The logic of Ed Bartlett’s proposal for a single visa for tourists entering Caribbean Community (CARICOM) states is unimpeachable. In fact, it would require only the reverse engineering of an arrangement that has already worked, but which, as tends...
“Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive”. Words taken from the story Marmion by Sir Walter Scott. A line that is so apt when describing what’s happening on the world scene as well as what’s taking place in Jamaica today....
The suggestion last week by a group of development planners that it should be mandatory that maintenance systems be built into all significant projects ahead of approval finds sympathy with this newspaper. The proposal must be seriously considered...
Just as nearly 70 per cent of the human body is made up of water, almost 70 per cent of our planet is also covered in water. We know that too much or too little water in the human body can spell major risks to one’s life; this symbolic similarity...
Monday, July 4, was marked as CARICOM Day. The 43rd session of the CARICOM Heads of Government Conference opened in Paramaribo, Suriname, on Sunday, July 3. I watched the recording of the opening ceremony. It gave me the opportunity to see a bit...
While we acknowledge the initiative by the health and education ministries to address the pandemic-worsened anxieties and other mental health problems faced by Jamaican students, this newspaper is concerned that a summer hiatus in the programme may...
Like Billy Eckstein, I apologise. Tuesdays are days for humour, satire and tongues lodged in cheeks. But Peter Espeut and Clinton Chisholm (separately) have forced me to be boring twice on one week. Ugh. Peter’s columns are usually good even...
Abortion is a process that affects women and their bodies. Yes, it involves embryos and foetuses too, but these are in a woman’s body, so any process affecting them ultimately affects a woman’s body as well. If we aim to reduce abortion rates,...
Chief Justice Bryan Sykes believes that photocopying machines in Jamaica’s courts are too expensive to operate and that the system of replicating documents would be more economically and efficiently achieved with other technologies. Which,...
Easily half of the school-leavers at the recent high-school graduation had taken neither CSEC nor City and Guilds examinations. They had missed too much school, were beset from seventh grade with unremediated literacy and numeracy challenges, or...
With all that is going on in the world today, and particularly in my homeland, Jamaica, I find that I have developed a strong desire to visit my dream world when I sleep. I have begun experiencing more detailed dreams, to the point where I am...
There are three significant takeaways from the Government’s decision to allow its declaration of a state of emergency (SOE) in the parish of St Catherine to lapse at Friday’s expiry of its statutory 14-day life, rather than seeking Parliament’s...
Over the past 10 days I have attended the funeral of Chieftin Campbell, a man murdered by a mob in Mandeville, and the graduation ceremony at Beulah All Age, the institution which three of the murdered children from Cocoa Piece in Clarendon attend(...
“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it”. The old adage rings true and has proven itself repeatedly as we are guided in how we bring up our children in an effort to nurture well-meaning citizens that...
We will call him Professor Scrubinsky. A professor of economics at a prestigious university, he still finds time to raise what are possibly the world’s most expensive tomatoes in his backyard garden. In a chance meeting with the professor, we...
Prime Minister Andrew Holness made a remarkable speech in May at the opening of a Business Process Outsourcing centre. Here’s an excerpt: “We have to see language, English, as an economic asset. Take away all the cultural issues about, you know,...
Customer service at the island’s utility companies has taken a hit, with average performance in a recent survey falling below 50 per cent. No surprise here, for aggrieved customers have been consistently complaining about the shockingly poor...
If hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, it also hath no music like a Caribbean man with a horn or one of our women playing second fiddle. The Dictionary of Caribbean English by Richard Allsopp makes me realise that, unless you’re a cow, bison or...
Much has been written in the Caribbean media about the contest surrounding the post of Commonwealth secretary-general (SG) that was decided on Friday, June 24 at an election in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. Many statements and claims were made...
The Lex Talionis (The Law of Retaliation – An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth) – first found in the Code of Hammurabi (1780 BC) and supported in the Old Testament – was an advance over previous practice. Even in the early Old Testament an...
Even as we adhere to the principle of the sanctity of contracts, this newspaper believes Jamaica would benefit from a robust analysis of whether Jamaica’s existing, and expanding, network of tolled highways has delivered on its economic promise...
There is a conversation we need to have about human rights – our collective understanding and appreciation of the value of rights. Too many of us believe human rights are a shackle and those who advocate in this regard are seen as enemies, though...
A democracy has checks and balances partly to guard against incompetence by a government and the ministers it appoints. And the government’s success hugely depends on having a competent team whose portfolio fits their capabilities. How ministers...
How fitting that the United States hosted the Ninth Summit of the Americas in June, when we celebrate Caribbean American Heritage Month. Through a coincidence of timing, the Summit of the Americas took place at the same time as my own, long-planned...
I work six days a week. Sundays are the only days I can pursue other interests other than medicine. I sometimes wonder if I am working only for Sundays. No, I don’t go to church. It’s a life of working, eating, drinking, sleeping, punctuated by...
