Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke should be commended for his efforts in using the media, as well as speeches from public platforms, to inform and engage Jamaicans on a range of economic reforms he regards as important for the country's advancement....
Stripped to its core, Michael Lee-Chin's private $60 million "gift" to coffee farmers is really just the billionaire businessman's way of helping the Government to provide subsidies it couldn't afford to an industry that is yet to truly understand...
A crocodile killed a fisherman last month and another did something last week which I warned/predicted years ago. Given the sociological insight I gained from the University of the West Indies (UWI) and the work of herpetologists such as my...
Member of parliament for St James North Western, Dr Horace Chang, announced recently the Government's intention to construct 76 housing units to relocate some residents of Canterbury, a $550-million project designed to transform the inner-city St...
That he has spoken publicly about it can only mean that Audley Shaw takes seriously what he interprets to be a threat on his life. And so, too, must law enforcement. In the event, the police must engage in a full and thorough investigation of this...
"She gone stark raving crackers," said one of my friends. "Who?" I asked. "Kamla," he replied, referring to the former prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago and now leader of the Opposition. "What happen? What she do now?" Pause. "She call de prime...
Over the past few months, a lot has been said about the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) instituted by the Ministry of Education. The Profile was designed to increase the students' academic and critical thinking capabilities, and creativity by the end of...
Published:Thursday | September 13, 2018 | 12:00 AM
We don't know if anyone in Jamaica remembers Gordon Brown, or, more important, has been listening to him this week. We should.A decade ago, Mr Brown was Britain's Labour prime minister. Before that, he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, or finance...
Published:Thursday | September 13, 2018 | 12:00 AM
Niamey, the capital city of the Republic of Niger (where I have been attending a conference), is located in the Sahel, the semi-arid area south of the Sahara Desert. The Niger River (the third-largest in Africa after the Nile and the Congo) is the...
Published:Thursday | September 13, 2018 | 12:00 AM
Every so often, and the 'often' is getting more frequent these days, matters of an absolutely logic-defying nature hit the national headlines. In the preceding days, we have learnt of the massive damage to cable infrastructure by telecommunications...
Published:Thursday | September 13, 2018 | 12:00 AM
The editorial of Sunday, September 9, 2018 concerning the Windrush crisis has presented an opportunity to share some details on the Government's response to this truly tragic situation.Jamaica's high commissioner in London, along with the other...
Published:Wednesday | September 12, 2018 | 12:00 AM
This week's big war games by Russia are unlikely to have escaped the attention of analysts in the regional divisions of Jamaica's foreign ministry, especially those whose job it is to pay attention to developments in Moscow and Beijing.The exercises...
Published:Wednesday | September 12, 2018 | 12:00 AM
Recently, Dr Paul Ashley, attorney-at-law and political commentator, published Dudus: The Extradition of Jamaica's #1 Drug Don, which recounts the "machinations of the Government of Jamaica (GOJ) to delay and frustrate the extradition of Jamaica's...
Published:Wednesday | September 12, 2018 | 12:00 AM
Two days before Hurricane Gilbert ripped up Jamaica from end to end, my two younger brothers and I were out carousing, moving to and fro in the city. It was a Saturday, and the last thing on our minds was a hurricane.Jamaicans had been able to...
Eighteen years ago, Jamaica signed the Rome Statute to establish the International Criminal Court (ICC). That court has been in operation since 2002. Jamaica, however, is not a member. It hasn't ratified the treaty. Eleven of Jamaica's Caribbean...
Is there really such a thing as a global culture? Consider gay rights.Last Thursday, the Indian Supreme Court decriminalised homosexuality. Last April, a court in Trinidad and Tobago found colonial-era laws banning gay sex to be unconstitutional....
Monday morning was pure hell. It took me two hours and 43 minutes to get from one end of Spanish Town Road to the other.I left my house at 7 a.m. in Duhaney Park, where I live, and travelled to Spanish Town Road, which was easy. Four police officers...
I write in relation to the letter, written by a former security guard who requested anonymity, published in your edition of September 9, 2018, captioned 'Security companies are modern-day slave masters'.While it might come as a surprise to many, I...
It is neither an obligation nor the responsibility of governments, and certainly not Jamaica's, to invest in, or subsidise, the operations of private businesses to ensure their profitability. And this is especially so if such enterprises are of...
Back-to-school blues enveloped Apocrypha. In that fantasyland far beyond the clouds, Apocryphan parents were finding it hard to pay school fees and buy books and uniforms while keeping something back for bus fare and lunch money. Many resorted to...
Let us praise Fedrick Dacres. He is the first Jamaican to be crowned Diamond League champion in a field event. On June 10, 2018, Dacres threw the discus 69.67 metres in Stockholm to break his own national record. This is a magnificent achievement in...
There was a fire on James Street in Parade Gardens last week. People lost everything, and there are few means to help them beyond a couple of days' food and perhaps a bed and some clothes. This in a country with billions of savings looking for...
One of my patients came to see me recently for a gynaecological issue. Following inspection of the vulva, and then the vagina and the cervix via the use of a speculum (which many women despise), it is customary to perform what is known as a...
As he dons his armour of taxpayers' dollars, mounts his steed and prepares to ride off to be the saving knight of Clarendon's sugar cane farmers, Audley Shaw will hopefully have read Paul B. Scott's summary of his own foray into the industry. It was...
Andrew Holness, as the first of the post-Independence generation to lead Jamaica, has an opportunity to truly position himself as a transformational leader that he cannot squander. He has the daunting responsibility of renewing our hope in our...
