Nelson Mandela once said, “It always seems impossible until it is done.” As I reflect on my nine-year tenure as secretary-general of the Commonwealth, I find deep truth in these words. In a world marked by rising geopolitical uncertainty and the...
So pervasive is the examination culture in most of our schools that too little attention is paid to stretching the minds of our young people, especially by extracurricular involvement. Sports of course is the exception. But exposure to the arts,...
Fairness and equity obviously support Daryl Vaz’s efforts to expand the operations of the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) beyond the Kingston Metropolitan Transport Region (KMTR). And Mr Vaz could only be responding to commuter demand and...
February marked the one year anniversary of the unilateral enactment of the Political Ombudsman (interim) (Amendment) Act 2024 by the Government of Jamaica. There was no or inadequate consultation for such an important decision. The memorandum of...
On February 23, Guyana celebrated 55 years as a Republic. On May 26, it will celebrate 59 years as an independent state. For the entire period of its Independence, even when it was classified by the United Nations as developing economy, Guyana had...
Counting chickens has a centuries old warning connected to it. However, even counting eggs could very well be a risky undertaking. With the Lenten season just beginning, and the expectation that other kinds of eggs will demonstrate certain kinds of...
We are being inexorably forced into ‘logging on’ to gain access to information, work, education, communication, for entertainment, for banking, to do business, to pay our taxes, numerous bills, and to see to our health. Even people with extremely...
In the latest round of barbs with which Venezuela has responded to events surrounding its claim to the Essequibo region of Guyana, Guyana’s President, Irfaan Ali, was described as “the Zelenskyy of the Caribbean”. This characterisation begs the...
This is the fourth Carnival column for 2025 with help and considerable support from the maestro of calypso, Zeno Obi Constance, the best of all For a long time in calypso, the women were few and far between. Several years ago, we heard from the...
In the face of Kirkton Bennett’s claim that he was denied a teaching job because of his weight, the Ministry of Education must urgently clarify who has the authority to hire Jamaica’s public school teachers and the criteria to be used in the...
Based on their résumés and reputations, Sir Patrick Allen, the governor general, could hardly have made better choices than Carol Lawrence-Beswick and Brian Wynter to fill the vacancies in the Integrity Commission (IC). Ms Lawrence-Beswick, a...
It is my view that the real damper on Jamaica’s economic growth and development is the underdevelopment of our human capital. A lightly educated and unskilled labour force cannot produce Jamaica out of our economic malaise, and cannot earn enough...
Last month at a People’s National Party (PNP) press conference, a few of the party’s women protested the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP’s) reacceptance of George Wright, three years after a video surfaced of a man and a woman, alleged to be Wright and...
FOR SOME time now, we have been warned about the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and the looming threat it poses to jobs and livelihoods worldwide. Although I wouldn’t consider myself an expert in the field, others with significantly more...
OBESITY HAS emerged as a global epidemic, and the Caribbean region is not exempt from its impact. Despite positive developments, the region continues to face considerable obstacles in reversing trends that place millions at risk for the development...
It has long been the convention that when the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ) makes reform proposals to Parliament, they are adopted without demur. There are good reasons for this. These include the modern history of Jamaica’s politics and...
It is perhaps a sign of the times that Sam Nujoma died, and was buried last week, with nary a whimper in Jamaica. Mr Nujoma, 95, died on February 8. His funeral was on March 1. A former president of Namibia, Sam Nujoma was the last of the...
AS THE United States grapples with a growing public health crisis, its policies toward Cuba, a country with a superior healthcare system, remain antagonistic. The irony is stark: while America is battling antibiotic-resistant infections, tick-borne...
THERE ARE reports in the media, following the conclusion of the 48th CARICOM Heads of Government Conference on February 21, that CARICOM heads requested a meeting with President Donald Trump. This idea seems to come from remarks made by Prime...
The allure of ready-made meals and treats is constantly calling to us. The sizzling crunch of chips, the sweet fizzy sodas and, not to mention, the beautifully packaged food in the supermarket, are carefully crafted to satisfy our taste buds....
We are living in some perilous times. As Donald Trump embarks on his second term as US president, some of his decisions have already begun to negatively affect the lives of many. One of Trump’s first orders of business was to pardon rioters from...
First, Andrew Swaby’s decision to appoint an independent good governance committee, of sorts, for the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC), is an unquestionably good idea. None has been in place, as required by the Local...
Marco Rubio’s plan to sanction countries for using Cuban doctors and nurses in their health systems is nothing short of callous, cruel and vindictive. If Mr Rubio possesses a scintilla of decency, he should immediately rescind the policy, whose...
Recently the government has been encouraging all of us to take a keen interest in the current budget exercise. They claim that the budget is for “all a wi”. This is a hard sell, but nevertheless commendable. Even if their unstated but obvious...
President Donald Trump’s position on the Russia-Ukraine war, simply put, is ‘Putin gets what Putin wants.’ Trump’s complete U-turn on US policy of holding Putin responsible for the illegal invasion and territorial aggression completely reverses US...
