I have always wanted to be doctor. As a child, I cannot remember wanting to be anything else. My curiosity about science and a desire to help others pushed me in that direction, and I was highly driven to reach medical school. Now, 32 years after...
The National Water Commission (NWC), Jamaica’s state-owned producer and distributor of piped, potable water, says it wants to introduce a scheme that mirrors one this newspaper floated more than a decade ago: charging a higher price for the...
Halloween is celebrated on October 31 each year. It began with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. People lit bonfires and wore costumes to ward off ghosts. It became synonymous with scariness and horror. Many movies, books and television shows...
For many of his age, the ninth-century Pope, Formosus, a bad man by many accounts, was the equivalent of the late Bishop Kevin Smith. When Formosus died, many hearts still felt that his crimes were unrequited. So for ‘justice’ not only to be done...
The writers for this season of Jamaica Is Not A Real Place (JINARP) are getting lazy. There are now more plot holes and loose ends than a Hallmark movie and they’ve just resorted to shock value to keep the audience entertained. How can you...
It is agreed that there are no serious legal obstacles to the use of electronic monitoring of the movement of people who are on conditional release from jail, including some who are on bail. Indeed, Delroy Chuck, the justice minister, believes...
‘Talking Gleaner’ is not a catchy term for the many podcasts hosted by the newspaper. The Jamaica Sound System Federation’s Facebook page confirms that, “Before dancehall, reggae, rocksteady or ska, sound systems provided the primary source of...
Based on the allegations, he was facing ‘grave’ consequences; but who has ever seen a lawyer file a writ of habeas corpse? Here we were, waxing biblical about religious leaders like the deceased pastor Kevin Smith purporting to have supernatural...
Three weeks ago, an internal memo was written to the leadership of the Regional Health Authorities under my signature reminding them that the Government was involved in a process of developing an alcohol policy and that public health should not...
The ongoing debate about whether stolen artefacts should be returned to their countries of origin, just gained fresh legs with reports that Germany is set to return the Benin Bronzes to Nigeria. Benin Bronzes, a misnomer since the collection also...
On October 21, the news that a key suspect in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was found in Jamaica, coming only days after the news of cult murders in Montego Bay, sent chills down the spine of many of us in Jamaica. It has...
I woke up, as I do every Wednesday morning, my head buzzing with the research I had done for this column and the compulsion to write. I was going to share with you my belief that we in the 13 English-speaking Caribbean countries have more in common...
One of the assumptions in any education system is that previous generations discovered knowledge so useful and important that it should be passed on to succeeding generations in a formal way. This knowledge is then included in curricula, and makes...
Old dogs may, after all, be able to learn new tricks – and for the better. Which is one of the takeaways from Phillip Paulwell’s sadly too-little-noticed speech in Parliament on Tuesday. The portion of the remarks by the East Kingston and Port...
We need some urgent attention on the issue of garbage collection. For the last couple of months, the service seems to have fallen off terribly in some areas. For example, it is now not uncommon to see the garbage piling up at my yard, at my...
JAMAICA PUBLIC Service (JPS), the light and power company, is rightly concerned about the perennial thieving of a significant portion of the electricity it offers for sale. But disconnecting power from whole communities, including customers in good...
THE KEVIN Smith affair has beguiled and enthralled us all week. Ever since the alarming news first came out of Montego Bay two Sundays ago, Jamaica has been mesmerised by this incredible story. Who would’ve thought that in 2021, suicidal religious...
COMMISSION, COMMITTEE, task force, board of directors, management board, and working group. They have roles and responsibilities whether in affairs of the state, businesses, clubs, or non-governmental organisations. The roles are set out in terms...
The eight organisations, including the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), which this week published an open letter to the Government, estimated that Jamaica’s students have lost around 1.3 billion in-class hours in the 19 months since face-to...
Published:Wednesday | October 27, 2021 | 1:44 AMThe SSP Diaries
As children raised in the Caribbean, and perhaps elsewhere in the world, our parents ensured that we were vaccinated against all known diseases. This process commenced even before we ‘came to our senses’ and long before we were capable of thinking...
“Science has made it clear that the Earth is fast approaching its tipping point of climate disaster and, as the next generation who are already bearing the brunt of climate impacts, we are immensely dissatisfied at the pace and scope of climate...
The tragic events that unfolded at the Pathways International Kingdom Restoration Ministries in Albion, St James, are disturbing. At a ceremony on Sunday, October 17, about 144 men, women, and children gathered in the church, violating a rule...
Since the horrendous human slaughter in a St James church, the general view is, the sick outcome was to be blamed on ‘cults’. Commissioner Antony Anderson, on the scene, said, “We were concerned that some form of ritualised killing was going to...
After last week’s election by Barbados’ parliament of the country’s governor-general, Dame Sandra Mason, to become the island’s first non-executive president, global news coverage listed Jamaica among the dwindling number of countries that retain...
Jamaica is not expected to share the same geopolitical considerations as developed countries with respect to the management of the world’s oceans. But a recently launched review, by a British parliamentary committee, of the United Nations...
