Commentary
A happy development is that both Fayval Williams, the education minister, and Nigel Clarke, at finance, have listed repairing schools among the priorities in the Government’s post-Beryl recovery efforts. What we have not heard is where educational...
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Hamilton Brown (1775-1843) was a despicable fellow. He came to Jamaica in 1796 to work as a bookkeeper on Queenhythe Estate in St Ann, and rose to become a large landowner and slaveowner. He represented St Ann in the Jamaica House of Assembly for...
A few weeks ago, one TikTok user who was flying in an airplane, secretly recorded and posted a video of a fellow passenger – a man – who was seated beside a woman and captioned the video with the following message: “If this man is your husband...
By credible accounts, Nayoka Clunis is somewhere in the United States, perhaps practising, if she can stomach it, to participate in the hammer throw at some future athletic event. Rightfully, but for a monumental cock-up by the Jamaica Athletics...
What a whirlwind week this has been in the United States. First, former President Donald Trump survives a assassination attempt and gets elevated to God-like status among the MAGA faithful, then Democratic President Joe Biden calls time on his re-...
The Paris Olympic Games officially begin tomorrow (Friday, July 26). The greatest living athletes of our generation are in the French capital, set to compete in the first post-pandemic Olympics – you have to feel for Japan in 2021, I’m sure the...
This newspaper doesn’t know whether Floyd Green’s conduct in the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) matter rises to the level of contempt of court. A judge of the Supreme Court will decide that question if Larry Robertson’s complaint against Mr...
In my article of November 8, 2023, I wrote about Jamaica’s pending six-yearly trade policy review at the World Trade Organization (WTO). This is a transparency mechanism to see how members are implementing the WTO agreements. In November, Jamaica...
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has made a dramatic ruling that Israel’s occupation of Gaza is illegal, and they must get out of Palestine. The world court further demanded that Israel must immediately stop building more settlements and...
One of the least noted but consequential impacts on Jamaica of Hurricane Beryl was its significant damage to schools. Yet this requires major attention to ensure that the island does not risk a mini version of the COVID-19 pandemic - when schools...
The image of former American president Donald Trump, standing with a bloodied face and right fist raised in defiance, with the American flag in the background, is iconic. As Mark Zuckerberg remarked, Trump’s fist-pump reaction, in the immediate...
Every government in recent times has highlighted the importance of social-intervention programmes for crime control and reduction outcomes. And they have done so despite the known weaknesses in the existing projects and programmes. They understand...
It is not only Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that should have an interest in the financial management of Jamaica’s municipal corporations. So, also, should the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC), which, too,...
It is to the credit of this Government that almost half of the Jamaica Urban Transport fleet can be renewed out of general revenue – that is without recourse to the usurers. But precisely because public money is so precious, we must ask if this...
The purpose of property tax is to fund the responsibilities of Local Authorities. According to the National Land Agency (NLA) the basis of the assessment is the value of unimproved land, which is the value that the land would be sold for if it was...
Dunstan Bryan, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health and Wellness, still appears not to have grasped it. As the ministry’s top civil servant, he is the accountable officer for its performance, including its finances. That doesn’t depend...
