During my contribution the 2024 Budget Debate in Parliament, I took the opportunity to address a deep-rooted crisis affecting our nation – one that extends beyond macroeconomic numbers and crime statistics – the alarming deterioration of societal...
Next July, my childhood idol Iron ‘Mike’ Tyson comes out of retirement for a second time, this time to beat some guy named Jake Paul. This is Mike’s second fight since he and Roy Jones embarrassed themselves in 2020. But given how desperate we were...
After five months of stonewalling, Juliet Holness, the Speaker, finally relented on Tuesday and tabled the opinions by the Attorney General’s Chambers on the tabling of reports sent to Parliament by the Integrity Commission (IC) and the auditor...
I continue this week to take a closer look at the state of other export crops, focusing on cocoa. The International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) ranks Jamaica among the 17 countries producing fine and flavoured cocoa and one of eight exclusive...
It is that time again and most examination guidelines available to students focus on the preparation phase where students are given study tips and suggestions about how to better prepare themselves for a written exam; mostly in relation to...
The Public Service Commission (PSC) should provide greater clarity on Paula Llewellyn’s seemingly temporary disengagement as director of public prosecutions (DPP), the basis on which that announcement was made by the attorney general, and the terms...
So Iran schooled Benjamin (“Benny the Bully”) Netanyahu on war strategy. But Benny continues to behave like an O’Jays song: Your body’s here with me but your mind is on the other side of town. You’re messin’ me around... The latest Napoleonic...
Last week, we saw an explosion of violence among our youth. According to media reports, a love triangle was at the centre of the flare-up of violence involving students from several Corporate Area schools. At least three students sustained injuries...
It is not this newspaper’s style or intention to be alarmist. It is, however, axiomatic that societies are likely to make better and more prudent decisions, the greater their access to relevant information. Put another way, there is intrinsic value...
What the Government did last night should have happened immediately after Friday’s ruling by the Constitutional Court that last year’s extension of Paula Llewellyn’s tenure as director of public prosecutions (DPP) was unconstitutional. If Ms...
The bumbling multiplied last week. First, can the Government explain why they have backed themselves into another losing legal corner in order to keep Ms Llewellyn in office for a short while longer? No one is irreplaceable. And does this...
Part I of this article focused on the incompatibility with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules of GCT levied solely on imports. This part observes that regional and inter-regional trade arrangements entered into have as well constricted policy...
It isn’t clear if the government has completed drafting the formal institutional arrangements for the operation of the National Partnership Council (NPC), which it promised by the end of the fiscal year. The status of that project has not been...
Jamaica has many silly seasons. In the present one a hue and cry has been raised because the UK Privy Council has overturned a decision of Jamaica’s Court of Appeal in respect of appellants charged with murder. Never mind that the same set of...
CHAKA-CHAKA SPELLING It look like seh Juliet Holness, Speaker of the House, nuh understand fi har work. She a nuh di boss a Parliament. She cyaan do weh she feel like. First ting, she should a mek Parliament see di judgment weh di Attorney-...
He was not even a lustful thought in his father’s mind in the early 1970s; but given his high IQ, it is difficult to believe that junior Minister of Foreign Affairs and Member of Parliament for St Catherine East Central, Alando Terrelonge, could...
The 125-acre Riverton City garbage disposal site (accounting for 60 per cent of the island’s waste) is only a site where community waste is dumped. However, it was meant to be a landfill site that keeps all waste products and waste by-products from...
Carnival 2024 was a financial boon, earning for the economy some $4.6 billion, according to the Ministry of Tourism. The ministry’s Delano Seiveright reported that this carnival season returned to pre-pandemic levels, attracting some 10,000...
“In spite of their diversity in ancestry and language, the countries of the West Indies share a largely common culture, the result of their somewhat parallel experiences as plantation colonies. The culture of the Caribbean people is a blend of...
The Mexican government has taken the significant step of asking the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to “suspend Ecuador as member of the United Nations” and also to “initiate the process of expulsion under article 6 of the United Nations...
“The executive is separate from parliament. The Minister of Information sits in the executive. The parliament is a separate part of the governance structure. So it is very challenging for me though I may offer an observatory opinion on a matter...
Something of interest that came out of the budget debate last month was the Opposition leader’s commitment to conferring the Order of National Hero on world-renowned music icon Bob Marley. Among other achievements, the Opposition leader said the...
T he Gleaner congratulates Leonard Francis on his promotion to the post of chief executive officer of Jamaica’s National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA). We, as is likely to be the case with most people, welcome his pledge to deepen...
The purported invocation of the Data Protection Act (DPA) by Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ) to deny the disclosure of information on how it used taxpayers’ money is a worrisome development that, if allowed to stand, poses a threat to...
As someone with more than a passing interest in the impact of communications on Jamaica’s socio-political landscape, I am always vigilant of any imminent threat on the media horizon. Take, for instance, the spectre of manipulation, misinformation,...
