Cuba has said that 16 hurricanes have struck the island between 1997 and 2009 at a cost of $20 billion. Over the same time, the country lost $10 billion due to lower world prices for its sugar, tobacco and nickel, and rising import costs for oil and basic foods.
The apology of the prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago for the expressed hurt that was caused by her statement concerning the twin-island republic's assistance to sister Caribbean Community (CARICOM) territories in the wake of the Hurricane Tomas devastation is certainly encouraging.
It has been a disastrous year for the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), and every time its leaders think it can't get worse, it does. JLP leaders must be asking, "When will our terrors cease?" Last week gave no indication that would be anytime soon.
This weekend the Jamaica Labour Party is in conference with both itself and the Government it now forms mired in difficulties. The Coke extradition/Manatt, Phelps, Phillips matter refuses to go away. Indeed, the belatedly announced commission of enquiry by the prime minister and party leader has unleashed fresh storms of controversy.
Ken JonesContributorSunday columnist Robert Buddan has suggested with astonishing audacity that the governor general "has a responsibility, at the very least, to invite the leader of the Opposition in for consultation" to pass judgment on the prime...
Informed by the research data that have emanated from the many studies, commissions and high-level debates, the United Nations has made a concerted effort to refocus on the outstanding issues of women and girls' unequal status. This inequality has historically and contemporarily been reinforced by the strength of the patriarchal dispensation...
The recent discussion by Jamaican economists at the Gleaner's forum, "Economic Growth and the Role of a Pegged Exchange Rate", about whether Jamaica's economic growth would be better promoted by a fixed or floating exchange rate seems to have missed the point completely.
In our dialogue about the existence of God last Thursday morning, November 11, on Newstalk 93FM, my friend, Lloyd D'Aguilar, a professing atheist, repeated some notions that are downright false, even though propounded by...
I proudly include myself among those who believe in the ability of the Jamaican people to be economically successful through industrialisation, with competent and confident leadership from our Government.
Students of the University of the West Indies (UWI) of my generation, which is quite some time ago, grew up on a little book, How To Lie With Statistics.
Insanity is doing the same thing, the same way, and expecting different results. Throughout Jamaica's history, battles have been waged between the State and higglers over the use of city space. These battles often occur at various moments, but they tend to intensify around Christmas - the busiest shopping season of the year.
One of the assumptions I had made, perhaps naively, when, as a schoolboy, I watched the Union Jack go down and the bold Jamaican standard of black, green and gold rise proudly in the night sky, was that we were at last free. I thought that now that we were free our rights would be assured...
David Cameron's administration recently explained to the people of Britain specifics of the whopping £83 billion (US$130 billion) in public-spending cuts through to 2015, in addition to a series of tax increases.
"It takes an effort these days to recall the thrill that surged through the world when Barack Obama was elected America's president … he seemed preternaturally thoughtful, dignified and decent; a man who could heal America's wounds at home … . None of it seemed wholly unreasonable at the time. Yes, many thought, he can." - The Economist
Even before Kingston was created in 1702, family units of enslaved Africans were producing enough to feed themselves, as well as a surplus on their 'polinks', as their provision grounds on estate lands were called.
Those who support the Westminster-Whitehall system must defend it. Those who support the monarchy must also defend it. I am not a big fan of either, but if we defended their better points, we would have less to complain about. Bruce Golding, for example, wants to act like a president. But this is not a presidential system.
THE LOOSE-CANON, loose-mouthed Member of Parliament, Everard Warmington has again set off another round of debate on the issue of fairness in the media, and the pique felt by the sober, mild-mannered and highly respected Minister of Education, Andrew Holness, over last week's Sunday Gleaner lead, has only added to the intensity of the discussion.
THE NATIONAL Integrity Action Forum (NIAF), a multi-agency network constituted primarily of the heads of Jamaica's anti-corruption institutions, is encouraged and reinforced in its resolve to intensify the combat of corruption in Jamaica by the 2010 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) released this morning by Transparency International, the global civil society coalition against corruption.
THREE KEY pillars of democracy are separation of powers; independence, impartiality, and neutrality; and trust. These are the issues at stake in Bruce Golding's announced commission of enquiry into the Golding-Brady-Coke-Manatt crisis, itself a breach of all three. It is this breach that leads to a crisis of integrity, and of confidence in government.
THE HIGGLERS who vend in the Kingston market are once again the focus of national attention as they protest the degradation of the physical environment within the markets. They certainly have cause for complaint.
