In my 20 years as a practising physician and surgeon working at various levels in the public health system and privately, I believed I had a good understanding of healthcare in Jamaica. However, it was not until I immersed myself into the lives of...
At the end of 1999, the Highway 2000 construction project was launched by then Prime Minister, P.J. Patterson. Many saw it as just another political project with heavy duty equipment to impress the political non-believers. The administration’s push...
Just over two weeks ago, Donald Trump was re-elected as president of the United States (US). He defied many odds, including two alleged assassination attempts and being a convicted felon. Of course, now that he is the most powerful man in the US,...
The importance of early childhood education cannot be overstated. A child’s early years provide the foundation for lifelong learning, establishing crucial cognitive and social development. At this stage in our nation’s journey, creating a solid...
In the Senate, on November 8, Kamina Johnson Smith, minister of foreign affairs and leader of government business, addressed five questions from Sophia Frazer-Binns, opposition spokesperson on the environment, about deep-sea mining (DSM) and...
In recent days, I’ve received a series of reactions to my article on the Gupta brothers’ state capture in South Africa, some of which highlight a troubling trend that I believe we need to address head-on. The lessons from South Africa’s descent...
Amid Jamaica’s record-low unemployment and a tightening labour market, the 411,000 working-age individuals currently classified as “outside the labour force” seem to represent a source of untapped productive potential. CAPRI’s latest report,...
There are varying opinions regarding the term ‘triangular trade’, which has been used to describe the transatlantic slave trade. While many agree that its shape was triangular, most people of African descent know that it was not a ‘trade’ in the...
The culture plays out in the early 1950s morning. Country chocolate, hominy corn breakfast. afu yam and corn pork at lunch. Oversize dumplings, coco and salt-mackerel rundown at dinner. For the adults, in the late evening, it is rum and water. The...
In the landscape of higher education, university rankings have become a crucial metric of quality and reputation. The recently published Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings highlight this fact. In The UWI’s 2017 - 2022 five-...
Tyrell Gittens, one of Island Innovation's Caribbean Climate Justice Leaders Academy COP29 delegates, an environmentalist, and journalist from Trinidad and Tobago, and Leyla Hasanova, COP29 Youth Champion speak on why youth voices are important...
Since late Tuesday night, I have been trying to rid myself of the living nightmare that the United States has driven itself off a cliff. It is terrifying to many, even those who have never followed up anything about American politics that Donald...
It is an unfortunate but well-known fact that fish and marine ecosystems worldwide suffer from overfishing. Over the last half-century, the proportion of global fish stocks considered to be overfished has steadily increased from about 10 per cent...
Daniel Titelman and Jwala Rambarran in the article ‘How IMF can show up on climate for LatAm and the Caribbean’ published in The Sunday Gleaner on October 13, shone a light on the Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF) ahead of the 29th...
The Gupta brothers – Ajay (‘Warren’?), Atul (‘Danny’?), and Rajesh (‘Tony’?) – stand at the centre of South Africa’s most high-profile corruption scandal in recent history, known as ‘state capture’. Leveraging close ties with Zuma’s administration...
On October 1, former US president Jimmy Carter (1977-1980) turned 100 years old. Though he won the Nobel Peace prize in 2002 for his peacemaking efforts and promoting democracy, development, and human rights, he should have been awarded the prize...
Citizens, here are 14 misconceptions often promoted about small modular reactors (SMRs) and their feasibility for small island developing states (SIDS) like Jamaica: 1. SMRs are quick to deploy Falsehood: SMRs can be set up quickly and provide...
What was to be a day for honouring our heroes and our highest ideals as a country ended with yet another manifestation of the organised criminal violence that plagues Jamaica. The murder of five people in east Kingston blighted Heroes Day for the...
At the time of writing this column, (last Thursday), 58 million mail-in and early in-person votes had been made in the US elections. The gender breakout was 54 per cent female, 46 per cent men. There was a 10-point gap between men and women in the...
Worldwide, livestock production provides nearly one-third of the protein consumed daily, which is essential for global food and nutrition security. In Latin America and the Caribbean, this activity is not only crucial for the diet of millions but...
I recently read with interest and was moved by the personal story of Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Gaston Browne in which he shared his family’s experience with mental illness. The article was as timely as it was an urgent reminder of the...
United Nations (UN) agencies are autonomous fiefdoms controlled by powerful lords of the manor. One of these potentates was Senegal’s Amadou-Mahtar M’Bow, who died on September 24 in Dakar at the age of 103. The “sacred drama” that erupted around...
You already know that five men were shot dead in Rockfort at a football game on Monday, October 21. This is the third mass murder in Jamaica in the last couple of months. You also know that Jamaica has an astonishingly high murder rate that has...
The University of the West Indies (UWI), long a pillar of CARICOM education, has recently come under scrutiny due to its fluctuating performance in global university rankings. Once celebrated as a regional leader, the UWI now faces declining...
It was puzzling to see an article by Curtis Ward titled ‘Peace not possible if Ukraine and Palestine are occupied’ in The Gleaner of September 30. In his piece, Ward offers Jamaican readers yet another opportunity to expose themselves to the well-...
