Whenever multiple persons report on an incident, the accounts are inevitably going to differ, depending on who is giving the account and their interests in the matter. Invariably, there are three sides to every issue: my side, your side and the...
Nigel Clarke is right about the ‘untidy’ situation in which the finance ministry and the Auditor General’s Department (AGD) have the responsibility for auditing each other’s accounts, and his wish, to find a way around the conundrum. As he attends...
“Now what I want is facts, teach these boys and girls nothing but facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else and root out everything else.” The above quotation from the book Hard Times by Charles Dickens would, I am sure, have...
On May 28, 2019, two great Jamaican men shifted off their mortal coils and went off to meet their Maker. I cannot be the only Jamaican to have thought, even if in secret, that their deaths seemed oddly – maybe even supernaturally – connected....
World Bank: The Caribbean Diaspora is a sizeable, well-educated and affluent demographic…supported by right incentives and policies, diaspora members could play an even larger role in contributing to the region’s development. As Jamaica’s 8th...
It is shocking if, as they implied, the foreign affairs and national security ministers were in the dark about the details around the 2017 detention and jailing of five Jamaican fishermen in the United States (US), who are now suing the US Coast Guard that was...
My friend and I had quite an interesting conversation the other day. We chatted about his experience as a third engineer aboard the vessel of an international shipping company. He complained that although many Jamaicans are suitably qualified to...
I’m actually a big believer in Jamaica Moves. More than eight out of every ten persons living on the island do little to no physical activity, according to the last published Jamaica Health and Lifestyle Survey. With that in mind, the prevalence...
Did anybody notice that Sunday was Father’s Day? At Casa Tout, the day passed uneventfully. Unlike Mother’s Day! The only reasons I can fathom for the difference are: mothers are more sensitive; accept anything from their children as the best; and...
During the current uproar over abortion, I have noticed that there is little talk about how to prevent it. While in medical school, if I were asked in an examination to discuss the management of a disorder, my answer would be incomplete if I did...
This newspaper has been commenting favourably on the positive developments in the Jamaican economy over the last six years. Some of the more noteworthy achievements include: unemployment falling to a 40-year low; inflation being below the four-six...
In 1980, America passed the Bayh-Dole Act. This law permits institutions receiving federal funding for research to have ownership over their inventions. The law is advantageous in reducing hurdles for commercially minded researchers to market their...
Parliament will meet this Wednesday in solemn session to pay tribute to Mr Seaga, the longest-serving member in our history. I admired him for his commitment to one of the most difficult, demanding, disrespected and least dispensable professions –...
Fatherhood is serious business. It’s ridiculous that society leaves this all-important ‘job’ up to the passive acquisition of knowledge, diffused by unknown and usually extremely unreliable sources. There are no organised courses in fatherhood; all...
The Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) recently announced that, arising from the just-concluded house-to-house phase of ‘Dead elector removal exercise’, 106,000 dead electors were identified. Verification will now follow, with the dead electors...
Richard Byles isn’t the obvious choice to head a central bank. Increasingly, across the world, those jobs go to academic economists with PhDs. Neither would too many people have assumed him to be the Holness administration’s first choice for the...
The big news this last week is the declaration by Peter Bunting that he will be challenging Peter Phillips for the leadership of the People’s National Party (PNP). As one might expect, the announcement was met by surprise and excitement in some...
If ignorance was a natural resource, then Jamaica’s economic future would have a strong guarantee of prosperity. How can one possibly be charged for an act that the accuser or State does not even know what it is? If the law is an ass, then those...
Typically, when confronted by danger, we run to safety as we’ve perceived it with our senses. Air pollution, often nicknamed the silent killer, in many instances, doesn’t afford us such luxuries. Instead, we’re often left to deal with its impacts...
On back-to-back Thursdays, June 6 and June 13, the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) staged a two-part Economics Seminar series, ‘Demystifying Inflation’. Interestingly, the stellar panellists for the first seminar were men and the second were women. Based on...
Many welcomed the announcement that Jamaica would resume exporting mangoes to the United States (US) in May. Then May came and went. Finally, we did it in June. A shipment of Jamaican mangoes was sent to the US in recent days. This news must have...
There has never been a case in Jamaica where a sitting leader of a major political party was voted out of party leadership, or where a contender was able to unseat the leader of a major political party. The succession of leaders of the People’s...
Human trafficking was the crime which supplied millions of enslaved Africans to forcibly work the cane and cotton fields of the ‘new world’. These new territories were stolen from their aboriginal inhabitants, who were either worked to death or...
If we judge William Shakespeare by the first act and scene of his play, Macbeth, he would have been a terrible baseball and cricket umpire, and an even worse football referee. After all, he wrote “ Fair is foul and foul is fair.” However, when...
On the website of the Trade Board of Jamaica ( http://www.tradeboard.gov.jm) is a recent notice that Jamaica’s Motor Vehicle Import Policy will be amended to increase the age limit for all categories of vehicles which may be imported. The age...
