Dear Prime Minister Holness:I cannot help but begin my column with a quote from Tanya Stephens' song Sound of My Tears: "Any people who don't spend enough to provide for the poor you won't be able to spend enough to protect the rich. Think poverty a...
Published:Friday | April 21, 2017 | 12:00 AMAnsword Hewitt
We are grateful for your publication of the following complete text of the response sent to Professor Carolyn Cooper, by the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), on Friday, April 7, 2017. We feel that sharing the information with your readers will...
For the first time since I settled in Jamaica in 1991, I really miss not being in Britain and being involved in political action.It has been widely reported that Theresa May's decision to call a snap election on June 8 is a smart move that will...
That awful, ugly fracas between the principal and the female student at Cumberland High School is only the latest indication of our social crisis. The Ardenne case of the teacher fondling his student. Then there was the incident of the 11-year old...
By bipartisan consensus, the 52 members of parliament who were present in the House of Representatives on April 5, voted two pension-reform bills. At the heart of the matter was the extension of the general age of retirement from the public service...
The just-ended ISSA GraceKennedy Boysand Girls' Athletics Championships was perhaps one of the best ever stagings. Calabar and Edwin Allen high schools copped the respective boys' and girls' titles. Congratulations to both schools and their coaches...
It's possible that a young, inexperienced attorney general may fail to alert Government to obstacles in the path of a sudden property tax increase, particularly when the increase is to be blamed on a revaluation of land.First and foremost, because...
Particularly when I am down and on my face, or when I am seeking to make a little extra money, my mind wanders into businesses that might appear far out.One of my first 'projects' that I put a good amount of thought into was a diaper service....
This could be another column about the pastors who violate little girls, or priests who fondle little boys, but no, it is about the day-to-day believers who pick daily verses and call themselves Christians, although they really are, at best,...
The Hibbert family's association with Jamaica began with the supply of cotton goods from their cotton mills in Lancashire in demand in the West African slaving ports. It wasn't until 1734 that the first family member, Thomas, arrived in Kingston to...
Published:Thursday | April 6, 2017 | 12:00 AMOrville Taylor
Yes, it is a big deal that he was celebrating with his national flag. After all, this young man was many miles from home and had only a small number of family members with him here. Moreover, he was a middle-distance runner competing for a school...
The man I call (behind his back, of course, so for God's sake don't tell him) Luke Cage but whose pen name is Mark Wignall (never met the chap), wrote a very interesting column last Thursday headlined 'Cleaning up Caymanas racing track'.Luke [Mark,...
Published:Friday | April 7, 2017 | 12:00 AMIan Boyne
You are a young, ambitious person in search of prosperity. You studied hard and sacrificed a lot for your degree. You want to leave your parents' home and start one of your own. But you have been hit with a double whammy: increased rental or home-...
Two Fridays ago, I interviewed Stephen Shaw, spokesman for everything at the National Works Agency (NWA), the entity responsible for road maintenance in Jamaica.When I asked him about the average yearly estimate of costs to repair roads, he told me...
Did they do a tax-incidence study? The Ministry of Finance has the ability to do such analyses. As former minister of finance Peter Phillips asked during the Budget Debate, was one done to evaluate the impact of the current tax measures? If yes,...
The Budget Debate closed with a crescendo of puerile desk-banging by government MPs and yet another childish walkout by opposition MPs.The sum total of the so-called 'debate' was nada. Zip. Zero. Nothing! A $17.5-billion tax package, imposed without...
When it comes to promises of house and land, Jamaican voters are going to have a hard time choosing between the Solid as a Rock Man and the Prosperity Man. Both have thrown down elaborate promises of finally fixing the historical injustices that...
Recognise that educated boys are not the ones who become hard criminals. Recognise, too, that educated boys are the ones who study, get a skill, or go on to a career. In other words, their lives are focused on functional performance, not...
It is accepted that taxes are what citizens pay for the activities of their governments in order to ensure the effective management of communities.We accept that as a country, our property tax compliance is not where it ought to be. However, while...
The stars seem to be perfectly aligned with Peter David Phillips. Eleven years after he first sought the presidency of the People's National Party (PNP), the hour has finally come. At a most opportune time.He is opposing a Government that is...
Some controversial subjects like Trafigura, the missing Cuba light bulbs, and the prime minister's Beverly Hills fortress just keep floating to the surface for a while and disappearing again - for a while.This phenomenon occurred again recently when...
"This Government, on behalf of our people, will not accept anybody, anywhere in the world telling us what to do in our country. We are masters in our own house, and in our house there shall be no other master but ourselves. Above all, we are not for...
Published:Monday | March 20, 2017 | 12:00 AMLuis Almagro
We cannot continue to look away. Today, while you read these lines, in a South American country of more than 30 million people, there is a dictatorship.Its government - in violation of its own constitution - does not allow the people to vote (it...
I can't believe I eventually gave in.I promised myself I wouldn't do it, no matter how often I was lured. With so many legal, moral and common-sense obstacles, I'd be embarrassed to surrender to temptation. Eventually, I couldn't take it any more,...
I hope that the prime minister has learnt by now that no matterhow much he tries to appease human-rights fundamentalists; no matter how much he uses their jargon and exercisesthe utmost political correctness and goes further and actually builds in...
