Hurricane Melissa did not just damage roofs and roads. It disrupted lives,...
The military strike on an Islamic State (IS or ISIS) affiliate in northern Nigeria is consistent with past US actions against IS and combatting international terrorism. The timing is not relevant. And it should not be conflated with attacks on...
PROPERTY INSURANCE I remember when we lived in a wooden house and my parents built a solid concrete structure in the same location subsequently. Leaving home many years later, I reflected on what my father once told me. After paying off the...
