Digitising healthcare and health records is becoming the norm for most developed countries. Some countries are seeking to introduce technological solutions into their healthcare systems. This can improve customer service, reduce waiting time,...
The news headlines this past week were striking and sordid, but the story is old and reprehensible. For years, children in the care and protection of the State have been victims of one type of abuse or another, some leading to their deaths. The...
When the news broke a few days ago that significant US dollar-held funds belonging to Usain Bolt in a wealth-management account had been stolen, the nation froze and waited on the harsh, cold wind. Bolt’s loss was caught up with 40 other high-...
Constitutional reform has been a slow and long process in Jamaica. It has not yielded much fruit since the first attempt when the 1977 Constitutional Reform Programme was launched. A Constitutional Commission was set up in 1991 to undertake the...
Readers of last Tuesday’s column would realise I’ve concerns about the process resulting in a lurid OCA report which captured Jamaica’s attention. After admitting its investigation was prompted by a media report regarding one Carl Robanske, OCA...
Happy New Year from the Centre for Reparation Research to all readers of our bi-weekly column. This week, we continue to mine the trial transcripts of the Emancipation War in Jamaica, which started in December 1831 and was only suppressed in...
Last year, the Republic of Korea and Jamaica celebrated 60 years of diplomatic relations. This milestone bears special significance given that the Republic of Korea is one of the first nations to formalise diplomatic relations, just two months...
In response to the last article I wrote, a reader from Belize shared that the crime problem spectre I was describing in Jamaica is being replicated in that jurisdiction. Another reader suggested that solutions are dependent on willingness to...
The year 2023 marks 40th anniversary of Jamaica signing UNESCO 1972 ‘Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage’ popularly called the ‘World Heritage Convention’. There are 194 nations that are signatories as at...
It was about 6 p.m. when I pulled over to my usual parking spot and shut off the engine. As I exited my car and made my way to a vegetable stall set up just outside of a bar, three men rushed over to me. I turned and said, “Yes, what is it?” I...
After weeks of depressing news (fires, road deaths, etc) including a damaging report written by OCG (oops, sorry, dang typos, OCA) alleging predatory sexual behaviour in child care facilities, I needed a good laugh. It didn’t come from PNP who...
The Jamaican Emancipation War of 1831-2 (Sam Sharpe’s rebellion) was marked more by the burning of plantations than by direct attacks on the island’s white inhabitants. During the rebellion, over 100 plantations had buildings destroyed in St James...
Knowledge, like everything else in this mortal toil, is subject to the laws of relativity. Let’s take a simple example like names. I know several women whose birth certificates name them Janice but who insist their name is Janis (probably dreaming...
Pelé, at the age of 82, closed his eyes permanently on December 29, 2022. His death has left most of us in a state of shock and trepidation. From the age of 17, when he played his first World Cup in 1958, he demonstrated that he was way above the...
In 2016, I first took a picture of it simply because I saw art and earthly beauty in it. But the pictures captured something else. Some of the limbs at the top, maybe 25 feet up, were dried-up and stuck out in areas where shoppers, vendors and...
“… A child says he hasn’t anything on. ‘But he hasn’t got anything on!’ the whole town cried out at last. The Emperor shivered, for he suspected they were right. But he thought, ‘This procession has got to go on.’ So he walked more proudly than...
Last week, I took a proverbial chill pill for a few days in Ocho Rios. From the room in which I stayed, I had an impressive view, which afforded me the opportunity to watch cruise ships come and go daily. Locals were also prominent participants of...
As Jamaica seeks to take advantage of the opportunities in the digital economy, the use of a mobile payment gateway is a huge part of the process. Mobile payment (m-payment) can be defined as any type of payment that is processed using a mobile...
The Government, like the Opposition, wishes that Jamaica never had the apparent nuisance of a diaspora while welcoming its financial benefit. Only days ago, I was convinced of this by a former minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade. The...
All of last week I spent some time in Florida, where I met a most interesting criminal investigator and lawyer. He had Jamaican roots, and based on what he said, he was almost totally convinced that Jamaica was being played up, down, and across the...
Recently, Twitter has outdone itself for intrusiveness It’s the only social media I use because it allows immediate (and pithy) commentary on breaking news. But my antisocial nature ensures that I “follow” very few other users outside of family....
The Disabilities Act (2014) came into effect in February 2022 after languishing in limbo for eight years pending parliamentary approval of the regulations, which finally took place in October 2021. It was hailed as a historic feat, and in a media...
This was my first full year at the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET), and 2022, arguably, saw one of the most consequential environmental decisions in Jamaica’s history: the long awaited declaration of the Cockpit Country Protected Area (CCPA). On...
To win schoolboy football at the Manning and DaCosta Cup levels, a school not only has to recruit football talent, but to do so very heavily. Bringing in students based on their sports ability starts from first form and continues up to sixth form...
I grew up with a nuclear family Christmas even after my parents divorced. The traditions were simple. The family made the Christmas pudding together a couple of weeks in advance. It was a day-long job involving a Yabba (ask your Granny); a wooden...
