The conventional wisdom is that the riches extracted from Jamaican slavery and sugar, at least in part, underwrote the British Industrial Revolution. More recently, opinion has suggested that most of the wealth was spent on grand estates. The...
Some critics were as flat-footed as an old-time policeman chasing a little boy into a Chinese-owned shop, but Prime Minister Andrew Holness' Budget presentation last week was impressive, despite some areas of concern. There have been two-hour...
Somehow, a Jamaican Bar Association (JBA) letter to the chief justice complaining of delays in delivery of judgments found itself in The Gleaner.On May 15 ('End delays from the Bench! Bar Association calls on judges to speedily hand down judgments...
It seemed the whole Jamaica went green last week after Prime Minister Andrew Holness gave his Budget presentation. From the same evening on radio, people were gushing in praise over his two-and-a-half-hour speech. TV was the same. The next day, The...
Much debate has arisen, sparked by the suggestion of the minister of national security to revisit the enforcement of the death penalty as part of the strategy to combat the ever-worsening murder rate. The minister's intentions are right and wise,...
The Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) notes the recent circulation of a video within public media fora which records members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) handling the apparently lifeless body of John Hibbert on May 17,...
I read with some concern an article titled 'Basic-, infant-school students' assessment begins Tuesday', posted in the online edition of The Gleaner of Monday, May 9, 2016. In its opening paragraph, the report states: "The literacy and numeracy...
Published:Thursday | May 19, 2016 | 12:00 AMBruce Golding
Much has been said about what is loosely referred to as the 'management of the economy', and much credit for this has been given to the previous government. Our macroeconomic indicators are said to have been moving in the 'right direction'....
The best way to identify what is counterfeit is to study the original form. In today's society, we need to know and understand what is the original concept of the family, how it was intended to work, and what are the outcomes of this structure....
When we were teenagers and young men, the idiotic factions from the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and People's National Party (PNP) would work on different days. It might sound silly, but the 'Labarites' would grudgingly engage in projects approved or...
"Once you stop learning, you start dying." - Albert Einstein.I was extremely happy to know that two of my favourite professors are certainly not dying. Imagine the refreshing surprise during the lunchtime talk at my reunion when two renowned...
The big guns of the People's National Party (PNP) were out in full force last week in the Budget Debate, but when the firing was over, there was really no blood on the floor. The firing was more celebratory, a "Pram! Pram!" to their last four years...
Tomorrow is Labour Day, closing out National Workers' Week.What is the state of labour as we approach another Labour Day? We forget, at our peril, that it was labour riots in May 1938 that launched the trade unions and the political...
Published:Friday | May 13, 2016 | 12:00 AMMichael Aiken
"Jamaica is an extraordinarily violent country," said that good gynaecologist and actor Dr Michael Abrahams in The Gleaner of Monday May 9, 2016. He was later on Power 106 close to noon, giving...
Well, 'The Donald' has trumped all his Republican rivals and is now their presumptive nominee.Meanwhile, 'The Hillary' is still left to battle a dinosaur with the potential bite of a gnat. That is, Bernie Sanders, who, with all his far-from-...
With the 2016-2017 Budget Debate now under way, the historian in me drove me to pull up from my sources a couple of old Budget speeches by leaders of government at critical junctures in the nation's history.I have often made the point that Edward...
The ticking time bomb, which requires an urgent national response, is the continued degeneration of our young urban unemployed males into a lumpenproletariat, which produces violence as a commodity for sale to organised criminal networks, or used...
Remember this?"We are committed in principle and practice to real reform of the tax system. This means leaving you with more of your income to save or invest. This means lower taxes and a business-friendly tax system. We will again reduce transfer...
The recently appointed board of the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) has acted on a decision not to renew the contract of Managing Director Colin Campbell and to this end Mr Campbell is being paid for the three-month notice period. Campbell...
Published:Friday | May 13, 2016 | 12:00 AMTroy Caine
However, it is with a heavy heart and some nerve that I dare to ... well, just to make a few comments on two topics in his column titled 'Swapping white Queen for non-executive monkey' in The Sunday Gleaner of April 24, 2016.Ripping into the...
The figure 1.5 was the magical equation in the last election that catapulted the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) to power. It was the buzz of the February election. It was simply magical - in the sense that it became the elixir that eclipsed the People's...
Published:Friday | May 13, 2016 | 12:00 AMOrville Taylor
So the Man a Yard has delivered and has found ways of keeping the promise. Well, let's not fight over the details, but he did assure us that those who earned below $1.5m would have been given PAYE tax relief by April 1, 2016. Nevertheless, the...
What if we could have a revamped tax system in Jamaica that allowed for increased funding of a comprehensive social-support programme that sufficiently covered all Jamaicans below the poverty line and provided specific social support to Jamaicans...
Shortly before John Kasich dropped out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination, leaving Donald Trump as the only candidate, the Ohio governor put up a spoof video on the Internet. Modelled on the old-fashioned intro that scrolls up...
The growing tourism industry represents the most important form of economic activity in the Caribbean today, with earnings in excess of US$30 billion, providing jobs for one out of every five employed persons and attracting just over 25 million...
