The Parliament is about to perform a three-card trick to give Jamaicans the illusion that something substantial has been done to deter violence against women in the face of public anger over Khanice Jackson’s murder. The plan is to expunge the 2015...
If indeed Khanice Jackson’s murder has been solved, the credit must largely go to her family and close friends. They appear to have been observant and communicative about their relationships, which allowed them to be ahead of the police in...
The urgency of now requires that ways be found to increase the number of boots on the ground, i.e., increasing the number of officers available for territorial policing duties in the short/medium term. The only way to achieve this is by increasing...
Whenever a new president of the United States takes the oath of office, he must have a prepared speech for the next mass shooting on hand. Depending on which party he represents, the moment will be used to emphasise the greater need for stricter...
Last Friday, I was lucky to get my first dose of the AstraZeneca anti-COVID vaccine. This was a major accomplishment, requiring nuff stamina. On February 23, a friend emailed a letter from the President of the Medical Association of Jamaica (MAJ...
In Trinidad last week, a government minister took off his mask and had an ‘airgasm’. Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi claimed he decided to “step away from the suit and tie, sat back and supported charitable games with some very special people…” Two...
In the older traditions, this week is called Holy Week, when the suffering and death of the God-Man – Jesus the Christ – is re-lived by his followers. The story of this week is horrific. It begins with triumphal entry into Jerusalem, with shouts...
Our long-standing commitment to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) a single, indivisible unit notwithstanding, this newspaper endorses the recommendation that the community run on multiple tracks as a way around its implementation paralysis and to...
Cuba is the only country in Latin America and the Caribbean developing COVID-19 vaccines. There has been interest in these vaccines within the member states of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). In Jamaica, there have been calls for the Government...
When Cressida Dick became head of London’s Metropolitan Police in 2017, she was offered a salary of £270,648, which was what was paid to her predecessor, Sir Bernard Hogan Howe. She decided to take 15 per cent less, or £230,000. Dame Cressida, as...
A St Ann pastor, Peter Chambers, was recently arrested, and eventually released from custody, after hitting out against Prime Minister Andrew Holness in a widely circulated video. The prime minister recently announced that the Government would be...
“I will gladly be a guarantor for your student loan but not for your car loan,” I told the earnest young lady clerk at the workplace recently. My reply distressed her. Already two years into a degree programme, living with a relative in St...
When it comes to COVID-19, if it’s not one thing, it’s the other. Workplaces and bosses are inventing their own COVID-19 protocols. Some workplaces, even government-regulated ones, insist on holding retreats at hotels in spite of our problems with...
When criticised for being too cosy with Donald Trump, the Holness administration would characterise its foreign policy as non-aligned pragmatism, which allowed it to grab advantages wherever they existed. It is an approach that the Government has...
This year, the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) celebrates its 30th anniversary since its founding with the signing of the Treaty of Asuncion in 1991. MERCOSUR is a historic achievement of the countries that comprise it (Argentina, Brazil,...
Exasperated by their inaction, this newspaper has often urged the police to enforce Jamaica’s COVID-19 regulations, especially those requiring that people wear masks in public places, particularly passengers and drivers of public transportation....
The Jamaican proverb about the dog that chokes because of greed came to mind as I kept thinking about the way in which the Holness administration appears to have mismanaged the coronavirus pandemic. Let me make it absolutely clear that my use of...
It is time for those in power to accept that we are in a crisis of violence against women and girls in this country. The extent of domestic abuse is shocking – a woman is killed every three days on average by a man. As I made clear in the House...
Law enforcement generally requires ‘presence’, that is, ‘policemen on the beat’ to provide a deterrent to the would-be lawbreaker. To be really effective, such policemen on the beat must be alert, proactive and anticipatory in their approach to...
During the first half of the 20th century, Switzerland produced between 50 and 95 per cent of all watches sold worldwide. The economy was heavily dependent on watch manufacturing and the country enjoyed an unassailable monopoly because of the...
The general registration for the COVID-19 vaccine, beginning with people 75 and over, appears to have started without glitches, or any that is significant. The health ministry’s website has not collapsed, and navigating the portal has been...
The first time I heard the term ‘dynamic tension’ was when I saw my cousin Vernon grimacing, making noises like a mad bull with eyes bulging, waging a war, seemingly to the death, between his right and left hands. Since neither budged and his...
It is quite difficult to achieve the delicate and fragile balance between lives and livelihoods; you can reach it this month, and then something shifts and you lose it next month. You are better off planning not to stay poised on the knife edge,...
Growing up in Jamaica, I was politically and culturally savvy for a teenager, but I was woefully ignorant about race. My father and mother were black, and my maternal grandmother lived and died in Cuba. Both my grandmothers could ‘pass’ for white,...
There have been many reports, studies and analyses that have compelling cases for regional integration and for the existence of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). None, however, can have done so more succinctly, or matched the logic of integration...
