With the country following the abduction cases of two newborns recently, and Peta-Gaye Ffrench – the woman charged with the second kidnapping – to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, many may wonder how great a role does the mind play in committing...
Old soldiers never die – only their privates. Old bankers never die, they just lose interest. Old investors never die, they just cash out. Old lawyers never die, first they lose their appeal and then lose their briefs. Listening to the many,...
Jamaica’s never-ending love-hate relationship with dancehall, a unique and fascinating feature of our country which has given us much acclaim, is on display once again. Last week, a scathing letter to the president of The University of the West...
The collapse of the Hanoi summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un may have been, in the circumstance, the best outcome for the US president as well as an important lesson in his climb up the curve of international diplomacy. He may have...
Almost every barrel has a bad apple or two, and the Catholic Church is no different. It is reprehensible when anyone breaks a solemn vow, be they priest or politician, husband or wife; but doubly so when those given pastoral and spiritual care of...
The recent brouhaha surrounding the Faculty of Law at the Mona campus of The University of the West Indies (UWI) as it relates to the views and cultural expression of the students through their official organisation, the Mona Student Law Society,...
Ruel Reid has a problem of judgement. His is poor. That is why when in early February, he disclosed his plan for a code of conduct for teachers involved in politics we advised that he first commit his idea to a Green Paper, thus opening it to broad...
It has always been perceived in Jamaica that politics is always in the business of increasing the fortunes of the big man while only pretending that the main focus of government is paving the way for the advancement of those close to the bottom of...
The Sunday Gleaner was awash with news pertaining to an immediate ban on the harvesting of conch which has been imposed by the Ministry of Agriculture; that ban to run for one year until January 2020. As sudden as the ban was, it really did not...
A Commission of enquiry is urgently needed into the Petrojam saga. According to the Commission of Enquiry Act of 1873, which was last amended in 1978, a commission allows for a full, faithful and impartial enquiry into a matter of grave public...
Published:Wednesday | February 27, 2019 | 12:00 AM
When Audley Shaw was transferred from the finance to the agriculture and industry ministry, most people saw it as a demotion. We perceived matters differently. It was an opportunity, we hoped, for Mr Shaw to employ his charisma, energy and force of...
Published:Wednesday | February 27, 2019 | 12:00 AM
With the rise of digital communication, traditional media has become one of the many spaces in which public relations professionals operate. Due to the advent of social media, the practice is divided into traditional public relations, advocacy and...
Published:Wednesday | February 27, 2019 | 12:00 AM
Countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) continue to export goods to the United States (US) under the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI), comprising the 1983/1990 Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act (CBERA) and the 2000 Caribbean Basin Trade...
Published:Wednesday | February 27, 2019 | 12:00 AM
The Permanent Secretaries Board (PSB) of the Government of Jamaica, notes with heightened concern the article published in The Sunday Gleaner dated February 17, 2019, titled ‘On shuffling the deck’ by one Orville Taylor. The concern arises mainly...
It’s not clear if George Ramocan’s recent call for Britain to halt its deportation of Jamaicans, until publication of the Home Office’s review of the Windrush scandal, was cleared by, and delivered with the full imprimatur of, the foreign ministry...
Government was in crisis in Apocrypha, that fantasyland beyond the clouds where all politicians are friends and retired politician Oma D’unn solved political dilemmas by parable. Regular readers know Oma. He’s a PhD in logic but, like a moon,...
Just who is to blame for the steady deterioration in the relationship between us, citizens, and the police? Social media has thrown up some distressing videos, especially in recent weeks, of citizens confronting police personnel in public as the...
If something is wrong, it is simply wrong. In my column last week in speaking to the Petrojelly debacle, I, in a satirical mode, spoke to the responsibility of former permanent secretary (PS) in the energy ministry “Sancia Bennett Templer, under...
Mara came to see me on Jamaica Day, the day when the nation revels in the goodness and prospects of our ‘livity’ – our way of life. She was raised in the country by relatives because her father no deh bout and her mother gone to look life in...
When it comes to supersensitive topics like abortion and the part of the Offences Against the Persons Act that addresses buggery, it’s always been blah, blah, blah … back and forth, up and down, ‘round and ‘round, inside out, to and fro, side to...
Roman Catholics in Jamaica may have thought the local church immune from the child sex-abuse scandal that the more than one billion-member global congregation has, for decades, struggled, with little success, to put behind it. But then came the...
All things considered, the industrial relations environment in Jamaica is relatively stable, unlike the situation three or four decades ago when the atmosphere was often thick with the tension between firms and their workers and the trade unions...
As reports of governmental corruption continue on the rise, Jamaica’s need for constitutional reform has reached emergency levels. Without radical constitutional change aimed at limiting opportunities for bad governance and increasing the...
It has been a wild ride with our dollar (JMD) moving from J$127 to US$1 in June last year to $137 in August, then $126 in November, and on February 4 this year, $137.21. Our finance minister offered comfort by telling us don’t worry, it’s just a...
Since I’m tyyyerrrrd of the Jamaican politics, I was looking forward to writing something about the Jussie Smollett case on the basis that it’s just too funny and serious at the same time. The case just perfectly encapsulates the sad and sorry pass...
