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Commentary

Published:Monday | February 17, 2025 | 10:21 AMByron Blake, Ohene Blake and Trevor Hamilton - Guest Columnists

President Donald Trump’s policy, threats, and executive orders on immigration have sent shockwaves throughout the United States. Undocumented residents, even in sanctuary states and cities, are living in a state of uncertainty and panic. There are...

Published:Monday | February 17, 2025 | 10:20 AM

My last article, ‘Upskilling the workforce: a catalyst for Jamaica’s productivity revolution’, argued that Jamaica’s path to sustainable economic growth hinges on empowering its workforce with modern skills. While diagnosing the problem – low...

Published:Monday | February 17, 2025 | 10:20 AM

At around 1:59 p.m. one day, someone invaded the home of a 14-year-old girl, attacked her, sexually assaulted her, then bludgeoned her with a hammer. Her screams were in vain, until a relative attempted to rescue her. This relative fought with her...

Published:Monday | February 17, 2025 | 10:20 AM

Nothing is funny about a naked female, catching her last breath, while other persons look on and ogle in some macabre sense of curiosity. Not only is it simply cruel and distasteful, but more importantly, it is illegal. Our 2015 Cybercrimes Act, is...

Published:Monday | February 17, 2025 | 10:20 AM

Hopefully, many people have responded positively to Venisa Clarke’s invitation to become mentors in the justice ministry’s programme for children who have, or are at risk of, coming into conflict with the law. However, while The Gleaner appreciates...

Published:Monday | February 17, 2025 | 10:13 AM

This newspaper, as we suspect is also the case with the auditor general, Pamela Monroe Ellis, won’t hold its breath, expecting that the installation of new accounting technology will fix the problem of financial accountability at Jamaica’s...

Published:Monday | February 17, 2025 | 10:09 AM

Two Executive Orders issued by US President Donald Trump have sparked concern across the Caribbean, much as they have in Central America and beyond. One mandates the removal of illegal migrants from the US while the other shutters the US Agency for...

Published:Monday | February 17, 2025 | 10:09 AM

Every Trinidad carnival starts with a “bacchanal” or “people behaving in an unruly or careless manner and having no regards for others”. Also, there is always in every carnival a starting spark of disagreement to get us going. As far back as 1976...

Published:Monday | February 17, 2025 | 10:05 AM

Six days from now, nearly 40,000 Jamaican children, between the ages of 12 and 13, will begin a week of exams to determine their preparedness for secondary education. These students are now in grade six of the primary school system. The Primary...

Published:Monday | February 17, 2025 | 10:04 AM

The year 1865 is remembered for many reasons. It was a year of suffering for most Jamaicans, following previous years of sufferation. The UK had raised the tariffs on Jamaican sugar, which now had to compete against slave-grown sugar from Cuba and...

Published:Monday | February 17, 2025 | 10:04 AM

Last Thursday, a horrendous crime took place in an apartment off Spanish Town Road, involving one of Jamaica’s children. Price Johnson, a 14-year-old girl, was raped and killed in her home. It was first alleged that a man of unsound mind entered...

Published:Monday | February 17, 2025 | 10:01 AM

LAST THURSDAY, I was invited by Manning’s School to be the keynote speaker at their annual prize-giving ceremony. It was my first visit to Manning’s and on arrival, their distinctive blue uniform immediately caught my attention. That regal colour...

Published:Monday | February 17, 2025 | 10:01 AM

Transparency International’s confirmation that Jamaica remains stuck in the bottom half of the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), among the countries deemed to have a serious problem of governance and the management of state resources, ought to be...

Published:Monday | February 17, 2025 | 10:01 AM

On October 7, 2023, Hamas attacked Israel killing some 1,300 persons and taking hundreds of hostages. Within a week of that attack, Israel responded and killed approximately 1,400 Palestinians, signalling the beginning of what we now know as one of...

Published:Monday | February 17, 2025 | 9:58 AM

This newspaper notes Andrew Swaby’s rejection of the recent claims of misappropriation of funds at the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC), as well as his declared readiness to open the corporation’s books to investigators. “If an...

Published:Monday | February 17, 2025 | 9:57 AMDennis Nolasco - Guest Columnist

“Which car is safer to drive in the snow: a 2013 Toyota Prius or a 2016 Honda Civic?” “Can you give me a one-pan recipe that uses chicken, avocado, and green beans?” “Write a chapter that could be included in Pride and Prejudice but in the...

Published:Monday | February 17, 2025 | 9:57 AM

The United States provides foreign assistance to Latin American and Caribbean countries to support development and other US objectives. The emphasis of US policy in the region has shifted over time … Over the past decade, top US funding priorities...

Published:Monday | February 17, 2025 | 9:51 AM

Breastfeeding is more than just the act of feeding a baby, it also provides exponential heart health benefits for both a mother and her child. While breastfeeding and observing skin-to-skin contact, the body releases oxytocin, which helps the...

Published:Monday | February 17, 2025 | 9:51 AM

The high paternity fraud/paternal discrepancy rate in our country is cause for concern, with ongoing research finding that one in five fathers in Jamaica is unknowingly assigned a child that is not biologically his. Our high rate has prompted a...

Published:Monday | February 17, 2025 | 9:50 AM

This newspaper does not question the commitment of the leadership of Jamaica’s police force to the widespread use of body-worn cameras (BWCs) by the island’s cops or their explanation of the need for updated technology to support the expansion. We...

Published:Monday | February 17, 2025 | 9:43 AM

In a master’s thesis I wrote some years ago on the topic, An analysis of the HIV/AIDS workplace policy of the Anglican Church in Jamaica (ACJ), I made the point that the response to gender-based violence is a matter of social justice and requires...

Published:Monday | February 17, 2025 | 9:43 AM

Last week’s reports remind us that the nation’s commercial banks are holding hundreds of billions of dollars belonging to the public sector – that is, the property of us the hungry taxpayers: our money, for which they pay interest at a mawga two...

Published:Monday | February 17, 2025 | 9:43 AM

The fracas that caused the intervention of the police and the premature abandonment of the recent annual general meeting (AGM) of the Association of Local Government Authorities (ALGA) was unseemly. Indeed, as the local government minister, Desmond...

Published:Monday | February 17, 2025 | 9:40 AM

Armed violence, driven by organised crime, has long been a crisis in Jamaica, but has been spreading across the wider Caribbean in recent years. For decades, we have suffered one of the highest murder rates in the world, with over 80 per cent of...

Published:Monday | February 17, 2025 | 9:40 AM

Prime Minister Andrew Holness has again signalled his government’s wish for Jamaica to be part of the movement to install small, modular reactors (SMRs) to generate electricity from nuclear power. But ministerial declarations apart, the...

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