ALTHOUGH THERE has been a lot of talk about education recently, little has been heard about how the commission, announced by Prime Minister Andrew Holness, in July, and headed by renowned Jamaican sociologist Professor Orlando Patterson, is...
Since the time of slavery until now, the education system in Jamaica has failed and has blighted the future of the overwhelming majority of the children of Jamaica. This would be seen as alarming, unacceptable, a crisis of major proportions, except...
No thinking person would envy the challenges facing educational administrators at this time. It is like riding a bicycle at night from Harbour View to Nine Miles, Bull Bay, during the recent flooding. Primarily because many of us have no regard for...
When a new virus enters a population, initially it spreads slowly then rises sharply until enough people develop immunity to block further transmission of the disease, leading to the epidemic ending. The goal, therefore, is to slow the spread of...
It has been more than a month since this newspaper urged Fayval Williams, the education minister, to bring to the table for frank discussions, and a sharing of the geo-mapping data, on how, where, and under what circumstances schools may be...
I watched the US presidential debate last Thursday evening and took particular note of the responses to the questions on the environment and climate change. Under President Donald Trump, the USA withdrew from the UN Framework Convention on Climate...
I am writing with reference to Daniel Thwaites’ column in The Sunday Gleaner on October 25 titled ‘Joe the Baptist’ – a response to which I also aired on my programme ‘Beyond the Headlines’ on Radio Jamaica. I’ve found that in this country many...
FLOW has been a steadfast partner in Jamaica’s development for over 150 years. Beginning with the installation of the subsea cable near Holland Bay connecting Jamaica to Europe, which allowed Cable...
The issue of storms and hurricanes figured only marginally in Appeal Justice Jennifer Straw’s judgment last week that the Jamaica Public Service (JPS), the light and power company, cannot arbitrarily end the supply of electricity to the upper St...
Greetings Buju, bless up. When mi see yuh bashing masks and COVID-19 restrictions, mi did shock and vex bad. Yuh done know seh it tek mi ‘bout six hours fi cool off. Mi start wanda, “Ah wah dis Buju go do now Fadah God! Jah know, star! Wi salt to...
One of the major causes of grief is death. The passing of a loved one has the potential to induce an excruciatingly painful grief reaction that can take what seems like forever to abate. When a spouse or family member dies, the emotional disruption...
The prime minister seems to have got the message, too. He expresses uneasiness at the perhaps half or more of the students who are not grasping what they need from the current efforts at virtual schooling. And working-class and middle-income...
In this COVID-19 recession, last week’s labour force report that unemployment in July had slipped to only 12.6 per cent – territory in which it is familiar and from which it had only recently escaped – may have suggested that Jamaica may have...
Please to cork your ears if you’re very susceptible to harm from low-level sacrilege, but it is a FACT that the Gospel of Mark begins with the voice of one crying in the wilderness. And since everywhere we look we see gospel ah fulfil, I wasn’t the...
Among everything else Fayval Williams has to do to shore up Jamaica’s already wobbly education system in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, she must add as an urgent priority a massive effort to (re)acquaint teachers with the Caribbean...
For over a decade, Derrick ‘Black X’ Robinson, chairman of the Tacky Heritage Group, has trod barefoot from St Mary to Kingston, on a mission to ensure that the leader of an early, far-reaching revolt against slavery in the British Empire is...
The year 2020 has proven to be a roller-coaster year for communities worldwide. We are operating in uncharted territory characterised by an unclear resolution path in many instances, resulting in our everyday lives being fundamentally changed and...
Given the subject, ‘backlash’ is more than an appropriate term to describe the effect of the utterance of the head of the largest and oldest Christian denomination in the world. Pope Francis, the spiritual leader of the world’s 1.2 billion...
The story of Ainsley Rodhen offers a clear and compelling reason to celebrate in one of the most unsettling times in human history. This B.B. Coke High School graduate has successfully shaken the label of ‘ward of the state’ and is proudly wearing...
The globalisation agenda was jolted into a new reality in 2001. The most heinous of terrorist attacks in modern history against the United States on September 11, 2001 (9/11) sparked an unprecedented security threat on a global scale posed by...
It used to be “Have fun will travel” until the World Trade Centre, Homeland Security and COVID-19 replaced travel with travails. Given that many Caribbean countries imposed severe punishments for breaking the present regulations restricting free...
Until this year, 2005 was the most active hurricane season on record, during which 27 named storms formed, of which a record 15 became hurricanes. So far in this 2020 hurricane season – which is not yet over – 27 named storms have already formed,...
Population growth and increased urbanisation have driven up the demand for freshwater supplies, resulting in a burden on water resources. These resources are further stressed by climate change and global warming, resulting in climate variability....
The outbreak of COVID-19 at the Government’s Golden Age Home in Kingston demands not only a healthcare response at that facility, but a full and ongoing monitoring of the coronavirus protocols at all old people’s care homes. At the same time, the...
T he Gleaner editorial of October 1 warned Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali “to tread with care the prosecution of election officials involved in attempted electoral fraud”. There are some lacunae in the editorial. The government is not prosecuting...
