No ballot papers are given out at political rallies. Whether seas of green or orange fields, right now we have a statistical dead heat. If we recall how close Kishane Thompson lost to Noah Lyles last Olympics, or how the same thing happened to...
Some people have one political party triumphing over the other. Interestingly though, the incumbent government always has the advantage. As the currently elected government, the possessor of the ‘power’, those already occupying the contested...
Jerome Powell, the chief executive officer of the Toll Authority of Jamaica, which regulates the island’s toll roads, has recently been effusive about the alacrity with which the operator of the north-south leg of Highway 2000 responded to the...
The Secretary-General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Albert Ramdin, has proposed a roadmap for Haiti. It is ambitious, detailed, and promising if adequately owned by Haitians. But plans don’t save people; action, commitment, and...
I was five years old, and while my family were digging up the dry lands to create “rice fields” near the sugar cane areas where we lived, I tried to catch the little bitsy fishes, but they were much smarter than me. I needed help but even my father...
An encouraging finding of the latest Don Anderson polls is that more Jamaicans say they will cast ballots on September 3 than in the previous two parliamentary elections. Of course, a 50.4 per cent voter turnout, if that number holds, which Mr...
“There is no such thing as vote buying. Politicians provide tangible encouragement to their supporters.” So said one fellow in the aftermath of the 2020 general elections when it was reported that Peter Shand, one of the independent candidates...
As I write this column late evening of Wednesday, August 20 – fully 10 days after the announcement of the date of the 2025 general election – the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) still has not released their manifesto. Surely the announcement by...
It was a short weekend stay at a hotel on the North Coast that created several experiences and a few thoughts on our tourism product that is in a rapid expansion mode now. Picture a group of senior citizens, three vehicles, all packed with luggage...
There are any number of classic Jamaican sayings that would be apropos to describe the recent announcement that daily newsprint rivals, The Jamaica Gleaner and The Jamaica Observer have signed a memorandum of understanding to explore cooperation on...
It is now beyond doubt that the Government was premature in announcing a by-election for the Seivright division in the capital’s municipal government. Delroy Williams, the deputy chairman of the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC...
Twenty-four newborns have died at Victoria Jubilee Hospital, within less than one month, since June 2025. This brings the neonatal death toll to an alarming 229 since October 2023. Responding to the recent deaths, Chief Medical Officer Dr...
The brief kerfuffle between the People’s National Party (PNP) and the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) over moderators for the election debates has passed. Indeed, the whole thing appears to have been overblown, with the potentially unfortunate effect...
General elections are scheduled to be held in Jamaica on Wednesday, September 3. These elections are again being held amid international geo-political crises. The war, which began in Ukraine in February, 2022, is now in its fourth year. The...
In politics, mudslinging and propaganda are par for the course. As the election draws close, we find ourselves in the proverbial silly season, and both major parties have ramped up the silliness. What concerns me, however, is the tone of the...
My friend, Jeff Cobham, passed away on August 13 as quietly as he lived. I met Jeff 30 years ago through mutual friend Danny Melville (whose life mission is to trick or force this confirmed hermit into meeting people he thinks I should). Especially...
With last week’s collapse in Geneva of the UN-promoted negotiations for a treaty on plastics, Caribbean countries must now deepen coordination and accelerate their own efforts to manage the production of, and waste from, the material. As part of...
Thomas Jefferson, president of the US from 1801 to 1809, should have known about Ethiopia, the Kenyan scholar Ali Mazrui suggested in his keynote address to a conference held at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, in 2007. I assisted Mazrui...
Jamaica’s national motto, ‘Out of Many, One People’, proudly emblazoned on our coat of arms, celebrates the multiracial roots of our island descendants of Tainos, Africans, Europeans, Indians, Chinese and others united in one identity. Yet the...
Jamaica’s housing sector delivered over 40,000 homes in the period 2000 to 2010, twice the 1960s output. This was fuelled by lower interest rates and Joint Ventures (JV). I remember a friend in the Ministry of Housing JV programme being overwhelmed...
As national elections draw near, we should be thinking how the political process can add meaning and benefit to all lives. People thrive when they live in societies with rising standards of living and what David Brooks terms “dense networks of...
The Gleaner commends the People’s National Party’s (PNP) attempt to widen accessibility to its manifesto for next month’s general election. The document is delivered not only in written formal English, but is being made available in audio form - in...
During the August 10 mass meeting In Half-Way Tree, Prime Minster Holness celebrated Jamaica’s democracy exemplified in the crowd assembled in the square and in our people’s freedom to choose their government in the forth coming election. The PM...
When Jamaicans vote in the general election on September 3 the stakes will be high for the policies of the government they choose will carry generational consequences. For half a century, the island’s economy has been stuck in low gear. Per capita...
The Caribbean has made remarkable progress in the fight against HIV – leading the world in reducing AIDS-related deaths by more than 60 per cent since 2010. But with an adult HIV prevalence of up to 1.2 per cent – second only to sub-Saharan Africa...
