Commentary

Last week, I wrote about our primary traditional export, sugar, the production and export of which has declined significantly in the region. When I did geography at high school in the 1970s, the Caribbean was known for its agricultural exports – in...

Haiti’s request that the United Nations investigate last month’s assassination of President Jovenel Moïse is not only sensible but stands on good precedent and ought to be supported by Haiti’s partner in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). At the...

Last night I dreamed we were playing dominoes at Gene Autry’s childhood home, with our pal Haemorrhoid as kibitzer. By now, regular readers know Ernest H. Flower (aka Haemorrhoid). He was a lazy articled clerk who complained incessantly about “...

Let’s face it, COVID-19 is now the pandemic of the unvaccinated. Despite the few instances of persons inoculated who become reinfected, even those evince only mild symptoms. The scourge of the third wave is among those unable or unwilling to be...

“I am super happy,” declared Elaine Thompson-Herah, after she decimated the field in the 200m, at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan. She is now the first woman in history to win the 100m and 200m in back-to-back Olympic Games, the second-fastest...

The phrase “in due course” offers no specific time when an event will happen. It will take place at a time that is appropriate, whenever that is. So it makes little sense attempting to infuse the issue with any more sense of urgency. That, we hope...

In her poem ‘Red Rebel Song’, Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze created a familiar character sounding a lot like her own self: “I is de red rebel woman accepting I madness declaring I song nah siddung eena attic tek no fire bun I singing it loud...

Almost 80 years ago, Jamaica’s Norman Manley asked a question that has been echoing throughout the 12 independent English-speaking Caribbean countries that form the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). He asked: “Are we satisfied to be obscure...

This week we celebrate freedom; on Sunday, we celebrated Emancipation from chattel slavery 187 years ago (the so-called ‘full free’ followed four years later), and today we celebrate 59 years of freedom from colonialism. Few are so naïve as to...

Jamaica’s health authorities cannot be accused of being oblivious to the challenges to mental well-being posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, or of failing to respond to its threats. Indeed, the health ministry has, over the past year, rolled out...

IT IS perfectly legitimate to ask of any person in ancient history ‘did he/she really exist?’. Because we were not around back then to express personal knowledge of anyone’s existence, we have to repose faith or trust in persons, documents,...

Recently, there have been talks about the right to freedom of speech, with the emphasis that we are living in a democratic society. However, I wish to suggest there is no such thing as freedom of speech. If we were free to say whatever comes to our...