Several CARICOM countries have the lowest COVID-19 vaccination rates in the Americas and among some of the lowest in the world along with Africa At the 33rd Inter-sessional Meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government in Belize, March 1-2, the heads,...
So the pandemic is over. Right? Wrong! Government’s ham-fisted attempt to protect Jamaica from it is over. We’ve spent two years hemming and hawing; begging and pleading; and under-resourcing the pandemic response until we’ve achieved 23 per cent...
We expect schools will face significant challenges in adjusting to a new normal as they return to face-to-face classes after the COVID-19- enforced, two-year interregnum, which worsened the education deficit for large numbers of Jamaica’s children...
Pioneering African-American scholar-activist, bell hooks, died recently of kidney failure at the age of 69. She published 40 books, mostly on the intersection between gender, race, and class. hooks was a versatile writer and trenchant essayist who...
It’s a bad thing when someone samfies you. It’s much worse when you do it to yourself. Agreed? That grounds my concern about these impressive finds of firearms and ammunition. This is great news. It removes weapons of death and terror from the...
Thankfully, we are able to enjoy a limited and much-needed reduction in the suffering, deaths and austerities caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Already, the relaxation of precautionary measures has become evident. People are congregating in numbers...
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) attained the ripe old age of 60 in November 2021. Founded by the late former president, John F. Kennedy, the agency was designed as one of the most important tools of US international...
Whose side are you on, OUR? This refrain comes in various forms from utility customers and is often echoed in mainstream and social media. Public comments on the perceived role of the OUR, especially following an announcement of a utility tariff...
Its plan to allow a dual track approach to projects apart, the Caribbean Community’s (CARICOM) potentially most consequential initiatives in recent times must be its plan to slash the community food import bill by a quarter within three years – or...
Let’s see how strong our religious leaders’ faith is. All these confusing stories from pastors who use their imaginations and pretend to know the infinite will of God and Heaven is. If Vladimir Putin presses the red button and cancels all our...
On Tuesday, March 1, Martin Gooden, chairman of the Property Committee of the Jamaica Red Cross, emailed me in response to my column published last Sunday, ‘Lee Arbouin – Fierce champion of justice’. He wrote, “I hope I can have a dialogue with...
The Russians have defeated ‘Covidistan’ in a little over a week. The fearmongers who were warning about the deadliness of Omicron are now refugees even as they warn of a fifth invasion wave. Those who had amassed fortunes and consolidated power...
Among the more encouraging developments out of this week’s summit of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) heads of government in Belize was the leaders’ embrace of the principle of a multi-track community, which this newspaper has championed since its...
The Caribbean cannot escape the economic and financial consequences of the Russian Federation’s invasion of the sovereign, independent nation of Ukraine. The effects of these consequences are already being felt in higher oil prices (at the time...
Miles from nowhere I guess I’ll take my time Oh yeah, to reach there. Cat Stevens For a long part of my life, I was what Caribbean people, especially those from Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad, call a ‘Nowhereian’. Richard Allsop...
The Athenian philosopher Socrates (ca. 470-399 BC) famously declared (reported in Plato’s Apology) that “The unexamined life is not worth living”. Plato’s student – the great Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC) – once said, “Knowing yourself...
The Government, as we expected, seems intent on using a UK Supreme Court ruling that subjects of criminal investigation have a presumptive right to privacy, as its basis for clinging to the gag clause in the Integrity Commission Act. “It (the...
It’s interesting how perception works. The Government insists that it has consulted with the people of Portmore regarding the municipality being given parish status. The few citizens who have voiced opinions are saying the people were not consulted...
Social media can be a savage place. But as much as I decry the technology, I found myself spending a little more than the obligatory five minutes a day going through the memes and posts about the current crisis in Ukraine. Some were interesting,...
That Pearnel Charles Jr, the agriculture minister, has gone quiet recently on the possibility of suspending the tariff and other duties on chicken meat imports may be a good sign. While proceeding with the plan would provide price relief for...
SOME OF you may remember watching demonstrations in the late 1960s protesting President Johnson’s war in Vietnam. It was a war that American youth neither supported nor wanted to participate in. I believe we are witnessing a similar reaction by...
Ricky Skerritt, the president of Cricket West Indies (CWI), the governing body, and Wavell Hinds, the head of the players’ union, are right to have hailed Sonny Ramadhin’s contribution to West Indian cricket as pioneering and to have called him “a...
Political events in Europe, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, have pushed global oil prices to well over $100 per barrel. As the war heats up, more and more political tensions are rising between Russia, America, and her European North Atlantic...
As this article is published, the heads of government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) will be entering the second day of their 33rd Inter-Sessional Meeting in San Pedro, Belize, chaired by Prime Minister John Briceño. With the second...
Due to popular demand (from one reader), I feel obliged to produce ‘A Knight’s tale’, Part Deux. First and foremost, space limitations didn’t allow me a detailed explanation of Haemorrhoid’s basis for censuring the Dunce. So let’s recap. With five...
