Times and circumstances have certainly changed in Jamaica. Two decades ago, in the aftermath of the financial sector collapse, it was Jamaican banks and insurance companies that were on the auction block and Trinidadian and Barbadian investors...
Have you ever wondered who will have the dubious distinction of being the first person killed in 2020? Everyone eventually dies. Our bodies are not meant to last forever, and we have limited control over death from other ‘natural causes’. However,...
I expected that all of Jamaica would have heaved a collective “Amen” to the obvious truth of Pastor Andrew Scott’s teachings that the missionary position is the natural way to approach venereal matters. Instead, the pervs and deviants came out in...
Statistics don’t lie but if those who conceptualise them do not put together the correct entity, then we measure foolishness with a big F and combine facts with sheer mockery. As we reprise the year 2019, and get ready for vision 20/20, it is easy...
In 1978, Victor returned to Jamaica to teach at The University of the West Indies. The immigration officer mischievously greeted him this way, “You going in the wrong direction, man!” Those were the days of Michael Manley’s democratic socialism....
“What you seek you shall never find. For when the gods made man, they kept immortality to themselves. Fill your belly. Day and night make merry. Let days be full of joy. Love the child who holds your hand. Let your wife delight in your embrace....
It’s eighteen months since the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) summit in Montego Bay that caused this newspaper, despite the disappointments of the past, to be hopeful about the community accelerating its transition to a single market, including a...
I just can’t wait for Tuesday night. Secure in the promise, if not possession, of a full year of 2020 vision, at one second past midnight, I am going to take off my glasses and hide them while I take in the breeze the way we all did so many years...
It is that time of year when Jamaicans are enjoying the festivities with friends and family, of which food is a critical element. Families dedicate time to planning a menu, sometimes weeks in advance, irrespective of how simple or elaborate it may...
Many motorists are not listening to road safety appeals and continue to be reckless in how they use the roadways. This explains, in part, why we have recorded more than 420 road fatalities so far this year. Suddenly, there is panic in society as...
There are times when it makes sense for governments and opposition parties to horse-trade on policy. Indeed, this newspaper has, in the past, recommended the approach to the People’s National Party (PNP) in seeking the Government’s embrace of the...
Once again, tallawah Jamaica has copped the coveted Miss World title, all courtesy of our very own Ms Toni-Ann Singh. I join with my countrymen in offering heartiest congratulations on her achievement, and wish for her all the best in all future...
“Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall; All the king’s horses and all the king’s men Couldn’t put Humpty together again.” There is hardly a more fitting lampoon of the fool’s recalcitrance than is found in that...
As this will be my last column for 2019, I would like to offer some reflections on the year that was. On the environmental front, the high point for me was the implementation of the national ban on single-use plastic bags. The naysayers warned of...
Dave left his company’s Christmas party at about 5:30 last Sunday morning. As he moved out of the Golden Triangle and made the turn on Eastwood Park Road and ‘shot it like a bullet’ in his very expensive high-end SUV towards the northern end of Red...
An important fact of the Government’s reported agreement to lease 3,600 acres of land at Long Pond, Trelawny, to the All-Island Jamaica Cane Farmers Association (AIJCA) is that it isn’t for real estate development. Unlike at Bernard Lodge, St...
This holiday period, amid the merriment of cocktails and cooler fêtes, the temptation to overindulge will undoubtedly present itself. As we knock back beers and let loose to ‘lyme’, reminders to consume alcohol responsible bear repeating – and...
With Christmas upon us and the year almost ended, I asked myself, what has this Christmas, and so many others past, meant for me? A time to rest, spoil my family and close friends in a season of giving [and getting] and, generally, overindulging...
Published:Wednesday | December 25, 2019 | 12:15 AM
It is not an infrequent temptation to despair about life in Jamaica, bombarded, as we are, by the stratospheric level of homicides and other crimes, social disorder and the absence of a big economic breakthrough that manifests itself in the visible...
Individuals, as has been implied by fire chief Stewart Beckford, owe a responsibility to their own safety. So we understand Mr Beckford’s advice to partygoers over the Christmas season about where they fête. “There will be parties...
Jamaica is known globally for its reggae music, cultural accolades, sports activities, events, and, sadly, for violence; but never have we been known as a destination to obtain obeah! Is it that we have become so desperate for something to shift...
A few months ago, there were loud calls by the professional media fraternity and others for civil society to remain vigilant to protect access to information. By that, it meant public access via the Access to Information (ATI) Act, which grants the...
If you look under the Christmas tree, you’ll find among your gifts the eleventh annual Domino Awards inspired by the Khooky Khast of Kharacters from my domino-playing years, starring that happy-go-lucky idler, the Dunce. These awards are my...
Michael Abrahams Online Columnist Growing up, I used to hear the expression “children should be seen and not heard” ad nauseam. The initial meaning of the saying, an old English proverb from the 15th century, was that young women should not speak...
