In an article by one Ann-Marie Campbell, headlined ‘Step aside, PJ’, which was published in this newspaper on September 27, 2019, P.J. Patterson was accused of dividing the People’s National Party (PNP). In the article, Campbell claimed that...
There is a place for Jamaican Creole in our schools. As a new researcher in this field, I would like to add my voice to the chorus that speaks to the use of Jamaican Creole in our educational institutions. During my first-year teaching Spanish at...
Humans have a talent for fighting over boundaries. We love drawing lines in the sand. Or anywhere! Well-known donkey, The Law, mandates the age of ‘consent’ for women as 16. This could create an industry for legal eagles to argue ad nauseam. Did...
The refusal of Montego Bay Mayor Homer Davis to grant gay-rights group Montego Bay Pride permission to use the city’s cultural centre for a series of events is a step in the wrong direction. According to Davis, “We must not do anything to disturb...
There were perhaps other Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) presidents, especially during its early days of ideological combat, who were his equal. But none was more courageous, or vocal, in pursuing Jamaica’s interests than Howard...
In a modern democratic society where our constitutional rights safeguard freedom of expression, freedom against discrimination, and freedom of religion, the reason for wearing locs is as irrelevant as the colour of one’s eyes. Locs have become...
So what is a school principal to do when significant numbers of staff either frequently arrive late or, unexcused, miss sessions and even days of classes? And then when the attendance register is to be checked, it is either falsified or...
It’s unfortunate that much of our interpersonal relationships are affected by ‘sex’. Most people are initially attracted to others because of sex. It’s unusual for a man to be attracted to any woman because of her personality. That may play the...
Below is an edited version of the prime minister’s speech at the United Nations headquarters in New York last Friday. Jamaica is pursuing several policy and legislative measures designed to create a more cohesive society and a more resilient...
Peter Phillips is on to something. His riveting presentation to his party conference titled ‘Building a Successful Jamaica’ touched on the most important variable in achieving this goal, education. In his very comprehensive speech on September 22...
Sometimes it is hard for small developing nations with an extremely open economy to survive sudden changes in weather, trade, declines in investment inflows, or sharp price increases in critical inputs such as oil. Since Independence, Jamaica has...
If the Holness administration is looking for a positive take from Transparency International’s latest Global Corruption Barometer, it might note the 19-percentage-point drop from two years ago – from 68 per cent to 49 per cent – in the number of...
Blackmail is one of those words I don’t like to use because it seems racist. The colour black usually has negative meanings in words like blacklist, blackheart, blackguard, blackball, and so on. But the origin of blackmail has nothing to do with...
Published:Saturday | September 28, 2019 | 12:00 AM
The Government’s initiative to plant three million trees, which Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced at the United Nations yesterday and which he will formally launch in a week’s time, is a welcome development that should receive broad support....
Published:Saturday | September 28, 2019 | 12:00 AM
The news out of Indonesia this week is disturbing. In West Papua, the Indonesian-ruled half of the world’s second-biggest island, New Guinea, the native people are definitely restive. Approximately 1.8 million of them, 70 per cent of West Papua’s...
Published:Saturday | September 28, 2019 | 12:00 AM
It is easier to run amok than run a Moke, and both are less difficult than speaking in public, which, some experts say, is the most common of all phobias and a form of performance anxiety in which a person becomes very concerned that he or she will...
Guyana’s deepening constitutional crisis, with its potential for worsening that country’s political instability and inciting violence, ought to be a matter of regional concern, requiring intervention from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). Regional...
Cultural identity and locks are again on the front burner for discussion. Kinky hair has evolved from being totally ‘bad’ – in what is plainly hate speech – to being accepted in some circles. So, judges (female only), doctors, lawyers, poor man,...
It is ironic that the man under whose leadership the People’s National Party (PNP) started to decline is the same person who showed up at the party’s recently held annual conference to drive the final nail in its coffin. Skilled at winning...
Whether we are conscious of it or not, our lives are driven by beliefs, norms and values that make up our personal ideologies. None of us is born with beliefs, norms and values; these are learned through interaction with other human beings –first...
Published:Thursday | September 26, 2019 | 12:00 AM
The true essence of life in Jamaica used to be found in the deep rural trek up rocky hillsides and down into the green lushness of hauntingly beautiful valleys. It used to be the path where we walked barefooted down gently sloping farm plots of...
Published:Thursday | September 26, 2019 | 12:00 AM
Current China-Jamaica relations are strong and wide-ranging. Over the last four to five years, the two countries have forged meaningful economic, political and cultural ties, resulting in greater international trade, financial and investment flows...
Published:Thursday | September 26, 2019 | 12:00 AM
The recently published biography of R. Danny Williams is appropriately titled ‘I Tried to Make a Difference’. Williams is the founder of Life of Jamaica (LOJ), the first Jamaican-owned life insurance company. He has contributed extensively in the...
Published:Thursday | September 26, 2019 | 12:00 AM
Over the last few weeks,we have been bombarded by arguments and counterarguments surrounding the quarrelsome issue of development versus protection of the environment. Such banter is not new, but with growing international concerns about the...
Published:Wednesday | September 25, 2019 | 12:00 AM
Ronnie Thwaites, the opposition MP, has paid keen attention to Lady Hale’s ruling yesterday in the UK’s Supreme Court on Boris Johnson’s proroguing of the British Commons in a Brexit-related case. We expect that he will bring the ruling to the...
