It is difficult to fathom that apart from naming Adrian Stokes to chair a committee to oversee the implementation of the recommendations of the Professor Orlando Patterson-led commission on the reform of Jamaica’s education system, neither Prime...
That the threatened strike by civil servants has been averted does not end the restiveness among the island’s public-sector employees. It, however, is an opportunity for the Government to reset its communication and negotiating strategy with public...
Hon Pearnel Charles Sr and myself are unlikely collaborators, given the poisonous divisions of Jamaican politics and society. He is a rockstone Labourite (who, had there ever been a really honest public poll, would have been party leader); me, a...
Because of my job, I see the victims of loud noises, the resultant insomnia and several serious physical and mental problems that follow. Several patients (and their families) outline egregious conditions, but a few stand out in my mind. An elderly...
The hope that in the face of rational and logical argument the Government was persuaded of the error of its plan to build the national Parliament on the lands of National Heroes Park in Kingston seems to have been misplaced. After a long period...
The Government, led by Prime Minister Andrew Holness, recently took a deliberate political decision to print a $2,000 banknote bearing the images, side by side, of former prime ministers Michael Manley and Edward Seaga. No matter how the Hon Nigel...
If it is one thing I learned during my stint as the head of a trade union, it is that militancy spreads like a contagion. Indeed, we are seeing it spread now beyond the usual suspects that historically have caused governments the most concern. If...
“So are you a tailor in name only or you have little use and can make suits?” Wow, she is cracking a joke as the rookie enters her space in Studio 94. Tanya Powell-Edwards, my producer, who, along with Executive Producer Henry Stennett, recruited...
It’s so predictable. Hard-headed administrators religiously insist that students who do not obey hair-grooming rules must be kept out of school. There’s the usual outcry against exclusion. Things quiet down. And before you know it, there’s another...
Jamaica lost a champion for truth and transparency with the passing of pioneering journalist, Barbara Gloudon, OD, OJ. The gender barrier-breaking journalist, whose career in media, theatre and public relations spanned more than half a century,...
The Summit of the Americas, scheduled to be held in Los Angeles from June 8 to 10, should be regarded by all the heads of government as a golden opportunity to address the many challenges now confronting the hemisphere. Indeed, the impact of the...
We hear a lot about ‘blue’ movies and ‘blue’ moons but now we have a piece of ‘blue’ art which actually blew the top off the value of American paintings. Andy Warhol, the artist who became the leading figure in the ‘Pop Art’ movement, defined art...
Earlier this week, I caught an interview on Nationwide’s This Morning with Jamaican rights activist Taitu Heron, head of the Women and Development Unit of the Open Campus of the University of the West Indies, based in Barbados. The topic was...
Many of the world’s most impactful leaders were excellent orators: Nelson Mandela, Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King Jr, Barack Obama and the likes. Today, we recite their speeches and we tell stories about the privileges we got in hearing them...
Although the Holness administration says it is willing to explore the possibility of a new oil deal with Venezuela, it is highly unlikely that anything will happen unless there is a green light from Washington signalling that it is safe to proceed...
IT IS time to free ourselves of trans fats. The trans fats or trans-fatty acids in our food are a major cause of cardiovascular diseases, such as heart attacks and strokes that are the leading killers of adults today. Trans-fat consumption has also...
Prime Minister Andrew Holness seems to believe that violent altercations between soldiers and residents of Denham Town are being provoked by interest hoping to see an end to the declaration of that west Kingston community as a zone of special...
THE PEOPLE of Little Bay, Westmoreland, like the up to 35 per cent of Jamaicans living as so-called squatters, carry the weight of history on their backs. At stake is righting that history. At 60 years of Independence, we should consider this...
A suspension of the British Virgin Islands’ (BVI) legislature and the imposition of direct rule from London would not only be, as the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) says, backward and retrograde, it would confirm that Britain’s Tory government is...
Most people will say they love when things are going good, but when trial comes, without hesitation, they react in anger. Sadly, this anger is usually held on to and escalated into rebelliousness which grows into bitterness, unforgiveness and hate...
Trust, or lack of it, is a scarce commodity in Latin America and the Caribbean … Low levels of trust affect how you get reforms and change. [From reporting on the 2022 IDB Report – ‘Trust: The Key to Social Cohesion and Growth in Latin America and...
The Old Ball and Chain commanded another bee buzzing around in her Gilded Age bonnet to shut up while she took control of my computer. Old BC : Sometimes I think Old Grey Balls lives on Mars. While warbling on about crosses, he ignores Jamaica’s...
Rules are important. Without rules, institutions will fail to flourish and societies will descend into chaos and anarchy. Rules are, for the most part, to be respected. But there is also a place for rules to be questioned, challenged, or even...
Put crudely, what Christopher Tufton, the health minister, warned last week was that Jamaicans are digging their graves with their food, and the agency that helps to pay for their medicines when they become sick may soon run out of money. The data...
The little infant-school girl stood at the crossing just above the Ministry of Finance at Heroes Circle. The attendant with the sign stopped the traffic to let her pass across safely. Frustration: she wouldn’t budge until minutes later, when an...
