Rampaging students (hooligans? protesters?) wreaked havoc upon the opening day of University of the West Indies (UWI) examinations last Monday. The students were up in arms about being barred from exams over fees they owed. They were angry at the university, not at the Government, the biggest 'samfie' man in the country.
Historically, the generalised attitudes towards incest and other forms of child sexual abuse are rooted in denial and the blaming of the innocent victims. A perusal of the literature on the topic points to a time when clinicians, parents, teachers, police personnel, child-protection agents, social workers and courts were all sceptical of the idea that many adults, including fathers, brothers, uncles and family friends, regularly raped many baby girls and some baby boys.
The national anthem is a prayer, but more like a wish and delusion. It says, "Justice, truth be ours forever." That is precisely where the problem 'lies'. The order is wrong. Justice can never be put before truth, but that is exactly the situation in this land of wood, water and homicides.
In the cruel and unforgiving world of competitive politics, one is often advised to make a friend of an opponent of your opponent. Alas, a principled position counts for more than one taken for politically expedient and opportunistic reasons.
Jamaica has had a long romantic relationship with CARICOM, once characterised by sentiments and emotions rather than by economics and pragmatism. The economic benefits of that love affair have been primarily one-sided.
Journalists, including the local fraternity, celebrated World Press Freedom Day last Thursday, and our minister of information, in a Senate statement, basked in Jamaica's enviable record of press freedom. Fine. But there are some disturbing contemporary trends regarding free speech which are not getting any attention from our media here...
If you walk into the highest Nepali village in the world, on the way to Mount Everest, a set of men will talk to you in join-up (cursive), say some things in an accent that sounds somewhat like the Indian tongue and you might recognise only two words:...
Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller made us all very proud when TIME Magazine announced that she was nominated, along with Usain Bolt, among the world's 100 most influential persons.
Recent international ratings have positioned Jamaica at the bottom, or near last, on lists of economic growth and indebtedness. What is the framework within which these failures occurred?
Disenchanted with austerity measures and high unemployment, French voters went to the polls last Sunday in round one of a presidential ballot that could render Nicolas Sarkozy the first president in more than 30 years to lose a re-election bid.At a time...
We are a society that routinely gets alarmed over certain issues, huffing, puffing and expressing consternation, but after the ritual of media obsession we go back to business as usual, never learning one earthly thing. Our latest outrage is the issue of child sexual abuse and older men seeking 'young flesh'.
I write with reference to a Gleaner article headlined 'Mystery of the missing coffee', under the byline of Avia Collinder and published in your edition of Friday, April 13, 2012. The article also refers to an 'essay' previously published by Derrick Simons, a long-standing member of the Coffee Industry Board (CIB) and currently the president of the Jamaica Coffee Growers Association.
Let's suppose that you are an artist who knows you have to shock people if you really want to get on in the trade. And not being Damien Hirst yet, you should probably justify your shock tactics by claiming that they serve some good cause or other. So which cause will it be?
Recently, Gene Autry hosted a domino game at his new home. The old gang was scattered worldwide so new victims were found. We sat at the senior table against The Headmaster and The Professor, leaving the junior table for qualifiers like The Easton Star; The Wreck; Knight and Day; and other assorted hopefuls to attempt graduation to our table by winning.
It has become a hackneyed expression saying how great a potential Jamaica has for socio-economic growth and development. For me, it is frustrating. I have been writing about Jamaica's potential, culturally and socio-economically for some 44 years.
According to the 'theory of death', life goes on regardless. I think immediately of the unbroken rhythm of life on the Mona campus despite the departure of the celebrated professors Nettleford, Chevannes and Brown in quick succession.
There is general consensus that the high cost of energy is a huge constraint to significant economic growth in Jamaica. Most people seem to understand what the problem is, but what is missing is a clear strategy to find a solution.
If you think my last column was irreverent, get out the stake and fire because you are going to condemn me for blasphemy. Some persons were even silly enough to conclude that because I stated the fact that the gospels were not eyewitness accounts, I was an atheist.
