This is the third and final chapter in my presentation of what I imagine Gene Autry’s and my bridge-playing friend, ‘Digger’, also a huge fan of betting on horses, would think of Ainsley ‘Jimmie’ Walters’ latest clumsy attack on local horse racing’...
It all has to do with babies. THE 4 VISIONS: The four visions are the aspirations of our national development plan – to become that place where everyone in the world would choose to live, work, raise families, and/or do business. To make the...
As the Jamaican Government facilitates discussions on the introduction of a Paternity Leave Act, some of the comments and opinions being posited in the public space are cause for concern. There are many, usually men, who rubbish and dismiss the...
In case it might have slipped Prime Minister Andrew Holness, it’s been more than two years since Parliament approved the Integrity Commission Act, to which Governor General Sir Patrick Allen quickly gave his assent. Four months have passed since...
HORSE RACING’s ‘takeout theory’ is that a higher dividend returned to punters on winning tickets will result in increased betting, because a punter with more cash in pocket would be encouraged to bet again, creating what is referred to as a ‘churn...
The grief, concern, frustration and anger surrounding the prevalence of cancer has led many individuals to seek out and subscribe to the thinnest thread of hope of prevention or a cure. Some ridiculously assert that medical science already has the...
By this, persuaded against their will, the academic staff at the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech) have returned to their classrooms, laboratories and workshops. Despite the fact that justice has not yet been done to them, it would have...
Jamaica’s foreign policy is clearly in need of a major overhaul and strategic rethink. But while any such review has to take into account our long-standing relationship with the powerful United States, it can’t be overly shaped by a gratuitous...
When people say one thing and then do something entirely different, they lose credibility. Same goes for government. In this case, people lose trust and this results in cynicism and resignation. The recent case at the Factories Corporation of...
You know how it is when you have a long-term relationship going on. Sometimes there are differences of opinion and you have to take a time out, maybe “walk dem out likkle” and allow the situation to settle. So it is with myself and The Gleaner who...
Second to the relationship that exists between the Government and the Jamaican people, our marriage to the United States is the most important one. Yes, I have tons of friends of Chinese origin, many of whom are deeply connected to their network of...
There’s quite a stink in Discovery Bay. And it’s not the stench of dolphin excrement. The operators of the Dolphin Cove at Puerto Seco Beach are threatening to take legal action against concerned citizens who have been reporting the negative...
We have been nibbling around the edges of the extortion debate without any meaningful input from our political leaders and it is time that the country hear where they stand on this matter, which is threatening to suck the lifeblood out of the...
As I start writing today’s column, I feel like a mosquito in a nudist camp or, to make it current, I feel like a mosquito in Trinity Cathedral in Trinidad with a fashion show and scantily clad models, male and female, in full swing, swagger, bump...
The National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) refers to the letter from Lee Arbouin of the Discovery Bay Community Development Committee, ‘What is NEPA doing about Discovery Bay,’ published in The Gleaner of Saturday, October 26, 2019. First...
INDECOM this past week praised the fewer fatal shootings by the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) while commenting that it was still too high. It also asked whether a police officer whose published article deserved to have him at least suspended had...
Andrew Holness, based on his frequent declamations on the matter, has made fighting corruption a centrepiece of his premiership. “I am confident that with the anti-corruption framework we have created and the institutions we have built to implement...
Before dismissing the Hon Ronald Thwaites’ suggestion of mandatory military service as politically unwise, I suggest we pause and reflect on the long-term social benefits of mandatory military service. We must all agree that saving our unattached...
When it comes to the religion of the market, I am an atheist. There are just too many instances when the market simply does not work as a mechanism to solve social and economic problems. True believers in the religion of the market have faith that...
On December 12, in rain, snow or sunshine, the British people will vote in a general election. I have not known a British election to embody such a stark clash of values. The outcome will have consequences for Britain, Jamaica and the world. I urge...
A few years before crazed, religious cult leader, Jim Jones, convinced about 900 of his followers to end their lives by drinking cyanide-laced syrup in 1978 in a place called Jonestown in Guyana, 17-year-old Penny was on the verge of giving over...
Three years ago, this newspaper urged Jamaican firms and policymakers to begin seriously prospecting for opportunities in Guyana, one of our partners in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). The evidence, though anecdotal, suggests that few took our...
Since independence, Jamaicans have been privy to countless cases of wrongdoings, and suggested wrongdoings, in government and the private sector, with the majority of these cases whittling away into nothingness, like disappearing duppies. Ordinary...
Recently, 2019 Nobel Prize winners in economics, Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer, studied global poverty. Among their findings was that providing free healthcare to the general population makes a significant difference. For...
It would be in the interest of transparency, and the advancement and people’s access to justiciable rights, for the Government to publish the Supreme Court decision that, according to Horace Chang, held a 2004 eavesdropping agreement between...
