John F. Kennedy once said, “Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.” While his ultimate enemies remain nameless and he has gone to eternal rest, forgiving and forgetting are more difficult for the rest of us. I find it easier to ask for...
The view (often expressed) that in Jamaica we have no problems with race prejudice, but only class prejudice, is naïve and false. We sociologists – whose business is to study race and class issues – know better. The recent furore over the...
Jamaica’s two big political machines are about to embark on a spending binge in support of their general election campaigns. Between them, if circumstances require it, and they have the money, the outlay, legally, could be as much as J$3.15 billion...
A 19th-century tradition of packing stones into wire baskets, then stacking these baskets into unsteady hillsides has been routinely proven to stabilise landslide-prone areas, saving lives, livelihoods and housing stock right here in 21st century...
”Retirement is wonderful if you have two essentials: much to live on and much to live for.” Though this article cannot provide you with the latter, it will share nuggets that at least will give you the essential ingredients for retirement -...
JAMAICANS WITH friends and family with a vote in America have another reason – other than that of removing Donald Trump, which would be good for the world – to urge them to cast their ballots in November’s presidential election. Global policy apart...
INVESTMENT BANKERS play a critical role in the functioning of capital markets. Their chief responsibility is to act as the conceptualisers and arrangers of transactions outside of the regular commercial banking framework, where they connect...
With A general election apparently on the horizon, Jamaica’s two big political parties had begun to campaign. That will now intensify with Tuesday’s announcement of September 3 as the election date. Which, in the context of the coronavirus pandemic...
This big excitement over hairstyles is telling our students that the world is one big free-for-all. Our students are so undisciplined because they are not being taught to follow school rules. Criminals are running circles around law-abiding...
There will be a thanksgiving service for the life of former three-time Prime Minister of Barbados Owen Seymour Arthur at a state funeral on Friday, August 14, in Speigtstown, St Peter, his birthplace and constituency. Although, in another life, I...
Crime and corruption became entrenched in Jamaica in the 1970s, when both parties were involved in creating garrisons, arming their followers and directing violence. The homicide rate in Jamaica, which was close to the world average at the time of...
It is almost a cliché for pundits to declare an election to be the most consequential in a country’s history. Usually, it is hyperbole. We will not make that claim about the general election that is soon to be held in Jamaica. It is beyond doubt,...
The Caribbean countries have an unusual place in international trade. Collectively, they have a sizeable GDP and population similar to some developed economies. Judging their strength by their average income, they fall in the middle of the scale...
For the last few decades, Caribbean nurses have been migrating to developed countries (mainly United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom) to pursue a more desirable way of life, in the hope that they will achieve better salaries, improvement in...
Geography, historic relations and the reality of American power – military and economic – and old-fashioned good sense require that Jamaica pays attention to the geopolitical concerns of the United States. It doesn’t mean, though, that we should...
I was intrigued by a Washington Post article written by Kate Chappell and titled ‘Jamaica’s high court rules school can ban dreadlocks’. The matter had been going on in Jamaica for a couple of years, but now the article was telling the world that...
Two years ago, less one month, I moved a motion for the House of Representatives to “examine the present and future viability of the cane and sugar industry in Jamaica”. The Government, who sets the agenda for Parliament, has not found time for us...
It would appear that episodic extrajudicial killings are a fixed part of our reality and that we are incapable of governing and policing the three million of us without it. So it’s time to move beyond just complaining – it is time to find solutions...
In response to requests from several readers, this week we will summarise the ratio decidendi (the rationale for the decision) in the so-called ‘dreadlocks’ case for readers who would like to understand the court’s reasoning but without...
In the mid-’70s the police terrorised many innocent poor Afrocentric youths. Although the blatant ‘downpression’ of Rastafari was now more subtle, Ras Karbi’s ‘Long hair freaky people need not apply’ was our background music. My friend Colin ‘Coila...
In 1980, George ‘Prince Mohammed’ Nooks had a huge hit, Forty Leg: “Mi seh fi stop spread propaganda pon di dread/Cau di dread nuh have nuh forty leg inna him head”. In 2018, propaganda was about junjo. In the shameful case of the child whose locks...
It is not acceptable for the governor general, if he subscribes to the principle of accountability, to treat Wayne Powell’s appointment to the Integrity Commission (IC) as an act which he is not obliged to explain. For, while Sir Patrick Allen is...
A sharp spike in coronavirus cases was enough to call out members of the Government on Independence Day. Later, Prime Minister Andrew Holness delivered the alarming news at a press conference that there had been 30 new cases reported, driving total...
The Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre has often been named a “dungeon”, like in medieval times with their filthy conditions. The deplorable conditions there, and the fact that many people, including those who are mentally ill, have been put...
The government of Trinidad and Tobago has given me an election for my 75th birthday. I would be extremely happy if I were Chairman Mao of China, who, in 1972, was accused by American President Richard Nixon of not having a democratic government. “...
