No one will be too surprised by Mr Manfred Nowak's characterisation of conditions at Jamaica's prisons and detention centres as appalling and reflecting a lack of respect for the dignity of people who come in conflict...
Carolyn Cooper in her provocative article 'Rights of passage' published Sunday, February 21, argues that persons organising official funerals should sometimes override the expressed wishes of the dead, and allow...
Apart from the killer cops and their adherents, there is no one in Jamaica who does not welcome the prime minister's putting the establishment of a Commission of Independent Persons...
AS PRIME Minister Golding conceded last year, the estimated $1.2 billion the Government spends on rent annually is an awful lot of money, that, from an economic or social policy standpoint, is not being efficiently utilised.
IT IS no secret that the casino legislation before Parliament has generated less controversy than was at first thought. This is partly because over the past decade, the gaming industry has been liberalised and put on a more systematic regulatory scheme in accordance with best practices in New Jersey and Nevada.
WHO HAS the right to decide how public figures are to be buried? That's a question we really have to take seriously now that a whole generation of national icons is passing. What happens when there's a clash between what the deceased wanted and what the public expects?
IF ANTHONY Wilson's 'Blame Haiti's Politicians' piece (Trinidad Guardian January 24, 2010) was solely a sharp attack on Sir Hilary Beckles, I would be inclined to remain silent - in the assurance that the historian can look after himself.
THE SENSATION that predominated as I saw Rex before and after he drew his last breaths was predominately one of there being unfinished business, as I felt that what was the essential Rex would be there for a very, very long time. I could only surmise what that unfinished business would be by thinking about what I knew of him since we first met some 57 years ago.
IN EVERY country, there are words and phrases the natives, including the media, take for granted until some stranger asks, like Denise Plummer the Calypsonian, "What is this?" I grew up with the word 'mammaguy' knowing that it was flattery with a higher...
THAT THE postal service is in need of comprehensive reform is impatient of debate. To many Jamaicans, the post office is the service that best connects them to their government. Even though some are in an awful state of disrepair, post offices and agencies can be found in the most remote areas, often where other public services are absent. There are post offices in every nook and cranny which provide employment for some 2,000 people.
ONE OF the lead stories in Wednesday's Gleaner was headlined 'Catholics, Anglicans prepare for Lent', but yesterday's column in this newspaper by the Rev Devon Dick, pastor of the Boulevard Baptist Church shows that the observance of Lent and Ash...
MALCOLM GLADWELL'S best-seller aptly describes the phenomenon wherein a momentous action can result from an incremental, seemingly insignificant change.
Is Noel's argument flawed?In response to yesterday's article by Keith Noel titled: 'Western media and the black man', the writer gave the Sarajevo and Rwandan examples of Western media bias - but are they really equal? Rough estimates put the...
PRIME MINISTER Bruce Golding will claim, with some justification, that he and his government were severely provoked. But provocation notwithstanding, we view as wrong and unfortunate Mr Golding's very public and savage assessment...
MARTIN HENRY'S Sunday Gleaner column of January 31 entitled 'Chaka-chaka social behaviour' continues to resonate as a context for identifying what is wrong and dangerous about the present state of our public behaviour....
Today, Prime Minister Bruce Golding will preside over the formal opening in downtown Kingston of the new offices of the Spectrum Management Authority (SMA).
Early this week, United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a Qatar audience that Iran's political and religious leadership were being supplanted by the Revolutionary Guards, the country's elite military corps.This thesis has been bubbling up...
YESTERDAY WAS celebrated as Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Lenten season when many Christians are given to fasting, prayer and repentance as one gives a concentrated look at the life, suffering and death of Jesus Christ.
THE GOVERNMENT is understandably upbeat about the market upgrading of its debt to B-minus by the rating agency, Fitch. We, too, welcome the move. Fitch's decision tells the global credit market that Jamaica is not facing imminent economic catastrophe
I WAS in a debate on Facebook recently with a number of young people who claimed things like "all countries in Africa are marked by corruption and horrific ethnic violence", and quoted as their main argument the fact that nearly...
Published:Wednesday | February 17, 2010 | 12:00 AM
IN AN article in Monday's (February 15) issue of your newspaper, titled 'Stop polluting the social environment', your contributor, Reginald Budhan, issues a strong appeal for a major assault on the forms of popular entertainment and media presentations...
Published:Wednesday | February 17, 2010 | 12:00 AM
THE RECENT execution of Washington sniper John Muhammad reminded me of how much I am against the death penalty.And how contradictory my position on the execution of murderers appears.
Published:Wednesday | February 17, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Mr Junior Rose's prescription for dealing with the problem of joblessness among young people was clearly naive and perhaps juvenile. Hopefully, however, his remarks will lead to discussion of a related demographic issue...
Published:Wednesday | February 17, 2010 | 12:00 AM
An appeal to NWCIt is sad that we have been in a drought for the past few months and we have not heard a proper plan put forward by the National Water Commission (NWC) to ease its customers' plight.
