Having heard it directly from Enrique Peñalosa, maybe Jamaica’s policymakers and municipal leaders will now be inclined to rethink how they organise the island’s cities and towns and structure transport systems. Hopefully, they are convinced of...
Walking hundreds of miles in shackles, stored like pigs in the dungeons of the Cape Coast Castle for three months and more, we endured months-long odysseys in the hold of deep ships, packed like sardines but smelling infinitely worse. After...
Many years ago, I saw a middle-aged female patient for, what appeared to be, a fairly active postnasal [sinus] drainage. I prescribed medication for her, and she was for review in two weeks. However, after one week had passed, she returned to...
We observed World Mental Health Day on October 10, and we have been reminded that mental-health challenges can touch many families and communities. For most people, mental-health care is about ensuring that those who suffer receive the treatment...
Reports that a National Works Agency (NWA) crew had to flee Mandela Highway because of menacing extortionists reveals how much of a criminal dilemma this country faces. The team was reportedly doing preparatory work for impending repairs under the...
On Tuesday, October 8, I went to a meeting at the World Bank and listened with growing disappointment to a presentation on ‘Taxing wealth for equity and growth’, supposedly focused on Latin America and the Caribbean region. I was less disappointed...
The idiom “blowing your own trumpet” means to boast about your achievements or abilities in a way that makes you proud as punch. Unfortunately, when Donald Trump shows his personal Trumpet, people laugh at his front from behind his back. Actually,...
For some time now I have been interested in what is called the “Right to Privacy”, and how it relates to the “Right to Know”. For example, do I have the “right to know” that my child’s teacher is a convicted child molester, or does the “right to...
Adolf Hiter we know much about, but Adolf Eichmann was another, less known Nazi German who was pivotal in the mass extermination of Jews during the Holocaust. His role involved the identification, and eventually, the transportation of Jews from...
Though elicited at a press conference, this newspaper welcomes Information Minister Dana Morris Dixon’s declaration of the Government’s support for a free and independent media and her implicit condemnation of the political targeting of six of The...
That close to 400 Jamaican schools now have wheelchair ramps is a welcome development in the right direction. It deserves recognition. But even as this advance is celebrated, it must be acknowledged that there is still much ground to cover – not...
THE RECENT incident involving an AI-assisted video accusing the RJRGLEANER Communications Group of bias in its reporting, highlights the dangers we face in this ever- evolving digital landscape. The video, which the group’s chief executive officer...
THE THIRD week of September 2024, for Israel, Lebanon and Syria, is already history. The world awoke to new dimensions in fighting wars. The Israelis, in a brilliant demonstration of new thinking, took the Gaza conflict into the ‘bodies and souls’...
This newspaper prefers to assume that the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) has a problem of communication, lest we conclude that it lacks a sense of history and sociological sensibilities. Having arrived at this position, we are...
“Childhood cancer does not discriminate. The only thing that is sure is that more children will be diagnosed each year.” I was privileged to have been invited to be the guest speaker at the University Hospital of the West Indies’ annual...
It was recently reported that Jamaica, through its development plan, Vision 2030 Jamaica, will not achieve its goal of development status by its target date of 2030. The plan had envisioned Jamaica achieving developed country status within 21 years...
With the exception of those afflicted with certain disorders and conditions, or taking certain medications, or who have had certain gynaecological surgical procedures, the vast majority of biological females in the reproductive age range will have...
It was some three years ago plus that we watched public health nurse Marcia Thomas-Yetman step up to receive the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine administered in Jamaica. This was a pivotal moment when Jamaica, confused and scared by the invisible...
This newspaper appreciates Nigel Clarke’s appeal for patience in the criminal investigations into the more than J$4.7-billion (US$30 million) fraud at the collapsed broker and investment house Stocks and Securities Limited (SSL). He indicated that...
Not long ago, at the end of each month, banking halls were inundated with long lines as persons collected their salaries and encashed cheques. Utility companies were usually crowded, as one had to be present at the office with their wallets with...
In a nearly 60 year working life I have never had a ‘permanent’ job – like the ones in the public service when you are appointed to a post. Most of us work on agreed terms for specified periods and the continuation of our employment depends...
It is unlikely that the recent call by the attorneys-general of 13 US states on Congress for tougher laws to prevent the flow of illegal guns to the Caribbean will penetrate the din of the country’s presidential and congressional election campaigns...
“…There were doors all round the hall, but they were all locked; and when Alice had been all the way down one side and up the other, trying every door, she walked sadly down the middle, wondering how she was ever to get out again…,” these are...
In thousands of households across Jamaica, domestic workers do the work of cooking, cleaning, gardening, and caring for children, the elderly, and people with disabilities. In the absence of adequate care leave policies and investments in social...
The Born-on-yah Republic (not to be confused with the banana republic) was riddled with corruption. Many believed that it was solely controlled by the elected government officials. However, in fact, the day-to-day happenings were sometimes directed...
