The latest shock and outrage in Jamaica surrounds the video of a boy, who when asked what he wants to be when he grows up, replied that he wants to be a gunman and shoot police. “This is learnt behaviour”; “Where are the parents?”: “The cameraman...
Jamaica faces difficult choices over the next two years to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic on a stronger and more resilient footing, within the context of the evolving climate crisis. Fortunately, emerging geopolitical trends are presenting...
Last Thursday, one of my mischievous friends sent me the link to a Gleaner article with this headline: ‘Holness urges developers not to be thwarted by ‘bad mind’.’ The subject of the email was, “Is all like you Anju throwing word on.” I had a...
Chief Justice Bryan Sykes’ latest assault on the jurisprudential merits of jury trial begs for a serious debate on the matter, including a philosophically grounded rejoinder from the defence bar, lest their resistance to bench proceedings is seen...
More reports of children being sexually abused by men of the cloth; Pastor and Jesus and not the same; blind trust is dangerous, and too many sheep put the Pastor above the Bible. However, the abuse is not only sexual. Many so-called pastors...
As shocking as it sounds, a six-year-old boy swearing that his ambition is to become a gunman may not be as rare as we may want to believe. Society ought to wake up and realise that there are too many vulnerable children in this country who live in...
It is estimated that every cigarette reduces the life of the smoker by 11 minutes; a pack of 20 reduces life by about three hours and 40 minutes, and a carton of 200 cigarettes reduces life by one and a half days. Many smokers will smoke 50,000-500...
When a lawyer criticised one of my recent columns (Come lie with me), I wanted to ask him “What do you call a lawyer with an IQ of 20?” The answer is, “My Lord.” Or I could have said, “A lawsuit is a machine which you go into as a pig and come out...
No one should have to explain to Dwight Sibblies, the North Clarendon member of parliament (MP), that there was always going to be the potential for conflicts of interest between his membership of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and...
It took the Jamaican State more than 100 years to learn that the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) cannot effectively police itself. For decades the JCF had a Professional Standards Branch, headed by an assistant commissioner, with a department...
For the past year, the world’s efforts have been focused on beating back the worst effects of COVID-19, underscoring the relevance of scientific evidence in public health policymaking. The experience of places like the United States and Brazil...
It should be obvious at this point that online schooling was a failed experiment, a trial-by-fire that many students could not withstand. Education in general has been on a major downward spiral for a while now. Last April, The United Nations...
LAST WEEK, I had the opportunity to present recommendations from the 2020 General Election Campaign Review Report which was prepared by the Office of the Political Ombudsman. This was the first time a review of this nature has taken place in...
DONNA PARCHMENT BROWN, the political ombudsman, should stay her haste in asking Parliament for additional powers against politicians who break election laws or breach the codes by which they agree to abide during campaigns. Last week, Mrs...
It may indeed be true, as the officers of the People’s National Party (PNP) allege, that there is more that unites than divides them, thereby providing a basis for the party to rebuild itself into “a formidable and unstoppable” political force. The...
‘Riggle me dis, riggle me dat, guess me dis riggle and parraps nat. Which politician can pull a ‘memorial service’ out of a funeral hat? On June 3, the Honourable Robert Nesta Morgan, state minister in the Ministry of Education, Youth and...
The Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) held its 52nd session virtually on June 1-2. It was chaired by Jamaica’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Kamina Johnson Smith. COTED...
We are supposed to be using the Earth’s natural resources in such a way that they are regenerative for use by future generations. Instead, we have taken the Earth to a dangerous tipping point of possibly no return if we do not significantly change...
George Wright’s resignation last week from the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and how his decision was characterised by the party’s general secretary, Horace Chang, raise profound questions of leadership by the JLP. Unprompted, Dr Chang conceded to the...
I saw a photograph of the memorial service for Ambassador Anthony Johnson that was being shared on social media. It was taken from somewhere in the right-rear section of the room. There are at least three rows of benches, but the entire rows are...
Jamaica’s Parliament, at least the majority therein, should keep in mind what happened in 2017 when they snubbed their noses at suggestions for a deliberative approach, including its review by a joint select committee of the House and Senate, of...
The food in our supermarkets and our open markets come from numerous countries, and in the case of processed foods, each of the ingredients may themselves come from different countries. It is, indeed, a global food web that keeps us fed. While we...
When this horrible SARS-CoV2 plague got loose upon the entire planet, I thought that people would do whatever it takes to protect themselves and others in order to get rid of it as quickly as possible and keep the number of victims and deaths to a...
Almost half of American voters are showing clear signs of abandoning their commitment to democracy. That’s like almost half of Christians giving up on Jesus. A cyan believe it! More than 50 per cent of Republicans are quite sure that Donald Trump...
Quite sensibly, Fayval Williams accepted The Gleaner’s recommendation and tabled in Parliament, for debate, the Byron Commission report on governance at The University of the West Indies (UWI). Hopefully, the quality of that discourse will, when...
