When I was small, every family had a case for safe-keeping called a ‘cabinet’. Then we started to call it a “safe” but I quickly realised, right after Trinidad and Tobago (T...
The reason Spaniards established colonies in the New World was to enrich Spain with gold and silver bullion, and to create wealth through trade in spices and exotic eatables (to diversify a mostly bland diet). Spain shouldn’t have it all, and so...
When I hear recent university graduates referring to their places of employment as modern-day plantations, I know something is off with what is happening in the job market. Unfortunately, I hear it often. At the same time, I have been hearing much...
There is increasingly a tendency by government officials of shifting the blame for Jamaica’s crime problem to human-rights advocates by accusing them of mollycoddling criminals. It is a dangerous practice that risks undermining constitutional...
Our geographical disposition provides many challenges the likes of which Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) cannot deal with on their own. We are plagued with high rates of unemployment and crime. The guns, ammunition, drugs, human trafficking...
Political independence in 1962 started the lengthy process of changing the Jamaican society. There have been many positive and progressive gains but, I believe, a lot more needs to be done to rid the country of its racist and elitist past. Jamaica’...
Yesterday, a gaggle of former, mostly retired, foreign service officers were hosted by Sheila Monteith at the new, high-rise Hugh Lawson Shearer Building on the Kingston waterfront, just east of the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ). It is the home of the...
It is possible that Dr Horace Chang, the national security minister, can configure a legal interpretation of the national consensus on crime that justifies his, and by extension the Government’s, disengagement from its oversight process. But the...
The following is a joint opinion piece by World Trade Organization Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; UN Conference on Trade and Development Secretary General Rebeca Grynspan; and International Trade Centre Executive Director Pamela Coke-...
The war in Ukraine has certainly elevated the issue of food security, which was a major item on the agenda of the recent 43rd CARICOM Heads of Government Conference. It has highlighted our dependence on wheat flour, something we have taken for...
The Old Ball and Chain has a lifelong abhorrence of men who drink to excess. She also has a long list of dislikes about men, including men with beards (so, as an eternal lesson, God inspired her three sons to all grow beards); men without what she...
With Parliament’s review of the Electricity Act suspended, and the Generation Procurement Entity (GPE) less than transparent about its ideas for adding capacity to the grid, there is a sense of drift and incoherence about Jamaica’s plan for...
When plans for widespread COVID-19 vaccination were announced, an experienced vaccinologist sounded a warning. He said the vaccines were “excellent weapons”, but stated that mass vaccination (vaccinating young and old, healthy and unhealthy,...
On October 16, 2018, I moved the following motion in the House of Representatives: “Be it Resolved that this Honourable House debate the desirability of teaching Jamaican Standard English as a second language, given the demonstrable fact that most...
The Gleaner headline of Wednesday, July 13, read, “Church umbrella group calls for prayers to stand up against crime”. In the body of the piece is this paragraph, “The organisation says it stands firmly against all forms of crime and violence and...
When Prime Minister Andrew Holness last week helped to open the European Union’s (EU) new offices on Seymour Avenue in the Golden Triangle area of Kingston and St Andrew, most attention was to his remarks about the good relations between Jamaica...
Campion College is often ranked at the top of the pile among public high schools in Jamaica. Admission to Campion is generally coveted by parents of the top-performing children in the placement exams at the end of their primary education....
Police culture is a multidimensional construct that is shaped by a wide spectrum of factors. These factors range from recruitment and training practices to professional development and professional standards, to leadership and accountability...
CHAKA-CHAKA SPELLING Sunday gone, di International Reggae Poster Contest gi out di name dem a di top 100 winner fi 2022. One whole heap a artist did send een poster fi di competition: 653 a dem. Some a dem send more than one poster. A 1,180...
Tachycardia, a condition where the heart beats at a chronically fast rate without obvious stimulus. Poor my vocabulary, but incontinent has nothing to do with a large land mass such as North America. However, the women’s 200 metres, in the World...
Some weeks I struggle to select a topic on which to write my column. Then there are weeks such as this past one, where visiting at least a dozen topics makes the decision equally difficult. The events that occurred last week are in themselves...
The economic loss and social disruption caused by fires demand that fire prevention be placed at the heart of the national conversation about how to cope with hazards and disasters. Recent fire events have caused us to examine anew some of the...
Over the past few weeks, global warming has caused the deaths of thousands of people in Europe, and it has dislocated communities in the United States. Suddenly, climate change is a big item on major news programmes and talk shows in the...
Are you ready for my column today? If so, get set, but not go. The reason is that “ready” is not ready for the top ten, “set” is set for the next few years as the leader of the pack, “pack” is not among the front-runners, and while “go” is on the...
I am in no doubt that Jamaica’s home tongue is a separate language from English, the home tongue of our former imperial masters. For me, in many ways the Jamaican language is more expressive and versatile than English; some concepts and ideas are...
