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In Focus

Published:Friday | November 10, 2017 | 12:00 AM

Andrew Holness has stirred up a hornets' nest, and if he does not navigate this one skilfully, he is going to get a sound whipping over his temerity to want to ban parents from beating their own children.The State can 'tolerate slackness' by banning...

Published:Friday | November 10, 2017 | 12:00 AM

There has been a steady increase in the number of professionals being trained in Jamaica in various fields during the past two decades. Significant expansion in the capacity of the country's two main universities - the University of the West Indies...

Published:Friday | November 10, 2017 | 12:00 AM

The hope of becoming legal seems to be fading for traditional and indigenous ganja cultivators. They see two licences granted so far and have no idea when or how their turn might come, given the cost of being licensed. In the meantime, Alternative...

Published:Friday | November 10, 2017 | 12:00 AM

Commissioner Quallo has my best wishes in putting together a list of all vehicles in the public transport business that are owned by police personnel. For many years now, it has been the biggest open secret that more than a handful of buses and...

Published:Friday | November 10, 2017 | 12:00 AM

The people of neglected St Thomas are again in a rebellious mood. They have had many good reasons, because of state neglect, to have rebelled again since 1865.For days, last week, they "put their shoulders to the wheel", as National Hero Paul Bogle...

Published:Friday | November 3, 2017 | 12:00 AM

Predictably, PNP suffered a humiliating defeat in SE St Mary.
When 60% of a constituency’s electorate turns up for a by-election we can be sure they have an emphatic message to deliver...

Published:Friday | November 3, 2017 | 12:00 AM

The People's National Party (PNP) has paid dearly for its suicide mission of fielding a non-Jamaican citizen to represent Jamaicans; the Shane Alexis bomb blowing away any chance the party had of taking South-East St Mary...

Published:Friday | November 3, 2017 | 12:00 AM

Ideas have consequences. And some of those consequences areunintended consequences.The Protestant Reformation had massive consequences for the 16th century, in which it occurred, and in every subsequent century up to now. We live in a world in which...

Published:Friday | November 3, 2017 | 12:00 AM

In the year 2000 when the nation experienced another of its spikes in the murder rate and some influential members of the big business community made sufficient noise, the politicians reached for the Crime Management Unit (CMU) and made SSP Reneto...

Published:Friday | November 3, 2017 | 12:00 AMReginal T.A. Armour SC

Much has been written in the press about the provision of legal education, the latest being the comments of the minister of education of Jamaica.In the analysis of these issues, it is important to refer to the historical and logical basis for the...

Published:Friday | October 27, 2017 | 12:00 AM

Economic and social outcomes in Caribbean countries following their independence were impressive. Per-capita incomes rose sharply, poverty declined, and impressive strides were made in increasing life expectancy, reducing infant mortality, and...

Published:Thursday | October 26, 2017 | 12:00 AM

If it's an accurate reflection of the energy, political savvy, and determination that the then opposition JLP brought to the by-election in North East St Ann in mid-2001, we can safely remove the present PNP Opposition from the heater and call it...

Published:Friday | October 27, 2017 | 12:00 AM

Is it only people who are bored or discontented with their marriages who cheat? Is cheating a sign of some inadequacy in a marriage? Do happy couples cheat? Yes, says marriage therapist Esther Perel in her new book, The State of Affairs: Rethinking...

Published:Friday | October 27, 2017 | 12:00 AM

Joining the crowd gathering for the festival of All Saints Day, 34-year-old Augustinian monk and university professor of theology, Martin Luther posted on the door of the castle church of Wittenberg on October 31, 1517, a document with 95 theses, or...

Published:Friday | October 27, 2017 | 12:00 AM

Regular readers recall that I recently spent time in MoBay because The Old Ball and Chain's 'baby' required surgery.As I wrote then, although we were booked in the fabulous Half Moon Hotel, Old BC insisted that we live at the hospital, where she...

Published:Friday | October 20, 2017 | 12:00 AMAnthony Gambrill

In 1661, just six years after the English captured Jamaica, a young Peter Beckford came to the island seeking his fortune. Few records of his early years have survived but Jamaican historian Frank Cundall claims that he accompanied Henry Morgan on the assault of Panama in 1671...

Published:Friday | October 20, 2017 | 12:00 AM

On October 30, South East St Mary electors vote to replace late, lamented MP Winston Green (PNP).JLP candidate Norman Dunn ran in the 2016 general election and lost, in a magisterial recount, by five votes, despite prevailing on election day. This,...

Published:Friday | October 20, 2017 | 12:00 AM

Of all the individual parts that are stitched together to make a society healthy, viable, socially secure and happy, the most important is justice. Lack of justice is similar to being homeless, living on the sidewalk, and subject to the extremes of...

Published:Friday | October 20, 2017 | 12:00 AM

Not every crime statistic is meaningful in its own right. So, for example, when two weeks ago the commentators were shrieking and accusing the devil of all sorts of crimes, because the reports of abuse against children had increased, I sucked my...

Published:Friday | October 20, 2017 | 12:00 AM

On Monday, October 30, voters will be going to the polls in South East St Mary, Southern St Andrew, and South Western St Andrew. Three constituencies at once in by-elections may be history-making.The widely expected results will be soaked in history...

Published:Friday | October 13, 2017 | 12:00 AM

In the best of times, politics and principle will always step out to the same music, but the dance is usually awkward, laboured and laughable.About 10 years ago, the Opposition People's National Party (PNP) mercilessly hauled the Jamaica Labour Part...

Published:Friday | October 13, 2017 | 12:00 AM

I see child abuse is the latest nine-day wonder, especially among the chattering classes.Why? A video has surfaced of a topless mother, seemingly living at or below the poverty line in an inner-city or country settlement in Bath, St Thomas, beating...

Published:Friday | October 13, 2017 | 12:00 AM

Soon come. Just try starting a meeting on time in Jamaica. Even in Parliament.'Jamaica Time' is one of the cute hallmarks of the culture. It is also one of the cultural handicaps holding us back. There are others.I've long been convinced that if we...

Published:Friday | October 13, 2017 | 12:00 AM

My first child was born in Canada. When Nadine Chang Dupre was born in 1974, I was still an MBA student at McGill University in Montreal.Her mother, Angela, and I returned to Jamaica, with her, shortly after.While she lived here until she was around...

Published:Friday | October 13, 2017 | 12:00 AM

Research on a great Jamaican scholar who went to Oxford in the 1950s has led me face to face with the exciting moment when political federation of the Anglophone Caribbean was not only seriously being considered, it had briefly become a reality.By...

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