The pandemic emergence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus, yes, the same dreaded coronavirus now terrorising the planet, has not been spared by fraudsters who, like vultures descending on carrion, are now engaged in a multiplicity of...
IT IS unfortunate that the principals of some of the 17 schools targeted for an early return to in-class teaching learned of their schools’ selection for the two-week pilot via the media, rather than being told by the education ministry....
Since the pandemic struck, there has been a multiplicity of research about the impact of COVID-19 on different groups. One thing that is evident is that women have been the most affected group, specifically mothers. As the cases continue to rise, I...
Chief Justice Bryan Sykes has not said what he has done – apart from making it public – with the report by the committee he asked to look into the treatment of mentally ill people who come into conflict with the law. We suspect that he forwarded a...
Our students have been duped. They have been sold the idea that once they can learn and master any one subject area, they’re good to go. They have been comforted into thinking that whatever their strength is, it will take them where they need to go...
Multilateralism is an important element of the foreign policy of small CARICOM states, but today, multilateral institutions are beleaguered, caught up in the competition between a dominant power and one ascending. WTO In the World Trade...
Jamaicans have a saying, “What is fi yuh, can’t be unfi yuh.” I am aware that for the past couple of years, individuals have been encouraging Comrade Mark Golding to make himself available for leadership of the People’s National Party (PNP)...
Americans have been saying that today’s presidential election, or, perhaps, more accurately, the culmination of the vote for the next president, between the Republican incumbent, Donald Trump, and his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, is the country’s...
In light of the inclement weather currently being experienced by Jamaica, coupled with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) curfews, online schooling, etc., it is only appropriate to slightly modify the words of the self-acclaimed, internationally...
The year was 1988. British Indian author Salman Rushdie had published the The Satanic Verses in the United Kingdom and Muslims were not pleased. The book was a work of fiction, and the title refers to verses that were supposedly spoken to the...
When Donald Trump formally announced his candidacy for president of the United States (US) on June 16, 2015, I thought he would fizzle out. Despite the long list of allegations against him, he won the Republican nomination to represent that party...
Mia Mottley has set out a rationale and response, without the prompting of the courts, to the claims and feelings of discrimination faced by gays and lesbians in Barbados. It could provide a template for other Caribbean leaders, including Jamaica’s...
Each week I try to visit another school to understand what you cannot glean from sitting in a ministry office or Cabinet room about the state of education in these difficult days for schooling. This time it was a large urban primary institution,...
The People’s National Party (PNP) has two good candidates vying for its presidency. Because I know and like both, and know many good and sensible people who are supporting either, it’s tempting to sit it out. But that’s not what an opinion column...
Let me make it absolutely clear that there’s a question mark in my headline. I shouldn’t have to point this out. But, reading comprehension is a skill that has not been learnt very well by some of the people who comment on my columns on the...
If you have never been through war, you will never truly understand the gift of peace. By the end of this week, two elections would have been concluded and the Jamaican people will know who is our next leader of Opposition. In two days, the United...
Even as sentiment globally has become more positive over recent weeks with more respondents seeing better than worse economic conditions in six months, the path to global economic recovery is uncertain – recent surveys of global executives show...
In my last piece, I questioned the utility of lockdowns as a means of combating COVID-19. Indeed, the World Health Organization (WHO) has revisited this strategy and recommended against it as a primary means of fighting the pandemic. Yet there has...
The debate over the Government’s wrenching the chairmanship of most parliamentary committees from the Opposition has gone noticeably quiet. Which is, perhaps, what Prime Minister Andrew Holness expected, or hoped for – another Jamaican nine-day...
Litigants who often wait years for their court cases to be tried and for judgment to be given would have taken a measure of comfort from assurances by Chief Justice Bryan Sykes that the judiciary is on course to clearing the backlog. Justice Sykes...
The major difference between Antigua and Trinidad is that if the famous Nelson’s Dockyard was in Trinidad, its name would be Nelson’s Yard Dock, and instead of lasting 50 years, it would be caught, curried, and served with rum that would have...
Our Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has been completely vindicated by the results of Bolivia’s presidential and parliamentary elections of October 18, 2020 – a landslide victory for Luis Arce, the presidential candidate of Evo Morales’ Movement...
In the Westminster system of government, the role of the legislative branch (as its name suggests) is to enact laws promoting social order and good governance. The way we do it in Jamaica, the source of all our legislation is the executive branch...
Daniel Thwaites’ article, ‘The cyaapit is unravelling already?’, published on Sunday, October 18, raised the question: “But where is the Professional Engineers Registration Board on all this? That is the body that legislation empowers to protect us...
Kojo Dawes’ case notwithstanding, we would have expected greater certainty from the labour and social security minister, Karl Samuda, rather than the tentativeness of his statement that the Disabilities Act should come into force by next April....
