In Focus

We dream big. We talk a lot. And we follow through poorly. The big buzz in higher education in Jamaica now is for the University of Technology (UTech) to become the MIT of Jamaica and the Caribbean.

Dr Vin Lawrence certainly has a picturesque résumé. At a glance, it is laden with public-sector appointments and private-sector interests.

The Gleaner has boldly bitten Bruce Golding's bait and has declared itself unabashedly on the side of gay marriage, scandalising conservative Jamaican society and inviting fire-and-brimstone condemnation from fundamentalist Christians.

The Iraqi army will have to destroy Mosul in order to save it - and it's not clear whether it can do the job even then. It isn't so much an army as a vast system of patronage providing employment of a sort for 900,000 people.

It is the one day of the year when the majority of Jamaican fathers feel some measly effort to feel special. There is no gala, flowers or fanfare. Indeed, Father's Day often passes with a whimper compared to Mother's Day, and it is like a very patronising and condescending afterthought.

Last year, the National Road Safety Council lamented the upward swing to 306 deaths. The fact is, though, 307 is plenty fewer than 434, the 1993 mark.

Our out-of-office prime ministers have taken to lecturing us about government.

Aside from raw money power, as was evident in the Brendan Bain case, the gay lobby and its sympathisers have no choice but to destroy the authority of the Bible and to stigmatise conservative Christians as bigots, homophobes, deluded and stone-aged.

The following is an edited speech delivered by Warren Smith, president of the Caribbean Development Bank, at the 44th annual meeting of the board of governors in Guyana last month.

Jamaica's dormant champions of social justice got a chance to put in a rare (or is it rear?) appearance recently, thanks to regional lobby groups, the University of the West Indies (UWI), and Prof Brendan Bain.

Former Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, a man of impeccable credentials, has addressed the backlash over the termination of Professor Brendan Bain, by the University of the West Indies (UWI), from his position as head of the Caribbean HIV/AIDS Regional Training (CHART) Network, an externally funded entity based at UWI.

The Haitian community salutes the memory of the illustrious Norman Girvan, who always stood on the right side of history, and of the issues, and never failed to honour or defend Haiti and her people.