In Focus

In the 11 months since their overwhelming general election victory last December, which the people granted in a moment of good faith, I have to confess that I've found myself increasingly disappointed with the prime minister's, and the People's National...

There has been ongoing debate about the changes that Jamaica must make to the structures of society in order for us to be on a path of sustainable socio-economic growth and development.

Given our political history and reputation for corruption, in December 2005 few would have thought that the newly appointed contractor general would have been such a transformational character and the supreme overseer of good governance in the fight...

Much has been written in the media over the past few years about the policy of recruiting in schoolboy football.

I am indeed grateful to the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) for taking the trouble to respond to the suggestion made by my article in The Sunday Gleaner ('Jamaica's energy conundrum', November 4, 2012) that the OUR has been less than diligent in approving that the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) build a 360MW plant for electricity generation. I note, by contrast, that the JPS itself has not found it necessary to respond.

I continue to have a deep, abiding faith in God and personal reliance on Christ's Word.However, I've lost all respect for, and trust in, the Church, a man-made organisation whose sole purpose is mind control using fear based on centuries-old random collections of articles by a motley crew of authors, some anonymous, in a book called The Old Testament.

Andrew Holness delivered what the base wanted last Sunday at his annual party conference: toughness, testosterone and tendentiousness. He was resolute, resounding and resilient in the face of fears that the perennial factiousness of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) was to make its abode in the party yet again.

In the early days after Independence, there was a firm belief in the high quality of civil servants. This resulted from more than a decade of training of civil servants aimed at creating an accomplished team to take over the administration of the country.

Were St Paul of Tarsus alive today and giving advice to Jamaicans at this point in our history, I suggest he would have modified his famous letter to the Corinthians to read:
"If I articulate my plans in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not execute, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal..."

This past week, former prime minister and president of the People's National Party, P.J. Patterson, was showered with accolades in Parliament from both sides of the political divide.

The 2011 Population and Housing Census indicates that Jamaica's population growth rate is at a new low of 0.36 per cent, compared to 0.87 per cent in 2001. This low growth rate is the second lowest since census-taking began in the late 19th century.