Published:Wednesday | December 28, 2016 | 12:00 AMJaevion Nelson
We have a tendency to suggest there is no plan to address crime and violence and that the police are inept when there is a spike in (or reporting of) murders. Admittedly, it can be rather daunting keeping abreast with the news given the healthy...
Published:Tuesday | December 27, 2016 | 12:00 AMDevon Dick
St. James murder record skyrockets with 263 persons murdered out of a population of 184, 000 so far in 2016 [Gleaner December 27]. This is the parish that became the hub of protest against working conditions of 1831 under the leadership of...
Demonetization. The word's uncanny similarity to 'demonisation' forebodes the trouble it has brought with it. Before I left for India on December 5, the Indian community in Jamaica was already aflutter, many asking me to carry their 1,000- and 500-...
The new year will find the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech) facing a brighter future with the appointment of accomplished Ambassador Professor Stephen Vasciannie as the new president with effect from January 2. This came as a surprise to...
According to the World Bank, in 2011, 17 per cent of the people in the developing world lived at or below US$1.25 a day. This means that 1.4 billion people or 21 per cent of the world's population live in extreme poverty.Undoubtedly, the fight...
Among the more surprising statements during the televised debates for the November municipal elections was the answer from Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) candidate Milton Brown to a question about the party's manifesto for the polls.The party, Mr Brown...
was without, it seems, either embarrassment or a sense of irony that a few days ago, Assan Thompson, the assistant police commissioner in charge of border...
Published:Monday | December 26, 2016 | 12:00 AMGordon Robinson
Remember, these awards are intended to be funny (ha ha), so please apply your sense of humour. If you can't, borrow your friend's.2016 Dunce Award: JAMAICA RACING COM-MISSION STEWARDS appear on a mission to ruin horse racing...
The ebb and flow of life in Jamaica, as meticulously documented in these pages over the course of this year, has twisted and turned our emotional state from joy and pride to immense grief and sadness in ways some had hitherto thought unimaginable...
Published:Monday | December 26, 2016 | 12:00 AMEwin James
Soon Jamaica will have a new commissioner of police who could be a woman for a woman is the interim police chief. Speculation aside, I'm almost certain that whoever he/she be, things will remain as they have been under the outgoing commissioner, Dr...
Today marks the 185th anniversary of the Emancipation Rebellion, organised and led by Sam Sharpe, a 31-year-old enslaved African-Jamaican, which broke the back of plantation slavery in Jamaica and opened the door to freedom. Once we concede that...
I was raised as a Christian and embraced the faith for many years. During this time, I read the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, rejecting all other religions as bogus, believing that Christianity was the only true pathway to God and...
For me, the Yuletide season began with an exclamation mark. The usual Christmas hustle, bustle and hustling were evident everywhere. The pile-up of cars going through one particular traffic light intersection was very sudden and unexpected. I was...
We understand the chagrin of Mark Golding and Peter Phillips, justice and finance minister, respectively, in the previous administration, regarding their party having lost the government before the green shoots of their economic reform project...
I would have had to be about seven or eight, standing there with my brothers and sisters, watching my father work his miracle with the Christmas tree.We looked on and were fascinated and filled with the kind of pure joy that only children can feel....
It sounds just like the hiss of a poisonous snake. And many women immediately sense danger when a strange man on the street calls out to them in this way. I don't think Jamaican men even think about what they're doing when they psssst women on the...
The year 2016 is coming to a close, and it is time to reflect on all that has happened before. Domestic violence has been a perennial feature of our lives. It has always been a taboo issue.The family secret is always preserved because one does not...
Although by orthodox lights Easter is the high point of the Christian year, I've always been weak for Christmas. It's the best time of the year. Everyone's enjoying himself. The carols are playing. Rum. Pudding. What's not to like?Only when you've...
Being Jamaica's police chief is a hard and wearying job.The commissioner contends not only with a country with one of the world's most intractable crime problems, including a homicide rate of 45 per 100,000, but presides over a constabulary that is...
What makes life a stage, especially at Christmas time, is the emphasis on curtains. They open and close the festive season, revealing to the world a house 'put away', as my family and neighbours used to say. There was the oilcloth, tablecloth and...
The impending resignation of Police Commissioner Carl Williams has coincided with news that a boat stolen from the marine police in Negril in February was found scrapped and abandoned on a beach in Honduras.It must have been a woeful sight for...
The celebratory tone of Economic Programme Oversight Committee (EPOC) pronouncements is most inappropriate, and the most recent one presented by new co-chair, Keith Duncan, was no better.EPOC appears to be nothing more than...
I remember it well, as did everyone whose eyes witnessed the event. It was the ending of the 1980 Jamaica cricket season, and I was called upon to bowl the last over in a tense match between The...
As the year comes to a close, I've decided to do what most people do: make my sports wish list for 2017. Now whether God answers sports prayers is another matter. The jury is still out on that one.Here is my open prayer:Dear God,My first wish for...
Make no mistake: No Jamaican law can determine that Christmas Day this year will fall on December 26 just because December 25 falls on a Sunday. All civil law can do is create a public holiday.During the days of chattel slavery in Jamaica, the...
