Recent cases of child sex abuse (rape, buggery) have provoked horror and disgust in some quarters, and the lynch mobs are knotting their ropes. But where do child abusers come from? Are child abusers born that way, or are they made so by their ‘...
Given their too many experiences of powerful developers – sometimes with the complicit state agencies – jackbooting it over their rights, Prime Minister Andrew Holness will appreciate why many people will be wary of plans to make it easier to...
COPING WITH the death of a child is one of the most painful events that parents may experience. For this reason, it is frequently referred to as ‘the ultimate tragedy.’ April 2021 marked nine years since Elaine Powell*suffered the tragic loss of...
The date was Friday, April 19. I was in good spirits. I was born on a Good Friday – April 19. So it was my birthday. In addition, the editor had selected my article to be the Letter of the Day. Vanity aside, I was particularly pleased at the...
PRIME MINISTER Andrew Holness may have had a lapse about the job he holds, its authority and responsibilities, and the risks inherent in it. In which event, he perhaps needs a whisper in the ear from his wife and fellow parliamentarian, Juliet...
THE YEAR 2021 is the UN International Year of Fruits and Vegetables (IYFV 2021). In the Caribbean, with a high level of non-communicable diseases and COVID-19, it seems most people still do not consume the required daily amount of fruits and...
For the purpose of this article, children are anyone below the age of majority which, according to The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, is “a human being below the age of 18 years unless, under the law applicable to the child,...
THE CARIBBEAN Examinations Council (CXC) must resist the pressure of the umbrella regional teachers’ organisation to dumb down this year’s school-leavers’ exams. Education ministers, students and their parents, too, should not want to be part of...
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a moment of reckoning for world leaders. It has highlighted a weak global health system and various co-morbidities, which heightens the risk of death and disease. The global obesity and diet-related epidemic is just...
There is no doubt that the great work done by Montego Bay Animal Haven (MBAH), in partnership with Save The Scruff, to find some of our local needy “Royal Caribbean Terriers” new homes was necessary and is worthy of accolades, so the Jamaica...
Except for implying that there will be a requirement for enhanced training and flirtation around the sector’s use of technology, Matthew Samuda was vague in speaking last week about the Government’s plan for a new law for the private-security...
Recently, I was invited by the Anglican Church in Jamaica to participate in a discussion on abortion. Other participants were the Archbishop, The Most Rev Howard Gregory, Anglican priest Rev Mary Graham and Dr Carolyn Gomes. Both Dr Gomes and I are...
“The mother is everything − she is our consolation in sorrow, our hope in misery, and our strength in weakness. She is the source of love, mercy, sympathy, and forgiveness.” – Khalil Gibran “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the...
Minister Fayval Williams’ sectoral address on education last week confronted bravely most, if not all, of the systemic obstacles to transforming Jamaican people into a high-performing cadre of world-class productive citizens – the realisable and...
There is nothing particularly revelatory in Minister Fayval Williams’ declaration last week that 120,000 students have fallen out of the education system in the year or so since face-to-face classes were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. It was...
In his final contribution to the Budget Debate, Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke argued that Jamaica's democracy is alive and well and that decision-making included the people.
As the conspiracy theories abound about COVID-19 vaccines being experiments, and those who take the shot are nothing more than guinea pigs, we are often reminded by antivaxxers of unethical clinical studies on black people. The most famous of these...
The Biden administration has taken a first, but crucial, step in the right direction. Now, the European Union, and other industrial nations, including Great Britain, China and Russia, must follow suit and give the world a good shot, within...
My column last week provoked a startling question. One of my friends called to say she enjoyed my tribute to Dr Yvonne Skeffrey. Then, she jokingly asked if it was gender discrimination that made me neglect to mention Yvonne’s brother, Kemp. It...
Imagine if the first thing that is carried in the news at the beginning of Child Month is that the majority of Jamaican children are failing or that Jamaica has the highest incidence of paternity fraud or father misidentification in the world....
There is an urgent need for us to explore school leadership and the traits that must be exhibited in any bid to effectively navigate challenges and adversity. At this time, the matter of school leadership has to be on our radar, since the...
As sector ministers reveal details of their plans for the budget year, this newspaper, like our readers, anticipates that National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang will present to the country a raft of new ideas in crime prevention and detection,...
Strong disagreement may be brewing at the Organization of American States (OAS) on how to respond to the ongoing, grave political and constitutional crisis in Haiti. Since January 2020, the Haitian president, Jovenel Moïse, has been ruling the...
About 70 years ago when I was a little boy in a Trinidad country village, there was nothing I begged for, enjoyed more or loved as much as a free press. This is before ‘snow cone’ and it was the name we gave to ice shaved with a silver-coloured,...
Whatever may have prompted Leslie Harrow’s exit from the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), to return to a job at least three rungs lower at the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ), the controversy over his departure...
