Commentary

Plastic pollution is one of the most pressing environmental issues, and its impact on coastal ecosystems is particularly devastating. Jamaica is a small island with mountains and hills that lead down to the sea. This means that waste, including...

I find that we Jamaicans spend an awfully large amount of time talking about the coming elections in the United States of America (USA). Maybe some of us just love politics, and there just isn’t enough cass-cass locally. Ha! If I were American...

Like Christopher Tufton, the health minister, this newspaper is concerned about the sensibilities of the family of Leroy Smith with respect to a public, tit-for-tat litigation of his death earlier this month at Sangster International Airport, as he...

We’d wish it were merely a routine development: the appointment of a head teacher at a high school. Sian-Mahay Wilson’s accession as principal of Calabar High, the Baptist boys’ school in Kingston, is significant on two fronts. She is the first...

On the eve of the new school year, in a speech at the annual conference of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association, the education minister, Fayval Williams, extolled her ministry’s initiatives to combat antisocial behaviour, especially violence, in...

Since the death of Sir Shridath Surendranath ‘Sonny’ Ramphal, at age 95, on Friday, August 30, in Barbados, there have been many tributes from across the Caribbean and the world. He will be accorded an official funeral in Guyana, the country of his...

Psychotherapy, usually referred to simply as ‘therapy’, is the use of psychological methods to treat mental conditions by helping a person to change their behaviour to overcome problems and improve their mental well-being. Therapy has helped...

Jamaicans concerned with the state of the island’s education system will welcome Mark Smith’s latest intervention into the debate on the issue, hoping it marks the start of a serious and sustained effort by the teachers’ union to the crisis, or...

My Yute, who is entering Grade 8 (second form) at a non-traditional high school, has been told that his class will be doing 17 subjects this academic year. His book and materials list exceed in size, weight and cost the load which university...

Forgive my naivete, but I honestly believed that given that the concert is titled ‘Freedom Street’, then just as the ‘World Boss’ himself is free, so should be all other ‘bleachers’. At US$125 per person, these cheapest seats are J$4,000 higher...

The appointment of Dr Nigel Clarke as a deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a signal achievement by, and honour for, him. Dr Clarke skilfully continued an IMF programme forced on Dr Peter Phillips, who took the...

Mere weeks after Ugandan Rebecca Cheptegei exhibited her athletic prowess and grit at the Paris Olympics, the 33-year-old marathon runner is dead. She was doused with gasolene and ignited by a former boyfriend. The tragic event unfolded in...