News that Jamaican students have declined in their performance in science subjects in the 2015 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations came on Thursday: integrated science down by 7.7 per cent, biology by 9 per cent, human and...
I like a wide variety of music genres. I even like classical music. I also like oldies. I play and sing along to those a lot while I'm on the road, especially while driving to and from the country parts.Perhaps it's because I heard them during my...
We used to consider Dayton Campbell a promising young politician to whom his party and the country might look, in the future, for leadership. He still might be. But he has given thoughtful Jamaicans grave cause to wonder.Indeed, Lloyd B. Smith, the...
Jamaica's education ministry oversees 1,017 public schools. Ten agencies report to it. The ministry manages an annual budget of more than J$80 billion. This, by any measure, is a huge operation.Yet this ministry is still largely paper-based. There is...
The two major political parties in Jamaica grew out of the struggle against colonialism for a people earlier released from slavery. These were matters that led to great coalescing by the people. Who did not want the right to universal adult suffrage...
Faced with a national debt of more than J$2 trillion, the equivalent of 137 per cent of the national economic output, and debt-servicing cost, which, while declining as a percentage of GDP, is still twice as high as Greece's, the Government has been...
Last Wednesday, August 12, was the 150th anniversary of Paul Bogle's long march from Stony Gut to Spanish Town. Forty-five miles! Bogle led a delegation to King's House, located then in the Old Capital. He wanted to meet with Governor Eyre to make...
There is devilish behaviour afoot everywhere we turn.Just last week, I enjoyed Donald Trump's fantastic performance in the first Republican National Debate so much. I think it's because he came to the debate unscripted, unlike the insincere muppets...
Jamaica's senior footballers, fresh from creditable performances in two major tournaments, made handsome cash donations this week to three local groups that will use sports as a means of development.We appreciate the Reggae Boyz for their continuing...
Abraham Lincoln started his famous Gettysburg Address with "Four score and seven years ago." At the foot of the Lincoln monument, Dr Martin Luther King started his even more famous speech, reputedly the best so far by anyone in our time, with, "Five...
IT IS only partly good news that several public-sector unions, representing more than 40 per cent of the Government's employees, have accepted the administration's seven per cent wage increase on basic pay, spread over two years. This is two per...
Two weeks ago - the day before Emancipation Day, I made my annual trek to the tax collectorate at Constant Spring to renew the motor vehicle licence for my wife's car. You expect delays at these public offices, but two and a half hours standing in a...
The Sunshine Girls are currently in Australia at the World Cup and are trying to do what they have never done before - win, or at least make the final, of a senior global netball tournament. It's not going to be easy. Standing in their way are the...
PRiDE Jamaica 2015, organised by J-FLAG and observed during the country's emancipendence celebration from August 1-6, was phenomenal for LGBT Jamaicans and the country at large. The theme - The Pride of a People: Breaking the Rules of Oppression -...
If the supporters of INDECOM are slow, then Damion Crawford must be still - because this letter written by him and published in The Gleaner on Sunday, August 9, titled 'Failings of INDECOM', confirmed in my mind that his "mind's map" should be of...
I communicated with Barry Wade, PhD, OD, JP, on January 23, when, at my request, he sent me articles on squatting; one of which was 'Environmental Justice and the Problems of Landlessness and Squatting and Environmental Refugees: The Church...
The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) emerged from the ring under a Barnum and Bailey tent, insisting that despite the baggy trousers, red, bulbous nose, and crumpled hat, no one could mistake them for Bozo. A lot of people would beg to differ.Hopefully,...
Aubyn Hill and Fayval Williams, who have emerged as Andrew Holness' key economic advisers, ought to be commended for stimulating a public debate on the Government's debt buy-back agreement with Venezuela, the efficacy of which they do not apprehend...
It appears to me that public officials and servants can misconduct themselves and disrespect the citizens of this country that they serve, but they are not likely to suffer severe disciplinary actions from the administration of the People's National...
Decades ago, we bought into the virtuous idea that women should have equal rights. They should be able to get an education, be employed, own and run businesses, run governments if they so choose. They should be empowered, motivated, uplifted and...
I don't know if it is because Jamaica qualified for the Gold Cup final for the first time, becoming the first Caribbean team to do so, but it somehow struck me that the tournament's structure is quite unfair, not just to Jamaica, but to all other...
Some call them red money. Others call them brown money. But we all may as well call them dirty money. The 10 cent and 25 cent are the lepers of the currency catalogue.Apparently, nobody wants them. Beggars are grossly offended if that's all you have...
Last Wednesday, fantasyland Apocrypha's Naughty News Network (NNN) was all cranked up as roving reporter Fritz Kebab announced a massive power cut on North Street, one of tiny Apocrypha's five streets. Apparently, systems were overloaded because of...
If the Jamaican Government is sensible, it would have been keeping a wary eye on developments inThe Bahamas and thinking about how it might have to retailor economic - development projects, and, especially, Harmony Cove, the mega resort planned...
