Sat | Jun 6, 2026

In Focus

Published:Sunday | April 26, 2026 | 12:07 AM

April 14, 2026, will be remembered as a historic day. For the first time in decades, Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors met for direct peace talks under American mediation. This moment did not emerge in a vacuum. It is the result of courageous...

Published:Sunday | April 26, 2026 | 12:07 AM

Pick a table – any table. Ask anybody whether it’s solid. They’ll all answer “yes”. Ask if it’s stationary. You’ll get the same answer. You can do the same with a rock. Then show them the table or rock through a microscope. They’ll realize it’s...

Published:Sunday | April 26, 2026 | 12:07 AMMatthew Smith-Barrett and Hodine Williams - Contributors

Much has been said in recent weeks about the Firearms (Prohibition, Restriction and Regulation) Act, 2022, and the treatment of “imitation firearms”. Public concern has arisen from the view that toys, props, and novelty items–such as bubble guns...

Published:Sunday | April 26, 2026 | 12:07 AM

When classrooms fall silent, the loss goes far beyond damaged infrastructure It disrupts learning, stability, and opportunity for thousands of children. In an era of escalating climate shocks, these disruptions are no longer isolated emergencies...

Published:Sunday | April 26, 2026 | 12:06 AM

Let me be clear from the outset: the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority (NaRRA) Act is not routine legislation. It is one of the most consequential decisions this Parliament will make in a generation, because it goes to the heart of a...

Published:Sunday | April 26, 2026 | 12:06 AM

The digital age was promised as the great leveller — the ultimate democratisation of the public square. In the Jamaican context, however, this promise has curdled into a sophisticated engine of deception. As we navigate an era defined by high-...

Published:Sunday | April 26, 2026 | 12:06 AM

The University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) has admitted that it owes some J$18 billion in taxes. Yes, that’s right - J$18 billion in taxes to the Government. With penalties and late fees, the amount is some J$40 billion. That is a lot of...

Published:Thursday | April 23, 2026 | 10:54 AM

My column, headlined Inexcusable, published last Sunday, resulted in more than normal feedback. On Twitter, a regular with the handle “Rampanpiza” (@dentona22), whose tweets have, historically, been almost entirely supportive of PNP, posted the...

Published:Thursday | April 23, 2026 | 10:52 AM

The ripple effects of war are rarely confined to the battlefield. They travel quietly but forcefully across oceans, seeping into economies, tightening household budgets and unsettling the fragile balance of small states like Jamaica. The recent...

Published:Thursday | April 23, 2026 | 10:52 AM

A television feature some time ago reignited an all too familiar debate: are call centre workers in Jamaica being treated unfairly? The conversation struck a chord, as it often does. But, like many national discussions, it told only part of the...

Published:Thursday | April 23, 2026 | 10:52 AM

The Jamaican landscape is often described in the binary of “hardware” and “software”. We excel at the hardware, the construction of highways, the expansion of hotel room counts, hospital building, and the drafting of complex legislative frameworks...

Published:Sunday | April 12, 2026 | 1:03 AM

Cuba is currently under an oil blockade imposed by a Donald Trump administration bent on “regime change”. This follows a US blockade enforced since 1959 against the former Communist enclave, following the charismatic Fidel Castro’s popular...

Published:Sunday | April 12, 2026 | 1:02 AM

On my mind last Thursday was Mr Dennis Gordon, People’s National Party (PNP) politician and the political man of the moment. He is executive chairman of Jacden Group of Companies. If you really want to get an idea how huge Gordon is, just visit two...

Published:Sunday | April 12, 2026 | 12:49 AM

Somewhere in the Rupununi of Guyana, far from the ceremonial gates of elite universities, an A-QuEST sixth-form Docling, a boy at a modest technical high school has been quietly solving a problem that kills. He does not speak in the language of...

Published:Sunday | April 12, 2026 | 12:47 AM

Each year, Pan American Day invites us to reflect on a shared vision – one rooted in cooperation, solidarity, and the belief that the countries of the Americas are stronger together. In 2026, that reflection feels particularly timely for Jamaica...

Published:Sunday | April 12, 2026 | 12:08 AM

It now seems evident that the rancid, rotten reek emanating from University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) isn’t caused by patients. UHWI’s administration and Board are slowly but surely being perceived as the cancerous engine and facilitators...

Published:Sunday | April 12, 2026 | 12:05 AM

There are several explanations for why, despite approximately 4,500 children in state care – of whom roughly 2,000 are in children’s homes and well over 1,000 in foster care – fewer than 20 wards of the State each year are placed with any of the...

Published:Saturday | April 4, 2026 | 11:22 PM

Riddle-mi-dis/riddle-me dat, guess me this riddle and paraps not. “… A man mek him house an’ him sleep outside …”. Or say it another way, “… A man build a fine upstairs house, and he have to sleep outside …”. What is the answer? Axe, or machete, or...

Published:Saturday | April 4, 2026 | 11:20 PM

Christianity is based on a foundation of faith in Jesus Christ’s resurrection. Yes, Jesus allegedly did other cool things like walking on water. Matthew 14:24-31: “But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind...

Published:Saturday | April 4, 2026 | 11:18 PM

In March, I led a Jamaican delegation to Lima, Peru, for a series of structured engagements with Peru’s National Infrastructure Authority and its former Reconstruction Authority. The purpose was to understand how a country can use a post-disaster...

Published:Saturday | April 4, 2026 | 11:15 PM

“Build Back Better” and “Resilience” are two terms that have been repeated ad nauseam since Hurricane Melissa. They are dusted off after every major disaster, inspiring good talk that does not always translate into meaningful change. Most recently...

Published:Saturday | April 4, 2026 | 11:11 PM

Whatever else it is, whichever thought you had on your mind; the fact is the Middle East war has impacted the world. Stay with me. A gaze out on the international horizon and you will see that oil prices have risen sharply. Financial markets are...

Published:Saturday | April 4, 2026 | 11:09 PM

In the reflective hush of Lent, Christians are called to examine themselves with uncommon honesty. It is a season that strips away pretence, confronts us with the cost of discipleship, and insists that we reckon with the distance between what we...

Published:Saturday | April 4, 2026 | 11:05 PM

On March 25, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) voted to recognise transatlantic slave trade as the “gravest crime against humanity”. Enslavement is also called ‘Maafa’, Swahili for total disaster. The UNGA development has been widely...

Published:Sunday | March 29, 2026 | 12:09 AM

On March 21, proof beyond a reasonable doubt that USA is a soulless, cruel, immoral nation was presented. Let me be clear. There are Americans who are good, thoughtful, kind, intelligent people. They are very much in the minority. As a collective,...

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