We are approaching two periods in our history which coincide incidentally. First, there is a pending crisis in the economy resulting from a serious fallout in meeting the targets of the current International Monetary Fund (IMF) standby agreement ... Second, the 50th anniversary of the Independence of Jamaica is due next year.
Of the 10 contested general elections since Independence, the PNP has won six, outpolling the JLP by an average of 6.3 points. Which gives statistical support to the adage that 'Jamaica is PNP country'.
They did it for sport. Chop off the head of your captives in one blow and you win the game. Of course, that is after you have brutalised them and taken away their humanity. If you did not decapitate him in one fell swoop, you had to try again with another victim or you lose.
Armageddon Day is only two days away! August 2! That is if the apocalyptic hype surrounding the debt-ceiling impasse between the Democratic executive and the Republican Congress of the United States (US) government is to be taken seriously.
Francis Wade is a young management consultant whose passion is the transformation of Caribbean workplaces, economies and societies. He wants to do so by getting people to think creatively about wealth and investments. He has been writing on the subject in this newspaper and elsewhere and has made me revisit a thought that seems appropriate at this time of reflection on Emancipation.
Delano Seiveright has been the target of offended media practitioners who have used his careless "go after" phrase to turn him into an intellectual piñata. They've been ably assisted by Delano himself, who has shown an antipathy to strategic silence that suggests he will always be on the wrong side of the trade in gold.
Next year when we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of political Independence, some thought, I hope, will be given as to who should wear the heroic garland for conceptualising and initiating the march towards Jamaican self-government.
The prominent headline was carried in a paper whose power brokers could never be accused of being hostile to the present Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) administration: 'FDI in Jamaica plunges to 14-year low'. (Business Observer, Wednesday, July 27). It reports that foreign direct investment flows to Jamaica crashed from US$541 million in 2009 to US$201 million last year.
Everald Warmington, member of parliament for South West St Catherine, delivered a stinging rebuke of Bruce Golding's leadership at a Standing Committee meeting of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) more than a week ago.
It has been announced that there is an IMF team in Jamaica. The purpose of the mission, we are told, is to complete the outstanding quarterly reviews for December 2010 and March 2011, and to chart the boundaries of a redesigned IMF programme.
Governments globally are faced with the challenging task of deciding on the energy source or mix of sources on which their strong economic pillars can be built. In making this decision, the sources decided on need to be affordable and in sustainable quantities so as to ensure energy security.
There is a school of thought that Prime Minister Bruce Golding has been handed his political fortunes on a platter, and there is another that his propensity to flee for cover when things go wrong has kept him afloat in the political pond.
Political parties are strange things. They are populated by power-driven, egotistic people who are enemies who, in the pursuit of their ambitions, have agreed to be friends in order to defeat some bigger enemy (the other party) in the fight for state power. And they are dangerous things. The internal and cross-party competition for power can sacrifice the larger public interest.
In reshuffling and naming 17 persons to his Cabinet, Prime Minister Golding may seem extravagant to some. However, he falls short of the record for large Cabinets. The People's National Party still holds the record of 20, which was set in 1977 by the then-revered Prime Minister Michael Manley.
At the end of the week, radioactivity from Britain's nuclear-level press scandal, which had already resulted in the shutdown of the 168-year-old News of the World newspaper, had spread to the United States where media mogul and sensation-monger Rupert Murdoch's Fox News network has considerable sway.
Most people will have little difficulty in perceiving crime as a key variable in determining outcomes of businesses and industries, one way or the other. The challenge to decision-makers, though, is to move beyond estimates and provide empirical data that seek to validate this perception.
Dr Andrew Wheatley was selected as the Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP) candidate for the newly created South Central St Catherine constituency last Sunday. The constituency is new, but early signs suggest that his politics might not be. TVJ's 'First News' the next morning showed him celebrating his selection by rallying "Shower Labourites".
Despite several columns describing inadequacies of the Westminster system of government and how to interpret Westminster-style election results, the People's National Party (PNP) sycophants are still having trouble with the results of the last general election.
