In Focus

Some things baffle me. This crisis-ridden, debt-burdened, living-high-on-the-hog country is entering into a decidedly contractionary, austerity-mandated economic programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and people are bawling that it's going to depress demand and contract the economy. Duh! That is what an austerity programme is designed to do!

Erik Nicolaisen arrived on the Rock last Monday as a guest of the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) to help promote Brand Jamaica. Nicolaisen is, of course, the star, Dave ("Respec, boss man", of the VW Super Bowl advertisement. The JTB got him here within three weeks of the airing of the advert, which is not the usual speed at which Jamaican public agencies work.

Western Bureau:The lack of enthusiasm for local tourism and its capacity to be a viable employment option - views expressed by sixth-form students from two western high schools...

Western Bureau:The John Rollins Success Primary and the Bickersteth Infant and Primary schools, both in St James, have been selected to benefit from Phase Two of the ambitious Music - Perfect Pitch for A Sound Education project for the year...

There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip, and the Government now knows that there is a big difference between looking from the outside and critiquing, and being on the inside and doing.

This is very definitely not a good time for good news! The IMF is in town, coming straight from hell with a menacing pitchfork to force a beneficent Government to undertake a long-overdue reform agenda which will cause severe pain, particularly for the beloved poor.

The cycle of special days, based on ancient mythologies and the world view of persons who either had overactive imaginations or were totally demented, begins every year on the first of January.

On September 29, 2009, then Prime Minister Bruce Golding made the following comments in Parliament regarding the Jamaican economy: Jamaican economy: "For the last 10 years, our interest cost and principal repayments have exceeded our total revenues. ... Jamaica remains perpetually hooked on borrowings. ... Our earnings cannot support our level of indebtedness, so we have to keep borrowing to repay what we have borrowed."

Peter Drucker, in one of his many acts of perspicacity, had predicted that the workplace of the 21st century would be characterised by the predominance of the 'knowledge worker' whose capacity to contribute meaningfully to the fortunes of an...

Contrary to the popular notion that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreement will be the panacea to Jamaica's economic malaise, I dare say this is a myth.

The outgoing head of the Office of Utilities Regulation, Zia Mian, recently declared that the blame for our continued high energy cost must be placed squarely at the feet of Government as despite the many meetings and reports, successive administrations...

Jamaica's traditional churches are in a tailspin.