Seventeen consecutive days of water leaks, all starting precisely at 11:59 p.m., with no identified end time and with consumption volumes mysteriously lower than days when there were no leaks, statements from the National Water Commission (NWC)...
Police lookouts and gun transporters. After-dark taxi operators and prostitutes. Hitmen for the island’s unrelenting gangs. These are the job descriptions of some of Jamaica’s children; those most hardened by cold nights and sweat-stained days ‘...
It remains a mystery how Rosheda Richards’* monthly bill from the National Water Commission (NWC) skyrocketed to more than $100,000 in under a month – and for new premises unoccupied at the time – but the utility company is insisting the new...
The stench of sewage permeated their yards days after Tropical Storm Elsa doused the island. Backwash, residents said, from a clogged drain outside the Seville Meadows Phase Three perimeter fence in St Catherine. It is a hard reminder of the knee-...
Hundreds of Jamaican men are deeply scarred from forced sexual encounters during childhood, usually at the hands of older women who leave trails of psychological nightmares in their wake. That is the argument from experts as the island’s multi-...
Just like the constant mutation of the coronavirus, the Jamaica Medical Doctors’ Association’s (JMDA) fight over demeaning work contracts seems a recurring issue, with ultimately one major casualty of the unending war – helpless citizens. One year...
It has been two decades of long showers, uselessly trying to scrub away the shame and guilt that torment victims, but, for Latanya Binns*, those emotions may never leave – especially as her first child came from her being heinously raped at age 17...
Except for a brief tour during which Climate Change Minister Pearnel Charles Jr and technocrats sprinkled a paltry 20 mangrove saplings along the 15-kilometre stretch, it seems little has been done to address the ‘incomplete’ Palisadoes strip that...
The trip is not for the faint of heart. Smuggled migrants using The Bahamas to gain entry into Florida from Jamaica risk being robbed, shot, or eaten by sharks in a’ dog-eat-dog’, every man for himself pursuit of the ‘American Dream’. The lucky...
It takes renewed resolve, serious discipline, and undying sacrifice to be a good father during the COVID-19 pandemic. Even more so, it seems, for those risking their lives on the coronavirus front line or for those entrepreneurs trying to weave a...
George Campbell can still hear his mother’s screams for help as she and his father disappeared beneath the raging Hope River in St Andrew during the passing of Hurricane Gustav in 2008. The death wails, he said, are chilling, and similar to those...
A staggering 249 girls have been impregnated from rapes, carnal abuse and other sex crimes between January 2020 and March this year. This is just under eight per cent of the total 3,265 children sexually abused over the period, statistics from...
The huge boulders on the sides of the Palisadoes main road leading to the Norman Manley International Airport (NMIA) are supposed to be covered over with sand and storm-repelling mangroves planted on either side to fortify Kingston’s primary...
Jamaica needs more people like ‘Aunty Lorna’ – upstanding adults who give selflessly to the nation’s most needy children. In a state of heightened peer pressure, a COVID-stricken economy, disrupted education, and marauding criminals – most times...
Six months after her dreaded discovery at age 15 gave way to a bouncy baby girl, Tenuke Doyley made a sacrifice no mother decides on easily – giving up her beloved child. It was a painful decision, but without the stewardship of parents and...
On paper, the concept is a game-changer in the police’s anti-crime arsenal; but on the streets, its efficiency is up for moot. Three years after the launch of the JamaicaEye surveillance system, the country continues to see more than 1,200...
A decade after a mysterious fire razed the record-keeping section of the National Solid Waste Management Authority’s (NSWMA) headquarters, awaking long-standing allegations of political interference, corruption, and mismanagement, it seems...
As Jamaicans came to terms with the first case of the novel coronavirus in March 2020, the Kingston Public Hospital’s (KPH) Accident and Emergency Unit – one of the busiest in the country – had up to that time seen 212 gunshot wound victims and 116...
Resume hanging with immediacy. Elevate gun and drug crimes to the level of treason – punishable by death; handpick a special-ops squad. And while all that is being done, empower communities, particularly their younger, vulnerable residents, to take...
Despite its continued perils, COVID-19 has forced well needed infrastructure and personnel upgrades at the the Kingston Public Hospital, one of the island’s busiest on the front line of the battle against the deadly pandemic. For one,...
At 11 years old, he held his father as the elder choked on injuries from a gunman’s bullet. At 13, he and friends made their first two ‘duppies’, and by 17, that body count had tripled. Now, after countless run-ins with the law, serving time only...
They needlessly occupy in-demand hospital beds and at times add to the din of pleas being shouted at healthcare workers by those in distress in the crowded Accident and Emergency units. Now, they are adding to Jamaica’s COVID-19 numbers, even...
Sixteen-year-old Ahyele Rodney has come to a crossroads – if not a dead end – in his pursuit of becoming a doctor and one day taking care of his mom, who is suffering from a mental illness. At least that’s how the student of Central High in...
Persons with disabilities (PWDs) continue to rank among the hardest hit by the pandemic as the Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CAPRI), in its latest study, points a magnifying glass at the efficiency of the island’s social safety net, and the...
The island’s courier service providers are haemorrhaging hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in revenue due to cargo flight delays that have resulted in missed deadlines and have forced heavy customer discounts for items long past...
