Commentary

Last Thursday, Ian Randle Publishers launched their latest book, Another Mother. It’s a memoir written by Jewish American journalist, Ross Urken, who was raised by a Jamaican nanny, Mrs Dezna Sanderson. For the launch, I was invited to engage in...

Politics, like life itself, is about what people believe, not what actually is. And no matter how good or rotten you are, if the voters do not like you, then the election is going to be the hardest thing you have ever faced. With a deep pungency...

“Can’t say mi neva did a warn you. Oh Lord, mi tell you. Now trouble tek you – lawd-a-gawd. Pickney shut a go fit you.” – Prophetic lyrics by Anthony Red Rose in a reggae throwback named Tempo. When I wrote my last column which was...

Many years ago, a Trinidadian election candidate completing his personal information form, wrote as his profession, ‘radio and television personality.’ Then he crossed out the word ‘personality’ and replaced it with ‘celebrity’. Is there a...

Like others around the world, Jamaica’s Government is struggling with the tensions between its citizens’ fear of the COVID-19 pandemic and its need to keep the country’s fragile economy on an even keel. It isn’t, in this enterprise, as sure-footed...

Some decisions that ­governments take are ‘no turning back’ decisions. They so change the physical landscape that, should negative impacts result, the damage cannot be reversed. All of us need to be vigilant so that such decisions are not taken,...

Last week, prime minister (PM) Andrew Holness said concerning the revocation of Daryl Vaz’s US diplomatic visa: “Should a prime minister deny someone who legitimately deserves to be a minister that opportunity because he or she does not possess the...

The recent poll findings showing how little confidence Jamaicans have in them could not have escaped the Integrity Commission, which makes Greg Christie’s imminent assumption of the job as its executive director all the more important. That is...

As the nation grapples with the state of gross decadence in our society that has spilled over into our schools, I urge all well-thinking Jamaicans to join the call for better and more responsive leadership in schools, to tackle what appears to be a...

I last dealt substantively with the post-Cotonou Negotiations of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group and the European Union (EU) when the 26th Council of Ministers’ Meeting of the Caribbean ACP Forum (CARIFORUM) was held in St Vincent...

I was asked to participate in a discussion recently. The subject for discussion was ‘Two problems facing Jamaica in 2020 – murder/suicide and violence in schools’. My position was that this was not two problems but two phases of one problem. I then...

No one could credibly challenge Prime Minister Andrew Holness’ assertion that Jamaica’s crisis of crime, especially its homicide rate, long predated his administration, or that his government has significantly hiked spending on the police force....