Coconut industry interests are no doubt buoyed by Audley Shaw's declaration that the Holness administration no longer wants to grab the millions of dollars earned by the Coconut Industry Board (CIB) from its 30 per cent ownership of food and...
April is Cancer Awareness Month, and this year the focus is on cervical cancer. Being a gynaecologist, this is right up my alley, literally and figuratively. I always get excited speaking about this type of cancer, because it is the only one that...
The best news last week was the decision announced by incoming Minister of Agriculture Audley Shaw to take Government's sticky hands off the big money attributable to the Coconut Industry Board from its part-ownership of the Seprod Group.Twinned...
Around a decade and a half ago, Kingsley Thomas, then the chairman of the National Housing Trust (NHT), spearheaded the purchase by the agency of 15,000 acres of a former hemp plantation near Hayes, Clarendon. The hemp, when it was grown, was raw...
Most people spend their entire lives wondering about the hereafter. All religions teach that our souls are temporarily housed in bodies of clay. They tell us that what we do while incarnated will impact significantly on our eternal souls. I believe...
Audley Shaw's selling of his transfer from finance to agriculture as a promotion may just be spin against embarrassment. Yet, his rambunctious spirit may be just what that portfolio needs, and he may have the last laugh.So far, he has been saying...
Things are so bad at Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) it appears that whole new diseases are being invented in the building. That said, let me outline where I'm going with all this ahead of time and lay it right out there: there are serious...
Tourism has been Jamaica's success story over several decades, and continuing its streak, it has coughed up what promises to be yet another winner. It might seem blasÈ to us because we have been talking forever about Port Royal's development...
One of my friends called me last week to lament Winnie Madikizela's death. And she made a confession. She hadn't always admired Winnie. She'd disapproved of her for breaking up Nelson Mandela's marriage to Evelyn Mase. What?Winnie Madikizela was...
By September 1, 2018, negotiations will commence between the European Union (EU) and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States for a new agreement to replace the 2000 ACP/EU Cotonou Partnership Agreement (CPA) expiring in February...
Justice Patrick Brooks, in calling for the legislature to rethink the Limitation of Actions Act, has rekindled the long-running national conversation about squatters' rights versus landowners' rights.His remarks were made in relation to the case of...
During a protracted period of unemployment between my 'A' Level results and getting a job, I lived from wake to wake. The death of anyone in the village and the consequential wake afterwards were an oasis in the Sahara of the existence of many of us...
THE EDITOR, Sir:We took careful note of your editorial of Friday, March 23, 2018, which stated: "At the same time, we continue to believe that there are creative ways for the Government to compensate public-sector workers beyond digging into the...
The political parties were skimpy on the substance of Wednesday's session of the Vale Royal Talks, but the fact that the discussion has restarted after a hiatus of several years is good for Jamaica.This value is accounted for on a number of fronts...
One of the perhaps predictable responses to calls by the Press Association of Jamaica and the Media Association of Jamaica to exempt journalism entirely from the Data Protection Act has been to ask , "Who do they think they are?" and "Do they think...
It would be great if it were true that the old corrupt politics is dying in Jamaica, as old politicians are replaced by younger ones. The trouble is that the young ones learn their politics from their elders, and so the more things change, the...
As I sat lamenting on things Jamaica April Fools' Day, what came to mind? Politicians and their penchant for repeatedly uttering never-to-be-fulfilled promises, readily and repeatedly swallowed by ever hopeful people. I wanted to laugh....
Audley Shaw, recently installed as Jamaica's agriculture minister and vowing to transform the sector into the new driver of economic growth, gives an anecdote to illustrate both the magnitude of the challenge and the enormity of the opportunity. A...
Minister of Health Dr Christopher Tufton has always been accepted by significant numbers of Jamaicans as a nice-guy politician who hardly offends and is willing to face up the tough questions as a 'servant of the people'.In addition to that, he is a...
The controversy surrounding the naming of the North South Highway after former prime minister Edward Seaga has raised issues concerning the process and rationale of naming buildings and places. If Seaga were opposed to the erection of the highway,...
Damion Crawford's declarations, delivered mostly like breathless recitations and practised alliterations with an intention to shock, make the young People's National Party (PNP) politician too easy to dismiss - even when he has something sensible to...
This is a response to an article ('What a nerve, Russia') published in The Gleaner by British High Commissioner to Jamaica and The Bahamas Asif Ahmad on April 2.The British High Commissioner accuses Russia of "heinous attack on civilians" by a...
On Monday, April 2, 2018, The Gleaner carried an article titled 'Sabbath Agony', highlighting the difficulty Seventh-day worshippers are having obtaining and keeping jobs, supposedly on account of their faith, which forbids them to work on Saturdays...
There are few uglier sites to cityscapes than the webs of electricity distribution wires that often criss-cross utility poles before being attached to buildings.Aesthetics apart, running power lines this way, in a country like Jamaica that is...
So, after months of speculation, guessing and spelling, the long-awaited reshuffle of political Heaven has finally taken place.Riddle I dis;Riddle I dat.Guess I dis riddleand paraps not.Some ascended; some shifted. Others were cast down. During all...
