The explosion of murder, up by some 22 per cent year over year, keeps the country on edge. Any efficient investigation and successful prosecution will lead to the need for more prison space. As is, the clear-up rate for serious crimes is abysmally...
When I was small, I was fascinated by cranes, trains, dump trucks and tractors. The first time I heard the term 'bulldozer', I had no idea what it meant, and since these were the days long before the Internet and there were no reference books in the...
'One Billion Tourists, One Billion Opportunities' was the mantra of the recently concluded Tourism Awareness Week (September 27-October 2). Yet the question remains, is enough being done to ensure that the...
Two more Jamaican male students have had their education disrupted by violence. One is dead and the other is in police custody. What happened at Brown's Town High School on Thursday has an all-too-familiar ring, as more and more violent...
In Jamaica, it cannot be said with any real certainty that there exists a public school that is by strict definition Catholic, Anglican, Buddhist, Adventist, Rastafarian, Bah·'Ì, or agnostic. The administrators of the institution might wish for...
We accept the assurance from the management of the St Hilda's Diocesan High School in Brown's Town, St Ann, that religious bigotry had no role in its decision to strip its head girl of her post but can only conclude that action as premature,...
Slavery was abolished in Jamaica in 1834 because it was unsustainable. The financial damage caused by Sam Sharpe's Rebellion of 1831-1832 was great, and the system could not endure further costly slave revolts. Plus, the anti-slavery lobby in...
On Wednesday afternoon, my sports call-in programme on KLAS ESPN FM 89 ended early. My show normally ends at four, but when we carry live schoolboy football matches, I'm off air - at times, up to 45 minutes before that. I must confess that I don't...
Last week's visit of British Prime Minister David Cameron to Jamaica begs for fairness. Sections of the Christian community assumed that his visit was to promote a homosexual cause and engaged in a pre-emptive strike of denunciation and protest....
The political culture of garrison constituencies has, for many years, been socialised to hijack and derail genuine democratic processes in the political system.The protagonists of the garrison culture have always been a nightmare for political...
Jamaica's human-rights groups and other NGOs wouldn't easily be accused of cowardice. There's hardly a controversy they won't embrace, and they tend to have opinions on everything, ready for dispensation without restraint. Except, it seems, on the...
It would be too much of an outsize hope were we to expect that the impending race between the ruling People National Party (PNP) and the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) would provide us with a Usain Bolt-type flash and record finish first past...
The only thing a man, or woman, has to do to attract the label 'arrogant' is to hold a firm and deep conviction about anything. If you defend yourself in an argument, readily drawing on life experiences or vicariously refer to those of others, in support of your point, you are deemed arrogant...
The outrage at the audacity of the British government's £25-million 'gift' towards the construction of a prison has left one question lingering on many people's lips: Where will the remaining money come from to construct this prison?Much of the...
Phil Simmons, the coach of the West Indies cricket team, described his outburst against fellow team selectors as a "schoolboy error in a moment of madness". Which it was. But worse!For what Mr Simmons displayed was an appalling lack of judgement and...
Measured by his on-field statistics, Steve Camacho would have been an ordinary cricketer, though no worse than most of the lot who play for the West Indies in the current era. In 11 Test matches, he scored 640 runs and averaged 20.09. In the first-...
I am grateful to the Ministry of National Security for the clarification that it has provided in respect of the memorandum of understanding between the Jamaican Government and the government in the United Kingdom led by Prime Minister David Cameron...
IMITATION IN business is not flattery. Many people view it as robbery. If ever there was a reminder to me that we needed to protect our intellectual property, it was the Tommy Hilfiger 2016 Spring Collection launched recently at New York...
Diogenes of Sinope, the most famous of all the Greek cynics, used to walk around the marketplace in Athens with a lit lantern in broad daylight. For him, it was a move intended to goad those around him into asking him about the lantern, so he could...
We want to believe that the Gangs of Gordon House really want to transform themselves from closed syndicates programmed to corral spoils to the benefit of confederates into genuinely transparent institutions pursuing the public interest. We, however...
Jamaica CAUSE (Churches Action Uniting Society for Emancipation), a so-called Christian group, hosted a rally in Half-Way Tree on September 27 to express their disapproval of same-sex marriage. The theme of the rally was ‘Defending Family...
National Security Minister Peter Bunting argues that the desire of the Portia Simpson Miller administration to build a new maximum security prison with part proceeds from the British Government demonstrates political leadership and fortitude.For...
Who can be surprised at the number of persons who have said to me, "Dem not going pass no campaign finance law, and even if dem pass it, dem not going enforce it; it not going make a difference." The Jamaican people are highly sceptical after...
When it comes to matters of health, disorders of sleep have become extremely important.Not too long ago, if someone complained of difficulty falling asleep and/or staying asleep (insomnia), we would think of stress-related problems, medication side...
When linguists speak of 'mother tongue' and 'first language', they are not using 'mother' and 'first' in a qualitative sense to imply high social status or the sound appeal of a language to a person's ear. Instead, these phrases refer to the...
