The sectoral Debate is dribbling to its close in Parliament. The scant interest it normally attracts has been diluted even further by the Petrojam scandal, which emerged as a won't-go-away sidebar to the triumphalist contribution by the minister.If...
Anthony Hylton, the opposition spokesman on physical planning, is one of the very few active politicians, among many who rail against the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), with an appreciation of how the institutions of CARICOM function and how they...
Last week I was returning from Spanish Town to St. Andrew. It was about 7 p.m. and the line of traffic exiting the municipality close to Twickenham Park was long and slow-moving. As I approached the checkpoint, I rolled down all my windows and...
"Speak the truth and speak it ever, cost it what it will. He who hides the wrong he did does the wrong thing still."It is questionable whether Dr Andrew Wheatley internalised this memory gem. Had he, he may not now find himself at the centre of yet...
Even after Parliament has debated the Golding Report, this newspaper, as is probably the case with most Jamaicans, is none the wiser about what Jamaica expects from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), or wants it to be.For while the report is,...
Watching that movie about Wakanda, I would have never guessed it would manifest right away in likkle Jamaica. But we are a very stoshuss set ah people, so it shouldn't have been a complete surprise when Hollywood dreams became Kingston reality in...
It's supposed to be 'Puerto'. Spanish for port. But the foreign word has been Jamaicanised, like Ocho Rios. Our pet name for the town is Ochi. It's only foreigners who say 'Ocho' for short. Their abbreviation is logical. But language is a...
A recent newspaper report titled 'Don't blame dads' quoted statements from anthropologist Herbert Gayle that dismissed the suggestion that the absence of fathers pushes boys into crime.From this report, Dr Gayle based his position on local and...
Does a man become a monster if men can become monsters? How does an ordinary man, with the virtues and vices of other men, become the worst person on earth so that to protect people from him, he must be removed from his place of influence? Does he...
The image of Energy Minister Dr Andrew Wheatley emerging from a low-slung sports car assisted by models as he swaggered into Parliament to speak at the Sectoral Debate could convince the onlooker that his ministry was on target to "energise,...
Isn't it uncanny that despite the commitments by political leaders to tackle the pervasiveness of corruption, countless news stories and features/documentaries exposing corrupt practices, and a handful of organisations working tirelessly around...
As I head seemingly inexorably towards my 73rd year and continue to write my columns, indulge my emotions on Facebook, laugh at the political jokes - elected or not elected - and indulge in a constant flow of outrageous puns, I get worried when I...
The majority of Jamaicans who are black and not financially wealthy have an excruciatingly hard row to hoe.It appears that they have absolutely no needs or rights which our leaders and successive generations of public servants take any account of....
Over the last 30 years, in seeking to stem the free flow of murders and gang activity across the island, successive national security ministers have shuffled the deck of familiar strategies to try to find the winning formula.Every year during the...
The present awkward vice-grip from which the Holness administration now struggles to extricate itself, clamped on tightly by various extremely adhesive alleged corrupt practices, would not have come as a surprise to those who are adherents of karma...
Recently, there have been several bits of good economic news which, like the finance minister, Nigel Clarke, this newspaper believes are worthy celebrating.There was, for instance, Dr Clarke's revelation, based on the Survey of Living Conditions,...
The allegations of cronyism and other governance failures at Petrojam have caused public attention to be focused on what is a perennial matter of concern for Jamaicans - corruption, or the perception thereof. Eight of 10 Jamaicans believe that their...
'Breathes there the man with soul so dead,' is the first line in the poem by 19th-century poet Sir Walter Scott, and it is quite fitting as a descriptor of President Trump, his obvious personality abnormalities, and the rogues gallery of a cabinet...
"Sport, an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment."- Oxford DictionaryOur beloved country has been working assiduously for years to arrest the gorging...
Last week, during an on-radio discussion related to plastics and their harmful effects on the environment, one of the participants lamented on the seeming futility of clean-up efforts within Kingston Harbour vis-a-vis the continuous accumulation of...
In September 2015, member states of the United Nations (UN) adopted the Agenda 2030 on Sustainable Development, which has 17 goals for sustainable development (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030.Nine of the SDGs have a trade focus. Importantly, Goal 17...
In recent years, we have stressed the importance of fighting corruption at all levels.Apart from the social injustice it creates, corruption eats away at institutions and has negative consequences for countries' development.Each dollar lost to...
The deepening scandal over the seeming abandon with which managers at Petrojam, the oil refinery, tossed around taxpayers' money triggered the resignations of the three Jamaica Government-appointed board members.It is also likely to have reinforced...
We appreciate the pledge by Andrew Wheatley, the energy minister, to deal decisively with the complaints of mismanagement, nepotism, and corruption at the Petrojam oil refinery, of which he apparently believes there is, at the very least, prima...
It now appears that the stench emanating from Petrojam is so strong that the minister of energy cannot bear it anymore and has summoned the three Jamaican directors to a meeting. Despite the minister's apparent concern, there is no indication that...
