Consciously so, I found myself reflecting on these profound words articulated by the renowned Indian poet, Rabindranath Tagore: “I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.” A...
Our history as Jamaicans has been this extraordinary ability to find excellence and positivity in the face of adversity. Look at how we have transformed the offcuts and rejected into great delights, be that culinary oxtail or the wonders of the...
THESE ARE some of the troubling headlines in the newspapers as banks and businesses grapple with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. All things considered, an economic depression seems inevitable at this point and what is more alarming is the...
THE GOVERNMENT has taken an important first step towards planning an ordered resuscitation of Jamaica’s economy. More, however, needs to be known about what, specifically, is expected of the COVID-19 economic recovery task force before it is...
News items that caught my attention during this week of COVID-19 restrictions on human activities were about the effect on the environment. Pollution was reduced in several cities. Skies were blue again; mountains could be seen in the distance;...
ON FEBRUARY 13, 2018, Prime Minister Andrew Holness used the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) majority in Parliament to defeat the Banking Services Amendment Bill I tabled in the Parliament, which would prevent deposit-taking institutions, such as banks...
THE TRAGIC, and apparently avoidable, death of Jodian Fearon won’t be listed in the running count of casualties of COVID-19. But nearly as much as any of the seven direct fatalities of the novel coronavirus, she was a victim of the infection – of...
Jodian Fearon’s death has deeply disturbed and angered many of us. She developed complications in labour, and after significant and unacceptable delays in her management, eventually died. I have seen many of the comments in social media about her...
TERTIARY STUDENTS across the island are currently home, subject to quarantine regulations since March 2020. Students are expected to do online classes and at the end of their respective semesters, partake in a mode of assessment that would qualify...
Many teachers by now have got the very romantic good morning text from at least one of their high school sugar dumplings, “Miss, I just wake up. What did I miss?” Very commendable of them to ask. Even when the message pops up in the WhatsApp group...
THE SUMMIT of African and Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders that Barbados’ Mia Mottley planned to stage this year is now unlikely to be held in the manner she had hoped because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions it has placed on...
As the world grapples with the impact of the COVID-19 virus, many hackers are exploiting the panic and discomfort brought on by the pandemic. Images, emails, and documents used to spread awareness on COVID-19 have been found with embedded Baby...
In discipline our salvation lies to the problems that we’re facing, Indiscipline lays waste to our lives, if it we keep embracing. The crass, crude and boorish ways with which we treat each other Permeate all aspects of our lives, and the things...
GEORGE STEPHENS was a small shoemaker who, in the 1950s, bought little more than a square of land near Sandy Park in St Andrew. He had a receipt for the sixty-five pounds he had paid to the man who told him that he ‘controlled’ the place. That was...
Last week’s commissioning of a new machine that increases by more than fivefold – to over 1,000 a day – Jamaica’s ability to test for the COVID-19 virus is good news. What we now wait to hear now is how this new capacity will be utilised, or more...
Last week’s column generated its fair share of responses, and as usual, there’s a lot of chaff mixed in with some wheat. I argued for a quick and thorough lockdown. The most searching replies have had to do with whether we’ve already blown the...
The Jamaica Household Workers’ Union (JHWU) is pleading for help. Many of their 6,200 members have been laid off without pay because of the coronavirus. They are no longer welcome in the homes of their former employers who don’t want to take the...
It isn’t yet part of the COVID-19 discourse, but mental -health issues are likely to emerge as significant side effects of the new disease, requiring the attention of public-health policymakers. For anxieties around COVID-19 apart, Jamaica already...
It is an uncomfortable piece of apparel that restricts breathing and reminds me that my teeth are due for their second brushing for the day. Then I have to endure the ignominy of my ill-advised friends saying that I look like a female Muslim in my...
Fly high or fly low, this administration is going to be remembered for, perhaps come to be defined by, having turned away 43 Jamaicans from their homeland with the planet in the throes of a pandemic pestilence. No given explanation, reason, report...
The mysterious nature of the novel coronavirus, which made its appearance in China last year, is pushing the limits of medical knowledge by challenging researchers and scientists to provide better particulars of a virus that has sickened millions...
It is essential that we get as many people to stay at home and away from as many people as possible during this time. We have to slow down the spread of COVID-19 and flatten the curve to mitigate against any kind of catastrophic impact on our...
I am starting this column by beating around the bush a bit – not any ordinary bush, like the ones my Caribbean friends use for ‘tea’ or medicine, or even the ones prescribed by obeah practitioners to get rid of illness or a prolonged period of bad...
With much of the world economies shutting down under the weight of the COVID-19 pandemic, weaknesses in Jamaica’s arrangements to feed its citizens have become more apparent. Too much of the food we eat is imported, because from colonial days, our...
ON D-DAY in 1944, when the Allies begun their campaign to liberate Europe and defeat Hitler’s Germany, they landed 156,000 troops on the beaches of Normandy. Six thousand, nine hundred and thirty-nine vessels, including more than 4,000 landing...
