It might have been pitch dark but it was in plane sight. No matter how skilful a pilot is, without the benefit of at least the headlight on the airplane, having a non-fatal crash in the sea is virtually impossible. From the little I can glean from...
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has announced his availability to serve a second term when his current term ends on December 31, 2021. Arguably, Guterres is the UN Secretary-General that has paid the greatest attention to the...
In honour of ‘Bird Day’, which got its name on January 22, 2009 but started in 1979 as the annual ‘Big Garden Bird Watch’ coordinated by the British Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes....
The entertainment industry, which largely depends on crowd support, has been hard hit by a pandemic that forbids public gatherings and urges social distancing. Restaurants, theatres, sporting activities, music events, and other forms of...
As the public debate on whether to designate Portmore the 15th parish of Jamaica or otherwise takes on new life, it is important from the outset that we take the arguments beyond the political and the subjective to the realm of the practical and...
“Wh’appen, Bredda Peter?” I was eating a meal of curry conch in a small waterfront restaurant in Les Cayes on the south coast of Haiti when I heard my name called by a Jamaican fisherman I knew from my work on Jamaica’s south coast. “What are you...
It is encouraging news that the police have a suspect in custody for last week’s hacking to death of four homeless men in Kingston and the wounding of two others. We are, however, concerned that identifying the detainee merely as a “deportee” may...
COVID-19 is the disease caused by the transmission of the novel coronavirus SARS-Cov-2 and is spread by the people who are infected by the virus. The measures for the prevention and control of the spread of the virus are being driven by public...
The COVID-19 pandemic brought to the fore the role of the village in raising children. Educational institutions were the first set of businesses to be ordered closed. The fear of children dying from the novel coronavirus swept the world like...
PETER GARTH, the evangelical pastor, is on the money about the inherent value of a free and independent media to a liberal democracy. It is an acknowledgement which, given Rev Garth’s influential voice, we hope will help to nudge Jamaica’s...
It is to the continued exasperation of this newspaper, and the vast majority of Jamaicans, we believe, that neither the education ministry nor the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA), the teachers’ union, have engaged stakeholders in a robust...
We see men walking with their visibly old and over-rinsed underpants grinning from under (or above) their pants; big people thinking they can move up the bank line by getting a ‘skip’; and every other person now trying to hitch a ride on the new ‘...
COVID-19, as indicated in previous articles, is a trade and health crisis requiring collaboration between the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and other trade-related...
I have been reading with keen interest your editorials regarding broadening the economic base of Jamaica with agriculture and agri-industries. In short, I agree and have been saying this for several years. However, despite Jamaica’s leadership in...
The abortion debate is one that will likely never end. On one hand, those of us who are pro-choice insist that a woman has a right to make informed decisions about what happens to her body. On the other hand, anti-abortion proponents posit that...
The Gleaner was Ken Allen’s home for nearly 70 years. His death on the weekend, at age 87, has stirred a flood of memories of a man who served the media with distinction. The Montego Bay native and Cornwall College alumnus began his career at The...
Far too many people willingly accept whatever drivel is meted out to them as irrefutable facts. Sadly, it’s now become fairly common for charlatans, demented, misguided, or attention-seeking nuts to don farcical façades virtually and splash rubbish...
I encountered Colvin in the police station downtown. I had gone there on a Friday afternoon to beg for the release of one of the scores of young men who were/are alleged to have done something wrong, or against whom some policeman has a grievance...
This week, a parliamentary committee, which, so far, has received little public notice, will continue its review of the law that allows the Government to declare zones of special operations (ZOSOs). That should change. People, especially...
CHAKA-CHAKA SPELLING Riggle mi dis, riggle mi dat, guess mi dis riggle an perhaps not: hell a top, hell a bottom, hell inna di miggle. Nuh pudding nah bake. Not potato, not corn meal. Nuh pudding pan nah siddong inna no fire inna no coal pot....
Our motto “Out of many one people” underscores the reality of Jamaica as one of the most progressive island nations with respect to immigration. With a long history of violent and peaceful migration, the island is home to various cultures and...
The Government of Jamaica has drafted a Tobacco Bill, which will be introduced and debated in Parliament in the coming weeks. The bill aims at protecting Jamaicans from the harmful effects of tobacco use and exposure to smoke. We expect a robust...
It won’t get too far if the “blue skies” which, according to Don Anderson, businesses and consumers are having a glimpse of, fall behind the clouds. Which is why this newspaper looks forward to a signal from the Holness administration of how it...
It was confirmed. She was just one step from the top of the podium. This black woman with the double consonant in the middle of her surname was making her story; not ‘his’ I couldn’t help but make a Freudian association between the ‘arri’ and the...
Events in Washington on January 20 were a welcome relief and release for the world. Once Joseph R. Biden took the oath of office as president of the United States and the noon hour struck while Donald Trump arrived, as a private citizen, at his...
