When I entered Cambridge University for my PhD in history after completing the BA and MPhil also in history, at The University of the West Indies, I did so during a period of heightened protest against the apartheid regime in South Africa, which I...
Well, whaddaya know? Americans flocked to the polls on Tuesday (many mailed in before then) and roundly rejected the Big Lie. As Joe Scarborough coined on Wednesday morning “Dobbs, Deniers, and Donald lifted the Democrats”. At time of writing (...
On March 23 this year, Prime Minister Holness told Prince William, the then Duke of Cambridge, and Kate Middleton, the then Duchess of Cambridge (now the Prince and Princess of Wales) that Jamaica was “moving on”. That comment was perhaps the...
The University of Pretoria’s (UP) Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship (CAS) and Future Africa recently partnered with the Sweden-based Nordic Africa Institute (NAI) to host a policy dialogue on “Fifteen Diplomats on A Powder Keg: Africa and...
Jamaicans who are economically secure and have sound health insurance plans do not utilise the services of government-run hospitals if illnesses require hospitalisation. The wealthy Jamaican, like the Jamaican politician’s first order of business...
The PNP seems determined to turn a once great political party into a persistently puerile poppy show. 2022 could easily be declared Call for Ministers Resignation Year. On August 16, after news of increased teacher migration, PNP education...
Our West Indies team performance throughout the qualifying series for the T20 World Cup was disgraceful, to say the least. It will be exceedingly difficult to put the shattered pieces together to start the painful process of rebuilding, rethinking...
What seems to be a common metaphor being played out on the Jamaica built and natural environment in agriculture and housing sectors affected by ‘informal’ and ‘squatter’ settlements also colluded development breaches inside established...
As usual, several storms brewed in Jamaica’s political teacups over the past couple of weeks. I am just picking a few for commentary that seem to be inadvertently connected. There was the visit of president of the Crown Council of the Federal...
Most Jamaicans will proudly claim their Christianity even if their real lives and actions are empty of one of the core beliefs of Christianity. Do unto others as you would have them do to you. Simple but not always attainable. I am an atheist,...
Since its formation in 1938, the People’s National Party (PNP) has been at the forefront of advocating and providing land for the landless. After the abolition of slavery, the newly freed slaves in Jamaica were compelled to seize Crown properties...
Jamaicans love farce. So the game of musical chairs being played at Downing Street has captured Jamaicans’ attention for a few weeks. Don’t you love farce? My fault, I fear I thought that you’d want what I want Sorry, my dear! But where...
And then there were three. On Tuesday, the UK announced that it was lifng visa requirements for Guyana, Peru, and Colombia. Those nations’ citizens may visit the UK for up to six months without a visa. The British Embassy in Colombia was quoted as...
The World Food Day 2022, observed on October 16, also commemorated the 77th anniversary of the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), launched a call for action and global solidarity to transform agrifood...
Over the past few weeks, the media and the public at large have been in an uproar, and rightly so, concerning the increase in school violence occurring in different parts of the country. The case of a teenage girl stabbed to death by a female peer...
People have been raising questions about the operations of (some) organisations doing human rights and anti-corruption work and they are often ignored and/or chastised (typically by those external to the organisations) for doing so. Yes, it is...
Early in September, news broke that Poland would be seeking reparations from Germany in the amount of US$1.3 trillion for the crimes and unimaginable destruction committed against Poland during the Second World War from 1939-1945. This announcement...
There once was a time when you and your loved ones could drive out on a lazy Sunday afternoon - Cane River out by Nine Miles or further east to a beach stop or a jerk pork joint somewhere in Portland. But then the spin of the dice could send you...
So the vexed issue of squatting has once again reared its ugly head due to the Government’s demolition of illegal structures near Clifton, St Catherine. PNP social media trolls are irate, while JLP social media trolls soberly (because no political...
I once managed a project that drew attention to the fine-print exclusions usually hidden in agreements that ‘entrap’ the clientèle of banks and insurance companies. These clauses are constructed to protect the interests of the banking and insurance...
Some people are beneficiaries of the high level of crime and violence in our society. They include owners of security companies. The security sector has expanded in response to insecurity in Jamaica – capitalism can create a market out of anything...
“… A treaty is an agreement between states. Another word for treaty is convention. To be binding, a treaty must be in writing, made between states, intended to be binding, and governed by international law …” elaborates David Batts in ‘The Law and...
The strong, nauseating smell of caustic soda, white froth, brown water, and countless dead fish in the Rio Cobre are tell-tale signs of pollution from the West Indies Alumina Company’s (WINDALCO) Effluent Holding Pond (EHP) located in Ewarton, St...
Recent statements from the Prime Minister (PM) have me concerned about his ability to finish the race. It was not exactly along the lines of an appeal to God, the sort of a rut that seems to affect security ministers when the barking of criminal...
The controversy regarding the hairstyles of Jamaican students is ongoing, especially at the beginning of each academic year when students are routinely examined and accepted or rejected entry to school based on the existing rules of the particular...
