In Focus

The development landscape is undergoing significant upheaval. Changes in the global economy, debt and cost-of-living pressures, fragility in multilateralism, declining aid, the risks and opportunities from new technologies, and rapid ecological...

In 2023, the African Union (AU) mandated Ghana to lead the reparations struggle of Africa and its diaspora, under the energetic leadership of Nana Akufo-Addo, who built strong bridges with the Caribbean. Last week, on March 25, his successor,...

It would be just about the worst scenario possible if, 12 months from now, the heated conflict in the Middle East has taken on volcanic proportions. In which case, its new name would have to include the stretch of geographic influence it has...

March, International Women’s Month, is often marked by celebration – of women’s achievements, resilience, and contributions to society. Yet, in Jamaica, as in many parts of the world, the epidemic of gender-based violence continues to claim women’s...

There are moments in history when metaphor ceases to be decorative and becomes diagnostic. We are living through such a moment. The question–whether Donald Trump might “eat grass before reason returns”–is not a casual provocation. It is a moral...

For more than a century, Jamaica’s economic and social compass has pointed North. In more recent times, the United States has been our primary trading partner, our largest source of visitors, and the land of opportunity for some of our brightest...

On Saturday March 7, at 8.23a.m., I received an e-mail from a US-based lawyer and retired lobbyist who had become a regular reader/correspondent: “Dear Gordon, Well, the results are now certified. After over four decades of Cuba supplying...

The Caribbean is once again being reminded that in the eyes of powerful nations, our sovereignty is tolerated only when it is convenient. The recent posture of the United States towards Caribbean engagement with Cuba is not diplomacy in its purest...

African-American civil rights preacher, Jesse Jackson, who recently died at the age of 84, was described by the New York Times’s Peter Applebome as “the nation’s most influential Black figure in the years between the civil rights crusades of the...

Two Saturdays ago, we woke up to news that joint USA/Israeli military strikes were conducted in Iran. Consequent upon this illegal invasion, the likes of which hadn’t seen since February 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine, Iran’s Supreme Leader,...

The most primitive state consists of a tax administration and an armed group of men to enforce collection. Taxes are thus as old as government, and people have almost certainly dreaded them for just as long. Yet, among that loathsome class of...

If Caribbean governments thought they could keep up their safe stance of silence on the catastrophic crisis in Cuba, they are rapidly realising that they may have to change their calculations. The war in West Asia, sparked by the United States’ (US...