On the last Saturday of June, the traditional month of weddings, I went off to my second mixer hosted by the Singles Club 876. June is named after the Roman goddess, Juno, who was known as the protector of women. Especially in marriage and...
I read with great satisfaction the article published this Wednesday titled ‘Thwaites’ attack on Kamala Harris baseless’ by Toni Forsyth, advertised as a professor emeritus of English and teacher of critical thinking and composition, and even...
With its previous iteration having endured four years of legislative purgatory, the Holness administration has finally resurrected the sexual harassment bill, in a form that it says will better address a problem that disproportionately affects...
Sexual abuse in schools has been widely discussed in recent weeks. The insistent voice of an alleged victim of the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts has caused society to sit up and listen. Even though sexual abuse of women and...
It’s such a bloody shame that many issues relating to corruption in government that come to the public are usually laden with politicking. I know there is no Utopia, but I can’t help but wish that things were a little different, that our political...
If I had to define my natural habitat or the environment in which I seem to have spent most of my life and times, it would be hot water. I keep getting into it with alarming and frequent alacrity. Every road taken has led there; every road not...
Dr Horace Chang, the general secretary of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), may not have the final say on who represents the JLP in an election, but we suspect he’s not only influential in such decisions, but has a good handle on the party’s criteria...
On Father’s Day, fathers are exhorted “to be strong in their faith”. Not to be left out, the young must “grow in their faith”. And let’s not forget the sick, “healed in their faith”. But what is faith? “The assurance of things hoped for, the...
Below is a lightly edited version of Ms Blair’s submission to the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee on Wednesday, July 10. She is one of several women who have allegedly been victims of sexual harassment at Edna Manley College....
Recently, de facto Minister of Education Karl Samuda declared that to generally improve the quality of secondary schools, better-performing institutions should develop a fostering relationship with others of lower rank. This is a good idea that...
Recently, the Las Vegas police announced that they had fired a veteran officer who, out of apparent fear, froze in the hallways of a hotel during a 2017 music festival as the mass shooter was on the floor above him. ‘Coward man keep sound bones’ is...
It is premature, and foolhardy even, to pronounce doggedly on the outcome of an act that is still in process. Dr Garth Rattray would have, in his Monday, July 8, 2019, Gleaner column ‘Hagley Park nightmare’, arrived at a number of erroneous and...
The Government has now imposed a state of emergency (SOE) in South St Andrew, adding to the tri-parish SOE in western Jamaica and the various zones of special operations (ZOSOs). While these measures no doubt see the designated areas being flooded...
The distraction being endured by the Ministry of Education as a result of the various scandals at agencies under its control, including the Caribbean Maritime University, pales in comparison to the real crisis in education. The predictably poor...
It wouldn’t have required a rummage of the toolbox by the Holness administration in reaching for the state of public emergency (SOE) with which it is responding to the deepening problem of a growing number of homicides in the St Andrew South Police...
I read with interest Daniel Thwaites’ heavily weighted commentary (‘Kamala is a Jafaikan’, Sunday Gleaner, July 7, 2019) regarding US presidential candidate Kamala Harris and felt compelled to take the opportunity to respond. Your characterisation...
Wastewater is one of the dirtiest words in the English language. Not because of the lumps of human by-products heading into a sewerage or other system. Rather, we are so lax, treatment of our water resources is slowly charting the path towards...
Commonwealth foreign ministers will be meeting in London under the chairmanship of the United Kingdom today, July 10. The ministers will be addressing preparations for the 2020 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) and commemorating the...
In last week’s sitting of the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC), someone accused the principal of Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts of being “judge and jury”. My response was: “Look at the pot calling...
Politics, especially in Jamaica, is nothing if not hilarious. Guess which PNP MP said this, immediately after the April 6 East Portland by-election in response to a reporter’s query as to whether Peter Phillips would be asked to step down: “No, he’...
One coincidence of the imminent changing of the guard at a swathe of European institutions is that Christine Lagarde will, in November, take up the job of head of the European Central Bank (ECB), only weeks after Richard Byles becomes governor of...
Carolyn Cooper’s clever article ‘Putting obeah on Andrew Holness’ (Sunday Gleaner, July 7, 2019) tackles the critical issues of the moment. She asks who does our so-called postcolonial state considers a full citizen with all the rights to safety...
Events may have conspired to make Brascoe Lee only a minor figure, if not a mere footnote, in Jamaica’s history. But he might have been much more and, perhaps, deserves to be viewed as such. Few Jamaicans under the age of 40 will have heard of, or...
For years, I have noted a very disturbing trend among women. Many of them spend an extraordinary amount of time badmouthing each other. I hear it on the bus. I hear it in the hair salon. I hear it on the streets. The absolute contempt for each...
I heard that the powers that be are unhappy when citizens express concern for the way that the Legacy roadworks are being carried out. Many are located in the bowels of major projects and experience at first hand how Jamaicans suffer. Their...
