Patrice (not her real name) is a woman living with HIV. In a consultation with her doctor, she explained that she and her partner were planning to have a child. The doctor is said to have told her that she was wicked to want to get pregnant and...
Among the educators who have taught my daughter, both at preparatory and at high-school levels, Catherine* is one of my favourites. In addition to teaching her at a formal educational institution, she also taught her extra lessons when she was in...
It was about 43 years ago. My father was circling the block in downtown Miami while I looked around in the popular La Epoca store for something that I wanted to buy. I didn't find it, so I exited the building and joined the group of people that had...
Our criticism of the Integrity Commission and the legislation which bore it must not be mistaken as sabre-rattling at the personalities, per se, who constitute the oversight body, for they are themselves of unimpeachable integrity.Its commissioners...
The Gleaner, in one of its editorials captioned 'Elbow sleeping Integrity Commission' (Saturday, January 18, 2019), sheds light on one of the many failures in our country as a result of government.We have government not acting on a matter with...
No, Mr Holness, we have not been doing "everything correctly" and yet achieving only the marasmic growth that you correctly bemoan in your remarks at Essex Valley last week. No again, and not by a long shot either!The two per cent threshold you...
Last year, road fatalities jumped 24 per cent over the previous year. My wish for 2019 is that there are far fewer tears, deaths, and seriously injured persons, as a result of sharp decreases in traffic accidents.I would also like to see courtesy...
Since January 12, there have been a few Gleaner articles presenting a curious mix of information about the Government's expressed intention to pass a law to take ownership of the 49 per cent shares held by PDV Caribe since 2007 when the Petroleum...
The embarrassing revelation last week that annual reports of parliamentarians' statutory declarations for the last four years, not counting the just-ended 2018, had not been tabled in the House of Representatives should trigger action from Jamaica's...
Of recent, the standard of The Gleaner's editorials, usually good, has been unusually high, especially a volley of tremendous pieces throughout the last couple weeks. Even so, the editorial of Friday, January 11, 2019, 'Ruel Reid's socialism on...
We are in the dark as to whether Jamaica's lawmakers continue to flout the anti-corruption law by not declaring their assets in a timely manner, as no annual report has been tabled for four years, 2014-2017, anti-corruption crusaders have revealed....
Earlier in January, subsequent to the announcement by the minister of finance and public service, Dr Nigel Clarke, that a record 1.3 million Jamaicans are now employed, I tweeted the following statement:"1.3 million people employed but what kind of...
When I was a boy, my hair was thick, then it turned thin, then it turned grey, then it turned loose. I had problems with split hair. Most of mine split about 10 years ago. I reached the point where a hair on the head was worth two in the brush.Yet,...
Next month will make 26 years that I have been writing this weekly column, and I would like to be able to say that the number and seriousness of political scandals have declined over the period. Regrettably, I can't.Whether the Jamaica Labour Party...
Tempting as it is to indulge in geopolitical scaremongering, we urge Jamaicans not to give traction to the myopic, nativist, and xenophobic instincts that some hope will trigger backlash against, and the retreat of, the Chinese.And that is why the...
Against the backdrop of Jamaica having one of the highest crime rates, I have detected that the scourge of crime here has been diagnosed as being as a consequence of the freedoms we enjoy. The view held in some quarters is that should we give up...
Inmates at the Fort Augusta female prison have made several damning allegations against the prison authorities.As if to demonstrate how loose security is at the facility, on two occasions the women used cell phones to post videos on Facebook,...
In spite of the present levels of unprecedented dysfunctions in the US presidency, the Cabinet and the GOP Senate, the economy continues to operate at near full employment. In the world's largest economy it has to be considered a supreme irony that...
Jamaica has outstanding Methodist ministers, including the first female bishop in Jamaica, Christine Benguche, and Everald Galbraith, the current Methodist bishop with responsibility for the Caribbean and parts of Central America. These and other...
Over the past week, it has pained me to read or listen to news items detailing the antics of education minister, Ruel Reid. He seems determined to outpace his fellow politicos and win, hands down, the jackass award for best exemplifying the politics...
Foreign policy has traditionally been viewed as stuffy, complicated and indigestible, the kind of topic that occupies academics and diplomats at high tea in a snooze fest. In fact, it's often been the retirement home of a greying class of political...
The Government should not be cowed by the intimidatory tactics of the Jamaica Tallawahs, a private cricket franchise that happens to benefit from this country's name but is owned by Florida-based businessman Kris Persaud.Sport Minister Olivia Grange...
In less than a generation, the global economic line-up will be starkly different from the one we know today. China, now the world's second largest economy, is projected to surpass the United States by 2050, as will India. The United States will...
The prospects for expanding exports depends significantly on the state of the economy in trading partners. The major global economic institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Inter-American Development Bank, and the...
