In the Caribbean, we would learn so much more if we practised talking to each other. If only we could cross the colonial language barriers of English, Spanish, French and Dutch, we would realise that we have more in common than our apparent...
At the very minute that I am writing this newspaper column, I am certain that the prime minister of this country must be thinking that after the huge win in September 2020, this time was not any way near what he figured it would be. COVID-19 has...
Bountiful are the praises we shower on our meagrely paid front-line workers for the self-sacrificial work they do. Oh, those beautiful, bountiful praises! The priorities of successive Jamaican government administrations over the years can be...
On July 19 and 20, Toshimitsu Motegi, minister for foreign affairs of Japan, visited Jamaica. It was the first visit to Jamaica for a foreign affairs minister of Japan. During his stay in Jamaica, he paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Andrew...
My four years in Jamaica have been enriched by the people I have met and experiences we have shared. On my first visit to an all-inclusive resort where I had a speaking engagement, I decided to take a dip in the Caribbean Sea and saw a hut attended...
Recently, “freedom of speech” has become a hot-button topic. Police arrested at least three persons in circumstances suggesting the “crime” was telling PM to jump off (using more indelicate and less biblical language). One was famously forced to “...
The recent tabling of a bill in the National Assembly of Guyana to give effect to a 2018 ruling by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) is a development to be highly commended as illustrating governance by dialogue. Attorney General Anil Nandlall...
Citizens’ associations are coming together in an organised manner and clamouring for planning considerations to protect low-rise dwellings. This extends the development debate heightened during the Gleaner Editors’ Forum held on June 24 to make a...
The alarming rate of increase in the incidence of violence against women has, unexpectedly, not incensed us as a people to a deeper curiosity about its root cause and how to overcome it. We seem somehow preoccupied with more laws and stiffer...
While everyone’s attention was focused on the Olympics, high-level government discussions were taking place that resulted in a Cabinet decision to vote against the “High in” front-of-package label and food-labelling standard proposed by the...
Having critically analysed Senate weaknesses and proposed reconstruction last week, it’s time to do a similar exercise for the House of Representatives. Reality is the House needs more than simple reconstruction. Right now Jamaica doesn’t have a...
In this week’s Reparation Conversations, a collaboration between The Gleaner and The UWI’s Centre for Reparation Research, Dr June Soomer turns the spotlight on the indigenous peoples and their right to reparatory justice. The establishment of...
The prime minister is obviously a man of many parts, and he would be most aware of the history of pandemics. Based on this, he would know that in the 1918 Flu pandemic, the management of the first two waves of the pandemic were conducted under...
Jamaica’s governance structure is full of anti-democratic, impractical institutions, the most dysfunctional of which is the Senate. To begin with, it’s so disconnected from we the people that despite its mandate to critically review legislation...
Our lives have been twisting, turning and caught up in states of confusion in all of 2020. In 2021 in the midst of COVID-19 variants, we have been reminded that the confusion will knock on our door, push its way past us and start to spread its bed...
August is special for India and Jamaica. Both countries achieved independence from colonial rule during this month,15 years apart. Many would believe that the similarities end here. After all, what could two countries, 15,000 kilometres away from...
I was fortunate to be born on August 1, Emancipation Day, and over the years, I have noticed that Emancipation Day functions as a flashpoint in Jamaica. One axis of thought about our history in this northern Caribbean island celebrates Emancipation...
Africa’s griots are fabled repositories of their people’s history. This August marks the 20th anniversary of the United Nations World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance, which took place in South...
After 59 years of independence, Jamaica has much to be proud of. However, there are some hard truths that we must confront in order to move this nation forward. TRUTH ONE: RENEW EDUCATION AND HEALTHCARE Jamaica’s education and healthcare...
Stories, poetry, and various methods of communicating messages, along with principles and morals, represent ways in which Jews described in the Bible talk about the history of God and ways in which their relationship with the divine evolved over...
One experience I’ll never forget is when I spent a solid 10 minutes making a fool of myself trying to balance rice grains on the back of my fork at a student leadership workshop on dining etiquette some time ago. It was an insightful experience. I...
The Jamaican Emancipation and Independence projects are not yet complete. Much work is left to be done to fulfil the dreams of those who fought tirelessly and sacrificed their lives for us to be free and independent. Yes, there is a lot we can be...
In this edition of Reparation Conversations, a collaboration between The Gleaner and the Centre for Reparation Research (CRR), University of the West Indies, Professor Verene Shepherd, director of the CRR, reflects on another Emancipation Day...
Richard Azan and Ian Hayles have in common the fact that in September 2020,both of them were swept away by the Andrew Holness and Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) political tsunami. After that, the differences between the two People’s National Party (...
This seems a good time to talk about “independence”. On April 19, The Gleaner reported: “In a new marker for central banking in Jamaica, the amended Bank of Jamaica Act took effect on Friday, April 16, giving the BOJ full independence to craft...
