The CARICOM Heads of Government held their 42nd session virtually, July 5-6, but its outcome was overshadowed by the crisis in Haiti following the assassination of its president, Jovenel Moïse. Given the economic fragility of the CARICOM member...
So I got a call from Gene Autry. “Fatboy,” he intoned menacingly, “Why’d you back down?” “Back down?” “You heard me. You allowed some fossil to bully you into falsely confessing you used ‘practice’ wrongly.” “No,” I defended stoutly. “Not a fossil...
I cannot pretend to know or fully understand how it feels to be a young person in 2021. Growing up in the 1960s and ‘70s Britain as a young black woman was, despite my loving family, often incredibly hard; but it seems staggeringly harder now for...
We all exist because of sex. I mean, apart from those who are here because of assisted reproductive techniques such as in vitro fertilisation, which constitute a small minority, we are on the planet because our parents had sex. We may not like to...
Having decided against treating the last school year as what it really was – a mostly lost period for learning – the education authorities must urgently explain their strategy for remediation now that the results of the Primary Exit Profile (PEP)...
That was Ainsley’s explanation of his broken arm, swollen face and the stitches in his head. The plausible story he told was that some teenagers had raided the bucket where he keeps whatever food he has. “I had to defend my food,” he asserted with...
There is an indeterminate number of individuals who believe that we should stop fearing this pandemic, open everything up, live our accustomed lives, and accept that a relative few will suffer and die from the virus. It’s Darwinian reasoning, it’s...
Political parties have no inherent right to exist, or thrive. Indeed, even formerly great ones sometimes collapse, or merely putter along shadows of their former selves. Which is what happened to Britain’s Liberal Party, the great institution of...
The decision by the People’s National Party (PNP) to establish a Vision Committee is an indication that it wants to move in the right direction. For where there is no vision, the people will just continue perishing. So the PNP’s decision would be...
When Education Minister Fayval Williams tabled in Parliament – as this newspaper urged her to do – the Byron Commission report on the state of The University of the West Indies (UWI), she merely provided a broad outline of its findings, offering no...
It is my hope that George Wright intends to serve the next four years as member of parliament. In doing so, he will be doing far more for our democracy than any other first-time representative in our history. I do not for one minute support Mr...
CHAKA-CHAKA SPELLING Long time now fi wi two political party dem a talk-talk bout seh di Queen a England fi stop rule fi wi country. Di politician dem know seh wi a form fool a gwaan like seh wi independent fi true. Di said same Queen weh gi wi...
She will not be in the Olympic 100 metres finals. Young, with no intention to use a banned substance, this innocent, and promising athlete had earlier missed out on her first chance to make a senior team and a place in the women’s 100 metres team....
Crime and violence continue to be the number-one concern for most Jamaicans. It is the thing that has motivated many retirees to offload their containers in south Florida rather than complete the journey to their desired destination. There are some...
All may not be lost in the efforts to improve relations between the government of Cuba and the Biden administration in the US, despite the rhetoric – most of it emanating from the Cuban government in the wake of protests by thousands across the...
As a youngster, when I woke, I had to look after our little goat, Meggie, who was always thirsty. That was then. In those days ‘woke’ was the past tense of ‘wake’, which meant “to emerge or cause to emerge from sleep”. The word ‘goat’ referred...
We hope that Delroy Chuck exceeds his wish and that hundreds, thousands even, of ordinary folk sign up to be conflict negotiators under the insufficiently promoted, and underused, restorative justice programme the minister wants to make a...
Last week on a ‘vox pop’ about the upcoming sexual harassment bill I heard a man complain: “Den how you goin’ fine you wife?” Clearly, for that brother (and for too many Jamaican men), courting a woman means “putting question” to her. And for some...
Kingston is at a crucial moment in the evolution of its physical fabric, property ownership and infrastructural modification.This is the overwriting of a predominantly suburban template with a medium rise condominium template, which, while not...
IN RECENT weeks, and not for the first time, there has been a tremendous clamour over the issue of cultural appropriation. This time it was about the use of the word ‘J’Ouvert’ as the label for a rum product to be produced by the well-known...
GLOBAL FINANCE leaders of the Group of 7 richest nationals recently agreed to endorse a global minimum corporate tax rate of 15 per cent. Part I of this article discussed the resulting wave of global concern about the likely impact of this historic...
MAYBE BECAUSE its entire crew was Honduran, the disappearance last week of the fishing vessel, Fallen Star, appears to have evoked little emotion among Jamaicans. Yet, the loss of the vessel’s 15 hands, if, indeed, there are no survivors, would...
“Teach us true respect for all … Strengthen us the weak to cherish, Give us vision lest we perish”. It is 2021 AD and there is still no room in the inn. No room in the schools, no room in the churches, no room in the places of recreation,...
Haiti overview: Independence – 1804; full CARICOM member – 2002; population – 11.4 million; GDP 2020 – US$13.4 billion; total trade – estimated US$2.4 billion (2017); 2020 remittances – US$3.8 billion (84 per cent from USA); major trading partner...
No one should heed the call to irresponsibility and bad governance by councillors Fenley Douglas and Norman Scott, and the other members of the St Catherine Municipal Corporation (SCMC), who want to replicate the Constituency Development Fund (CDF...
