Kamina Johnson Smith, who is now the leader of government business in the Senate, was a member of that chamber during the legal wrangle over the use by Andrew Holness, then the opposition leader, of pre-signed letters to purportedly effect the...
Playing against the Beast and the Dunce, the score was 5-all; I was down to two of the worst cards I'd ever held in domino history, namely double-five and double-blank. Gene Autry played hard five to the Beast, who ran to the other end and, with his...
The world as we know it was originally scheduled to come to an end 17 years ago when the intelligent machines we built to maintain the system should have collectively imploded at the stroke of midnight because they weren't thought to be smart enough...
That was the awkward admission from the prime minister after relentless and informed questioning by Richard Azan regarding the taxpayer-funded $800-million election scandal. The House of Representatives was sitting in committee to review the...
As this newspaper reported yesterday, the European Union (EU) last weekend disbursed to Jamaica €6.5 million (J$910 million) under a programme whose name could have been thought of only by bureaucrats in Brussels - Jamaica Accompanying Measures...
The Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando in 2016 was both the deadliest mass shooting by a single shooter and the most lethal incident of violence against LGBT people in United States history. The gunman,...
Since a senior reverend was accused of having sexual intercourse with an underage female, there has been a lot of talk about paedophilia. However, strictly speaking, the pastor is not accused of being a paedophile because he did not have sexual...
Peter Abrahams, the South Africa-born journalist and writer who lived in Jamaica for over six decades, died on Tuesday, three days before Donald Trump's inauguration as America's 45h president. He was 97.There is uncertainty about the circumstances...
I don't believe that there are any true atheists - men who are born without any awareness of the existence of God and who involuntarily sustain that absence of awareness of God throughout their lives. There are only pretenders who, for moral rather...
There is a mission by Barack Obama's successor, Donald Trump, and the Republicans in Congress to deny the United States' first African-American president a legacy. So, even before Mr Trump's inauguration last Friday, the Republicans used their...
In the last 10 years, I have done nine workshops that include training in domestic violence, including with security officers in three Caribbean states. I am always amazed at the gap between the legal meaning of domestic violence (used by the police...
Minister of National Security Bobby Montague reminds me in many ways of Joe Biden, Obama's vice-president. He is a good guy and his heart is in the right place, but every now and then, his own mouth trips him up."Mi nuh know weh him mean by dat,"...
Why should Jamaicans be concerned about who is granted a telecommunications licence? It's not an issue that's quite as sexy as acrobatic Moravian pastors or the use of obeah as a crime-fighting technique, but it's something worth thinking about.The...
Last week Tuesday, January 17, di director of corporate communication fi UDC answer back mi email weh mi did send pon January 3. It tek whole-a two week. Anyhow, mi lucky fi get answer. Unu done know how dem govament office stay...
'Zen' means 'meditative state' and is the name given to a school of Buddhism which suggests that the soul grows through actively engaging with life as it is. One of the tools for achieving insight through meditation is a paradox called a 'Koan'. One...
In the aftermath of recent killings by men said to be of unsound mind, the mental-health crisis has once again surged to the fore, yet there are no clear policy directives on how to deal with these persons who roam our streets in major cities and...
Last week, my Gleaner column was titled 'Watch the hype'. In a nutshell, I was warning us as Jamaican sports lovers to be careful how we advocate for the pushing of schoolboys into the national senior...
There are dozens of children pregnant under the age of 16 every year in Jamaica. The men involved are guilty of the crimes of statutory rape and carnal abuse, but how many are ever brought before the law? Very few. We have a culture of...
Barack Obama's legacy in foreign policy is derided by his opponents, and even some of his friends say it wasn't his presidency's strong suit. And yet, history may prove that his vision was prescient, that he began America's overdue transition to a...
If not outright fearful, we admit to being deeply uneasy. Which, we suppose, is the case with most of the world. With good reason.Today, in Donald Trump, a callow, rude, thin-skinned, misogynistic, xenophobic, racist and narcissistic 70-year-old...
Published:Wednesday | January 18, 2017 | 12:00 AMJohn Rapley
As the final months of Barack Obama's presidency have dwindled to days, and now hours, the sense of foreboding is increasingly laced with disappointment, and even anger. To many of his most ardent supporters, Mr Obama was the man who came to power...
The recent report that a married pastor has been charged with carnal abuse and rape of an underage child raises issues for Christians as to whether a paedophile is a sign of weakness, wickedness or sickness.Glenn Tucker in the Letter of the Day (...
Last week, Ed Bartlett, the minister of tourism, announced that a hospitality school will be built at a cost of $400 million. After reading the Tourism Sector Study, published in June 2016 by the HEART Trust/NTA, I have one question: What is driving...
At midday tomorrow, many of those who had been in denial since Donald Trump won the presidency on November 8, 2016 will have their chance to awaken from the nightmare and face the even scarier reality.Trump has brought new superlatives to atrocious...
Although there are no signs that it's on the agenda, we still expect that Andrew Holness will make a fulsome statement on his recent visit to Israel, given the seeming absence of a specifically declared diplomatic context of the visit and the...
