This week, I am taking a detour into history. My knowledge of Haiti’s history was limited to the revolution of 1791-1804 in which a slave rebellion in then Saint Domingue led to independence from France. I heard about the involvement in the early...
“We want France to leave us alone!” – Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye “Africa belongs to African,” Senegal’s President Diomaye Faye said, as he basked in his recent earth-shattering triumph over the corrupt, Western-backed Macky...
As we made clear at the announcement last month, this newspaper welcomes the Government’s elimination, as promised, of the need for borrowers from its Students’ Loans Bureau (SLB) to have guarantors. It is expected that this policy change, which...
Current affairs commentators are tying themselves into knots dissecting sections 29 and 30 of Financial Administration and Audit Act (FAAA). Why? Depending on which political viscera consumes them, they’ve irresistible urges to prove Auditor...
Over the holiday weekend, I took the opportunity to check out some of the vloggers on social media, especially on YouTube and TikTok, to see what they had to say about what was happening in our country. To my surprise, I found an overwhelming...
It will have escaped few people’s attention that Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce Aubyn Hill is passionate about increasing Jamaican exports and unlocking the huge potential of increased trade to boost growth. As the representative of...
I think it was the philosopher Bertrand Russell who described the core principles of his life as the longing for love, the endless thirst for knowledge and the hatred of cruelty. We should all be repelled by the evil of cruelty – especially when...
While this newspaper appreciates the breadth of the housing development highlighted by Prime Minister Andrew Holness in the Budget Debate, we are disappointed that a major, aggressive and coordinated programme for the transformation of inner-city...
“So yu not telling dem fi tek di white man offa di medal?” That was the spirit, if not the exact words, of the question one of my mischievous friends asked when she heard I’d been awarded a Musgrave medal. Another friend, from a former British...
Around 2,024 years ago, a man who dared to say all men were equal and that we should treat others as we want to be treated, pulled off an act that not even Houdini or any modern magician can. On the third day after being tortured, nailed on to a...
House Speaker Juliet Holness’ back-pedalling that allowed last week’s tabling of two reports by the Auditor General (AuG), Pamela Monroe Ellis, provides an opportunity for serious discussion of how much ministers know about these special audits...
Among the many issues that attracted attention in the 2024/25 Budget Debate is the proposal for GCT to be removed from imported raw foods, in keeping with Jamaica’s legal obligations, as a signatory to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (...
First, following last week’s ‘From Sagicor to Saggy Core’, Sagicor Jamaica Bank hierarchy acted with alacrity to begin the process of improved service to their customers. The topic for this week is our need for advance directive legislation....
‘Lights, camera, action’ ... there is a joyful expectation and magic whenever we hear those three words in sequence. Jamaica-based filmmakers are rightfully excited by the government’s announcement of a film development fund, but let us not count...
A world is separated by four things … the learning of the wise, the justice of the great, the prayers of the righteous and the valour of the brave. But all of these are nothing without a ruler who knows the art of ruling. (Dune by Frank Herbert...
While we hail the announcement that a new Port Royal Museum will open in May, it is hardly enough to assuage the hurt felt by many Jamaicans who have witnessed the neglect, decay and near demise of a historic landmark like the once revered Vale...
Juliet Holness’ continued obduracy in refusing to release Attorney General Dr Derrick McKoy’s opinion on procedures for tabling reports by the auditor general (AuG) in Parliament is, to say the least, puzzling. So, too, was her seeming attempt to...
SO, ANOTHER ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships is in the record books, and those infernal purple people from North Street have walked away with yet another title in the bag. I will admit that although I very publicly...
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) and its suite of technologies are transforming how businesses interact with customers. AI has empowered companies to enhance decision-making, streamline operations, boost productivity, optimise inventory management, and...
Globally respected anthropologist and public intellectual, Don Robotham, fails to inject new life and new thinking into debates on matters of national importance to Jamaica and the wider world. In his contribution to The Gleaner of March 17,...
Richard Vernon, the new, young chairman of the St James Municipal Corporation (StJMC), is, on the face of it, getting a handle on things. At least he is saying the right things, including identifying the source of the substantial amount of money...
“The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. At its heart are the WTO agreements, negotiated and signed by the bulk of the world’s trading nations and ratified...
Today is the Old Ball and Chain’s 29th birthday. Only her 40-year-old son, The Computer Whiz, remains in Jamaica to commemorate it with her. So, to celebrate, we travel to Apocrypha, where our pal Oma D’unn, political consultant, who solves political...
Tuesday, March 19, was a dark day for Jamaica’s democracy. During his Budget Debate presentation, Opposition Leader Mark Golding mentioned the issue of the prime minister’s spouse being the House Speaker and its incongruity with the principle of...
When the House of Representatives sits today, the Speaker, Juliet Holness, must, before any other business, do two things. She must confirm, or reject, that last week, she returned two audit reports to the auditor general, Pamela Monroe Ellis, and...
