Did you see the television clip last week of beautiful Afreen’s mother, herself very unwell, who brushed off her own pain and poverty to devote her whole being to coping with her daughter’s talent and sickness? That’s real heroism and real holiness...
When , as the expression goes, the team that set about designing a thoroughbred came up with the camel, they produced quite a worthy animal – one well adapted to its environment. But camels do not win thoroughbred races. Hopefully, Jamaica’s...
Yesterday, Fathers Inc celebrated 30 years, and if age is just a number, I understand why I don’t like math. Unfortunately, too many Jamaicans dislike numbers, too, and live in denial of the facts which stare at them like a thieving puss. Today is...
CHAKA-CHAKA SPELLING Sunday gone, bashment pon di Internet fi Walter Rodney an im wife Patricia an dem three pikni Shaka, Kanini an Asha! Two Thursday aback, Govament a Guyana mek big announcement seh dem a go change up Rodney death cerfiticket...
The field of medicine lost a quiet giant last Thursday. Although many would not know him, Professor Cyril Fletcher guided the medical careers of generations of doctors trained at The University of the West Indies, Mona. Although he was a specialist...
On May 30, Professor Densil Williams, with his usual luminosity and panache, outlined the management complexities of The University of the West Indies (UWI) in an excellent article titled ‘Understanding complexities of The University of the West...
In his report to Parliament on his portfolio a month ago, Daryl Vaz, the energy minister, announced that the Government would soon go to market with requests for proposals for renewable energy systems, in keeping with the administration’s plan to...
Merely a day after the United States (US) government reversed Trump-era rules that had made it harder for immigrants fleeing violence to qualify for asylum, 11 persons, including Jamaicans, came ashore on a South Florida beach. Of all the ironies...
More commonality was shown by CARICOM countries in a vote on Tuesday June 15 at the Organization of American States (OAS) than has been seen in recent times. Eleven CARICOM countries joined 15 other member states of the OAS in adopting a...
If 68 comes before 69, what comes after 70? Forgetting the jokes and tongue-lashing from my friends, male and female, about my 69th year, the answer then, now and in the future, as I head into my 76th year, is back pain. In fact, from 70 onwards,...
Jamaicans need to eat more locally produced food, particularly fruits, vegetables and tubers, so that we import less and keep healthy. The 2021 Global Report produced by The Food Security Information Network points to a food crisis driven by...
The great virtue of democracies is not only that they give expression to the will of the majority, but, also, that they protect the rights and interests of the minority. This is a principle of which we did not expect to have to again remind Marisa...
Sociologists like myself begin with the assumption that human beings are rational, that is, they ground their behaviour in certain precepts and logic. And, therefore, to explain why people behave the way they do, these underlying precepts and logic...
THE CORONAVIRUS pandemic has triggered concerns for health and wellness generally at the workplace, but more specifically, my thoughts have turned to the impact on working women. This has piqued my interest, because the staff of Manpower and...
KINDLY ALLOW me to comment on the Gleaner article ‘Why didn’t she call me?’ published on June 8. A 49-year-old lady apparently committed suicide by driving her vehicle into the Rio Cobre on June 4. If she had made a simple call to a friend or...
IT MAY be merely coincidental that Herman Athias’ resignation as the chief information and technology officer at the University Hospital of the West West Indies (UHWI) followed immediately on this newspaper’s report on the bungled implementation...
No one, not least this newspaper, would claim that the buses and taxis that traverse Jamaica’s roads, especially in the Kingston Metropolitan Transport Region (KMTR), are examples of decency and discipline. They race and jostle, break laws and put...
In the 1962 Constitution of Jamaica (Chapter V, Part 2, Section 48), under the heading ‘Powers and Procedures of Parliament’, there is a provision which reads, in part, that “... Parliament may make laws for the peace, order and good government of...
In 2001, as part of the Doha Development Round of the World Trade Organization (WTO), members agreed to undertake negotiations to clarify and improve existing fisheries subsidies. The concern was that subsidies provided in fishery industries were...
Two Fridays ago, while getting ready to go to work, I came across an interesting meme on Instagram. It read: “Let me tell you how real depression is: There are people alive only because their children are.” I found it interesting because I knew...
On behalf of the academic and non-governmental organisations (The Heart Foundation of Jamaica, Diabetes Association of Jamaica), members of the National Mirror Committee (NMC), we are very concerned about recent developments in relation to Final...
P.J. Patterson, a former prime minister of Jamaica, has this newspaper’s support in his call for greater collaboration between Africa and the Caribbean in global affairs. But as Mr Patterson knows, while the interests of countries and regions may...
The length of the term of president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) and that organisation’s unique executive structure are pertinent matters for debate by people vying for the leadership of the JTA. But a more urgent issue is the vision...
There is a spectrum of men who produce children. Many men are fertilisers who simply fertilise eggs, with little or no affection or loyalty towards the female or his progeny. Some men only produce children to validate their manhood and to fit in...
Absent schooling and present hunger are the plagues afflicting two-thirds of the Jamaican people right now. Tell mi is lie mi a tell. Last week a horrid and dangerous consensus was finally admitted. It isn’t 120,000: it isn’t even 200,000 of our...
