In Focus

A small boy sits on the edge of the 50-metre stadium pool as he contemplates the challenge of covering the distance in his first race at that venue.

Delusional behaviour appears to be public officialdom's occupational hazard. Take our prime minister, for example. First, he snubs invitations from a sitting US president. Then he accuses the US of harassment. Then he visits Washington. Our US ambassador undiplomatically applauds herself for arranging high-level meetings.

This is the final instalment of a three-part series on Jamaica's financial-sector meltdown of the 1990s.

History has recorded for us the period in which monsters, disguised as legitimate slave catchers and traders, corralled thousands of Africans (men, women and children) and forcibly transferred them to the so-called New World to become the prototypes for the most inhumane moment in the human story.

That's stark and crushing to national pride. But it's only one of the few stark facts which one will encounter in the World Bank's hefty, more than 300-page report just released a few days ago, titled Jamaica Country Economic Memorandum: Unlocking Growth.

A symptom of the deep political frustration that afflicts our country is the recent rash of calls to replace the current crop of parliamentarians with younger persons. In their constant search to find excuses for our failures, political pundits on the periphery have determined that the peak of human wisdom is at the age of 40...

Passions are running high over the 'Report of the Commission of Enquiry into the Extradition Request for Christopher Coke'.

I am uncomfortable with the way we approach public policy development in Jamaica.

On June 3, I was greatly honoured and extremely privileged to have been invited to the Canadian Senate Chambers to listen to the Throne Speech which marked the opening of the 41st session of Parliament.

This is the second instalment of a three-part analysis on the financial sector meltdown of the 1990s.

The report of the commission of enquiry into the extradition of Christopher 'Dudus' Coke and the engagement of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips is finally out.

From May 23-25, 2010, the Jamaican populace cowered as armed gangsters torched police stations and attacked large swathes of the capital, while the security forces struggled to regain control.