In Focus

Jaclyn Friedman and Jessica Valenti, in a 2008 publication titled Yes Means Yes!, proposed a number of arguments to reinforce the idea that when women and girls come to truly understand their need to be empowered in order to define and control their sexual power, we women of the global village will be on a path to experience a world without rape.

Somewhere in the mix of discussions concerning the prevailing economic turbulence and the proposed International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreement, the most fundamental problem has been overlooked. The balance of payment accounts set out the chronic deficit which occurs year after year, as expenditure of foreign exchange exceeds receipts.

Once more, National Heroes Day is upon us, and with the parades and official statements, the dignitaries dust off the sepulchres and polish the monuments of the seven people whom we call heroes and heroine.

When the two morning dailies manage to deliver the same lead story on the same day, something big must be going on. 'Students' loan crisis,' The Gleaner announced on Thursday, October 4. 'Cash crunch hits SLB', the Observer reported more colourfully.

The Students' Loan Bureau (SLB) was established to provide financing for students of higher education in Jamaica.

When doctors examine symptoms and diagnose medical problems, the patient does not typically attack them. And if the mechanic says that the reason the car is overheating and that there is knocking in the engine is because the oil needs changing, you don't second-guess him often.

Tax incentives to attract foreign investments have persisted for more than 50 years in Jamaica, without an adequate assessment of their benefits to the economy. In the absence of such analysis, the Government continues to hope for benefits with a new bill that will exempt non-residents of Jamaica who perform prescribed operations here from the payment of income tax.

Perhaps the highest value of a rounded education is the ability to critically unmask assumptions and presuppositions commonly accepted as natural, commonsensical, unquestioned. It is the ability to grasp what others miss, to make connections between ideas, and to surgically analyse issues.

As everybody knows, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is now here at the country's request to negotiate a new loan agreement after the P.J. Patterson administration told the Fund ta-ta in 1995.

The Islamic fanatics and extremists who murdered the United States ambassador to Libya as well as other embassy officials, and who carried out violent protests in several Arab countries recently, are not the only enemies of free speech in our world.

So, Jesus might've been 'married' or, at least, might've had a 'wife'. OMG! What a religious disaster! Can you imagine? This facilitates all sorts of blasphemy by irreverent mortals like me.