To understand Minister Nigel Clarke's dissertation in last Sunday's Gleaner (12/8/18), puzzling at first sight, you have to know where he is coming from. To also assess its worth, you must get answers to some questions and appreciate the possibility...
While that wouldn't have been their intention, Jamaica's education minister, Ruel Reid, and the registrar of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), Glenroy Cumberbatch, have to be careful of being perceived of wanting to lower the bar, rather...
The ruling by the Full Court which has paved the way for the Independent Commission of Investigation (INDECOM) to execute a search of the headquarters of the Jamaica Defence Force presents interesting arguments concerning access to information and...
Recently, Robert Montague, honourable minister of transport, lambasted a TVJ reporter. This could put her safety at risk. Instead she should be congratulated for excellent investigative journalism. She claimed that when Montague was minister of...
He didn't address the issue with the contextual breath it deserved, and we are uneasy with some of his vocabulary. Nonetheless, Prime Minister (PM) Andrew Holness' affirmation of the importance of Jamaica's media as critical pursuers of truth was...
Last Thursday, I awoke at my usual time of minutes to 5 a.m. At 7:30 I took a shower and immediately after, went to the kitchen to mill some roasted beans in preparation for brewing my coffee.While filling a glass for measuring I was far from...
We had thought that there was no cause to relitigate the matter, that it was settled policy that Jamaica has a floating currency, whose value fluctuated against other currencies. It can go up and down. Some, it seems, would wish to reopen that...
V.S. Naipaul, our phenomenal West Indian son, has resigned leaving behind a substantial space in our society that we can only hope would one day be filled again.The passages detailing his passing have been marked with sadness on all sides of the...
Dr Michael Abrahams attempted, in his Gleaner article published on Independence Day, August 6, 2018, to advocate for the LGBT lifestyle as normal and even commendable. Of note, he refers to research but fails to cite same.According to Dr Abrahams: "...
The constitutions of functioning democracies are not to be trifled with. If they can be changed at whim and the processes they delineate ignored, the rule of law is imperilled as are the rights and freedoms they guarantee to citizens. And there from...
The Trinidad-born novelist and 2001 Nobel Prize winner, Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul, will remain one of the most celebrated yet controversial figures in Caribbean literature.A master of the English sentence, he welcomed the celebration of his work...
Communication experts know that the first rule of communication is to know your audience. We need to determine who they are; what they know; what they understand or misunderstand about the subject being communicated; the underlying values, attitudes...
To all my brothers who believe that being inside a woman is the greatest feeling ever, can I get an amen? Amen, my brothers, amen! Hallelujah! Yes, sex with women is a thing. A big thing. It has been a thing since the beginning and will...
Miss 'P' is in her late 50s but she looks like someone around 80. I believed her when she told me last Wednesday that she had not eaten a half-decent meal since the previous Sunday. She lives in a leaking room in a Southside yard, where the sanitary...
Hopefully, Delroy Chuck's announcement that he is thinking about regularising the bail bond business in Jamaica is a matter of serious policy consideration, rather than an off-the-cuff answer to a reporter's question.A properly regulated system...
In only a few days apart, two licensed firearm holders got themselves in trouble. Reportedly, one got into an altercation with a security guard. Apparently, things got heated and he pulled his licensed firearm, but he was shot and killed by the...
I certainly regret the error in the headline of my column published last Sunday: 'J$13,000 a year to lease Puerto Seco Beach!' It's the annual licence to operate the beach that costs this pitifully low sum. The cost of the lease is, allegedly, J$3,...
One surprisingly enjoyable aspect of the annual Emancipendence celebration is that it invites everyone to pull back and take a more balanced view about our nation's progress and prospects. That's an important and welcome break from the sometimes...
When we appoint bright people to prominent positions, we expect them to deliver, and deliver big. Quoting the prime minister during the unexplained delay in appointing Chief Justice Bryan Sykes, we want "actions that brings results".In a cloud of...
This is an extract from the speech delivered at the launch of Medicanja products in Kingston, Jamaica, last month.With the recent launch of a number of Medicanja products, ganja is once again making news headlines. And rightly so. It is an opportune...
It may not be the international norm for the adjudication of allegations of doping in sports to be conducted in public, but the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO) was right to hold its hearings in the open. It is unfortunate that JADCO, without...
This week's citizenship ceremony of 32 newly minted Jamaicans has caused some reflection on what it means to be a citizen of this country. We recognise that citizenship is an important step along an immigrant's quest for full economic and political...
The recent debate about the Puerto Seco Beach has revealed, once again, that we need to have a conversation about leisure.We need to begin talk about how accessible and affordable recreational spaces are for the majority of our citizens, the absence...
Jamaicans.com is one of my favourite regional sites. Like the Barbados Nation and the Jamaica Gleaner, it keeps me in touch with the Caribbean - my workplace, birthplace and stamping ground.This week, though, it lapsed badly, and on the subject of...
Former chairman of the Spectrum Management Authority (SMA) Trevor Forrest has denied that the email exchange between himself and the former SMA managing director, Dr David McBean, is evidence of any wrongdoing on his part. According to Forrest, the...
