Prior to, and since, the influx of large and multinational hotels into the Jamaican economy in 2001, a significant number of small hotels have gone out of business.
Ever since Portia Simpson Miller announced at her party conference in September that, if elected, she would create the Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme (JEEP), there has been no shortage of jokes and belly laughter around the acronym.
Going forward, Government has identified liquefied natural gas (LNG) as the preferred substitute for oil as the primary fuel for generating electricity, but expectations that this will substantially reduce fuel costs may be misguided. In the meantime, consumers can take conservation measures to lower their electricity bills.
In her swearing-in speech on January 6, Jamaica's Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller acknowledged, inter alia, that included in her mandate is the imperative to "protect the good name of Jamaica at home and in the international community". Jamaica, she stressed, must remain for all, a quality brand.
There has been renewed concern about the Digicel-Claro merger since the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) reported that the previous administration had removed the condition that the Digicel and Claro networks be operated separately. I wish to bring some perspective to this discussion.
The Government of Jamaica should consider creating specialised high schools focusing on science and technology, and create policies and programmes to support brain circulation as part of a sustainable programme for promoting and supporting innovation.
Just a few days into his second cycle as minister of agriculture, Roger Clarke presided over a dreadful meeting with the heads of commodity organisations and commodity boards. In very inapt language, the communication and PR outfit of his ministry, in a press release the following day, said, "The newly appointed minister ... has hit the ground running"!
A man was shot in a bar in Texas because he was overheard to say how good it was to be raised in Texas. His attacker thought he had said that it was good to raise taxes.
In the United States, tax collection is carried out by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). This is generally one of the most feared agencies...
It is with some reservation that I welcome the new administration elected by the Jamaican people to lead their way for the next five years. While there are many positives to point to in the People’s National Party’s victory, the one factor that many consider as vital to the country’s future, development, is not highlighted in the new Cabinet.
Someone sent me a strongly worded email and seemed to instruct me to apologise to the Church for my "onslaught" on the institution in my column last Sunday. Take a deep breath and wait, because it will come on February 31, 2012.
Opposition Leader Andrew Holness is on target in insisting on the Opposition's right to ferret out every corruption, misdeed and abuse of power which could occur under this Government, and in inveighing against policies that might harm the national interest.
In the recently concluded general election, the People's National Party (PNP), with its 'People Power' campaign, won by a landslide with 42 out of 63 seats declared in their favour.
A number of recent articles - in both the international and the Jamaican press - illustrate how the ongoing revolution in science and technology is restructuring entire industries and, in the process, bringing about a geographical reconfiguration of the world's productive forces.
There's been lots of clueless claptrap bruited about regarding former Prime Minister Andrew Holness' decision to alter the terms of his predecessor's approval of the Digicel-Claro merger.
The CARICOM Single Market Economy (CSME), established by virtue of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas (RTC), is designed to represent a single economic space where people, goods, services and capital can move freely..
I was the one child who used to peek out of one eye to make certain that my siblings didn't steal my food at mealtime or that my fellow pupils in school didn't place chewing gum on my bench.
The writing was on the wall for the Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP) loss in the recent general election from the very first utterance of then newly appointed prime minister, Andrew Holness, and in my article of December 4, 2011 titled 'Downtown Kingston again', I alluded to his ill-advised first address to the Jamaican people.
If I were prime minister, I would have a Cabinet of 21, which is one minister to every seat I have in the house. So the Jamaica Labour Party’s Cabinet of the Bruce Golding and Andrew Holness governments should have been 16, to reflect this formula.
Investing in human resources is pivotal to national development. Not only does it provide that quintessential gateway to social, political, cultural and economic advancement, it goes a far way in unlocking human potential – potential that would have otherwise gone untapped.
Once again, tax reform is front and centre on the national agenda. With a new Government in place, there’s the faint hope that a new look will be taken at this most crucial foundation of economic progress and the overly technical Green Paper No 1-2011 will be revisited. Hopefully, this time, a strong dose of reality will be applied.
In an article titled ‘The 2011 People’s Revolt’, columnist Daniel Thwaites commented on the expensive G2K ad campaign against Portia Simpson Miller as she sought to give leadership to Jamaica in the recent general election. Thwaites pointed out that this ad campaign was contemptuous and scornful of a woman whom the majority of ordinary and not-so-ordinary found as a role model for their children and grandchildren.
