CHAKA-CHAKA SPELLING Mi heart full dis week. An mi have nuff tings fi seh. So mi nuh have nuh space fi nuh half a column inna Chaka-Chaka. A pure Prapa-Prapa. All who get lef, can go read di English version pon mi blog: https://...
Her name is Claudette Crawford Brown and she is without question, one of the best faces of social work in the English-speaking Caribbean. This is not simply a case of my bigging up a colleague, with whom I have rubbed shoulders for three decades....
The graphic scenes of blood and gore are not on the evening news, Showing mangled flesh is too sensitive in the television screener’s views. But social media is awash with traffic crashes and fatalities too, Almost every day spectators record and...
Last week’s revelation by this newspaper that the health ministry is still to properly account for nearly a decade’s worth of expenditure of close to J$700 billion, again highlights the need for full transparency in how taxpayers’ money is spent....
Concern about increasing violent and deviant behaviour in the country’s schools and streets has led policymakers, teachers and nation-builders on a quest for solutions. In many instances, the search for answers leads to the home, with hints at a...
The seven-nation Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), which marked its 43rd anniversary on June 18, is arguably one of the most successful integration projects in the world. It is second only to the 27-nation European Union (EU). The...
In 1967, Glenroy Joseph, the Trinidadian calypsonian known as ‘The Mighty Cypher’, came up with a calypso, If the priest could play who is we? He was referring to the annual carnival when, for the first time, a priest joined in the “wining” and “...
King Canute of England who reigned from 1016-1035 AD has long been the victim of bad press and negative political spin. Apparently it is true that he set his throne by the seashore and commanded the incoming tide to halt and not to wet his feet...
Earlier this week, many Jamaicans saw a viral video of a disturbing incident which took place on a school compound in St Catherine between the mother of a student and a policewoman. It is alleged that the woman was at the school for a meeting and...
The police high command’s advice to citizens against resisting arrest even when they believe they are being hard done, as well as its repudiation of Deputy Superintendent Paul Bernard’s disparagement of licensed firearm-holders for not shooting...
If good sense prevails in the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA), the governing body of track and field athletics in Jamaica, they will suspend next week’s hearing of the case against Tyquendo Tracey and resume the matter after the...
Like many law-abiding citizens who still have high hopes for this country, the news of veteran television reporter Giovanni Dennis being threatened on social media after airing a report on illegal drag racing angered me. Not simply because, as the...
FOR THOSE who want Jamaicans to remain wedded to the Privy Council, no wholesome reason exists to justify their untenable position. They are left with nothing to say other than: “I support remaining with the Privy Council” or “There should be a...
The Office of Information Commissioner has published a notice requiring data controllers to register under the Data Protection Act (DPA) beginning June 1. The DPA defines a data controller as including any person or public authority who...
Although the most recent evidence shows signs of improvement in food insecurity in Latin America and the Caribbean, the data reveal a worrying upward trend in Haiti and sectors of the subregion. The situation in Haiti is particularly alarming:...
On Monday morning at the 10th Biennial Diaspora Conference, the topic for discussion was investing in Jamaica. Minister of State Alando Terrelonge indicated that the conference was really a trade and investment forum facilitating the making of...
The Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ) has not – insofar as this newspaper is aware – offered an assessment of its performance as the political ombudsman, a job it inadvisably accepted on the eve of last February’s municipal elections. If a...
Shadow Finance Minister Julian Robinson’s swift rejection of his colleague Damion Crawford’s exploration of the possibility of increasing the general consumption tax (GCT) by one percentage point to help fund Jamaica’s education system highlights...
The year 2006 constituted a critical juncture for persons with disabilities across the world. It was the time when the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The CRPD is a global treaty that...
Fathers are important for children of any gender. Girls need their fathers, but there are reasons why fathers are of particular importance to their sons. Boys see themselves as little men and rely on their dads for guidance as they progress to...
It can take you by surprise when you learn how many Jamaicans make up our diaspora. The last count I have was from a 2018 Jamaica Diaspora survey which gave the number as three million in all countries worldwide with 1.7 million living in the USA,...
Many Jamaicans living in the diaspora are watching with rapt attention and feel increasing concern over the nationalistic, even bordering on jingoistic rhetoric, that has emerged in Jamaica around the issues of dual citizenship, representational...
It was career day at a large high school in the western cane belt. There was I pontificating to the 10th and 11th Graders about the nobility and good purpose of careers in agriculture. This seemed most appropriate given the environment from which...
Unsurprisingly to this newspaper, the Government ran into a legal roadblock with its move to ban ride-hailing apps in Jamaica. As we suggested that might be the case when the ban was announced nearly a fortnight ago, the island’s telecommunications...
It is a historical fact that Britain extended written constitutions to its former colonies when they attained independence. A feature of these constitutions is that they specifically declare that the Constitution is the Supreme Law with which other...
