Last year at this time, against the background of the commemoration of Emancipation Day across the region, I looked at the state of the sugar industry in my article titled ‘CARICOM Sugar: a limping industry’. With the COVID-19 pandemic putting the...
At a meeting in China last month, UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee voted to delist the English city of Liverpool as a World Heritage Site. Liverpool, the committee said, had suffered “irreversible loss of attributes conveying the outstanding...
Playing with Gene Autry against The Beast and Peter Poop (had the misfortune to ‘pass gas’ in class one day and was never allowed to forget), I drew the following: Five-blank; five-trey; five-four; double-five; they-deuce; deuce-ace; four-blank....
On July 18, Nashawn Brown, age four, died after he was beaten with a stick by his stepfather for eating too slowly. On June 28, seven-year-old Tianna Russell died from blunt force trauma allegedly inflicted by her father and stepmother. “All...
To: George Wright Member of Parliament Westmoreland Central Constituency The members of the Advocates Network encourage you to do the right thing and resign your position as a member of parliament (MP). More than three months have elapsed...
Apart from Jamaica’s clean medal sweep in the Women’s 100 metres at the Tokyo Olympics, the best bit of news last weekend was Health Minister Christopher Tufton’s claim of young people turning up for COVID-19 vaccinations. Unfortunately, Minister...
First of all, the guy, one citizen Higgins, pictured in the video which by now everybody has watched, cussing out the prime minister, was completely out of order. If he were younger and came from country, his granny woulda hold him down and wash...
When it was announced that the COVID-19 restrictions would be relaxed, I got a sinking feeling deep inside. Our Government announced that it was going to ease the COVID-19 measures and ‘watch it’. However, whenever very sick patients come to me and...
Bertel Moore, the chairman of the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation (WMC) and mayor of Savanna-la-mar, either possesses an outsized ego or a great sense of entitlement – or both – to have presided over the naming of the authority’s headquarters in...
One of the enduring legacies of colonialism is our love of lawns. Just think of King’s House. Acres and acres of wasteful grass! It is true that some of the land is under cultivation for food. But most of it is nothing but grass, serving...
I do not for one minute support the crass behaviour of the man recently detained by the police because he was “a person of interest in a case of larceny”. However, I do hope though that he is successful in his lawsuit against the police and that...
“Cock mouth kill cock” and the policeman succumbs to peer pressure and makes a mockery of the hard work of his colleagues. This is Jamaica and one of the few places where one is free to call a radio talk show and strip the government, without armed...
People shouldn’t be blamed if they assume that the General Legal Council (GLC) doesn’t have enough to do with its time, or that it has misplaced its priorities, or maybe has knotted them into a tangle. In the event, the court should help the GLC...
The Tobacco Control Bill 2020 is now before a Joint Select Committee of Parliament. The deliberations have ensured that different stakeholders, whether in the Parliament, civil society, or among the general citizenry are able to participate in the...
The idea of a politician withdrawing from representational politics is at odds with the reality of the Jamaican situation, where overwhelmingly, politicians tend to keep going until forced out by scandal, illness or death. That is why the story...
Much has been written about a meeting, convoked by the present chair of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS), to discuss “the situation in Cuba” which he was obliged to defer after objections by several member states...
The website Jamaicans.com comes up with some interesting, teasing headlines almost certain to attract your attention. For example, ‘What is the Jamaican national gravy? Here are the top five’, ‘30 women names Jamaicans no longer give their children...
According to the joint United Nations 2019 Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean, there are 600,000 deaths each year in Latin America and the Caribbean as a result of inadequate diets. Unhealthy diets...
Last week Thursday (July 22) was the 500th day since the first COVID-19 infection was confirmed in Jamaica; on that day confirmed infections totalled 51,686 (an average of more than 100 per day) and deaths deemed to be due to the virus numbered 1,...
Beyond the question of whether the indecent language law could, in today’s circumstance, survive a constitutional challenge, the Shaquille Higgins issue raises serious concerns about an apparent malicious abuse of power by the police and their...
DESPITE A loophole for it to do something else, the expectation is that the Government will further tighten the COVID-19 protocols when the restrictions it announced on Monday are reviewed in a fortnight’s time. At least, that is the takeaway for...
IS JAMAICA leadership serious about quality education for all our children? The answer to that question is a resounding no. Our leaders are certainly not serious, whether we are considering political, private sector, public sector, educators or...
THE CORONAVIRUS pandemic is a public health matter which calls for a higher standard of leadership for public engagement and behaviour change. It is well established that there is no cure for the disease – COVID-19 - caused by the virus, so what is...
The education sector has been one of the most heavily hit sectors during the COVID-19 era. None more so than the private education sector. Such is the devastation that it appeared that two schools announce closures at the end of each passing month...
Generation of vipers are how children of this time are being described because they are considered to be unruly, vicious and evil in behaviour. Howbeit that this generation has become this way without a cause? Didn’t the Bible say we should “train...
