David Smith, who earned infamy for his self-styled Jamaican private investment club, Olint, has gone down in Florida. After being charged in The Turks and Caicos Island last September and sentenced to six years, he was extradited to the United States where he admitted to 23 charges in a Florida court last Tuesday, concerning a US$223-million Ponzi scheme that defrauded thousands of persons.
The Jamaican economy remains on a negative trajectory following 14 quarters of recession. We ponder how the Jamaican economy can be positioned for strong economic growth following four decades of low or no growth under various administrations.
That Jamaica is a country of contradiction is becoming truer than we are the land of wood and water. For how else can we describe the seeming 'parallel universe' occurrences that have been taking place over the last several months? Some have called it a pantomime.
Why is the West suddenly concerned about dictators who slaughter their own people, and why has it launched Operation Odyssey Dawn in Libya when it stood by and allowed millions to be butchered in Rwanda, Darfur, Congo and Burma? Is it just for the oil? Those who follow international relations know that the United States (US) and other Western powers have relatively little strategic interest in Libya.
In 1972, the late Mr Winston Hubert McIntosh, aka Peter Tosh, knowing that children live what they learn, in his own inimitable way, reminded Jamaica and the world, "You can't blame the youth". This song was not as received as it should, perhaps not because of the song itself, or the message it brings but, the messenger and who he represented - the mass of poor, black, Jamaican youth.
Lots of countries suppress bad news and exaggerate good news so as to put on a 'happy face' to the world. Jamaica must be the only place on the planet where the media trumpet national misfortunes and hide positive developments. Our press constantly refers to 73 persons dying in last May's Tivoli Gardens incursion, but remains silent about...
Jamaica has little to fear from the recent nuclear accident in Japan but it is nevertheless of much interest because of the expanding role of nuclear energy as one component of the effort to provide for global needs without increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and the important lessons that can be learned...
I attended Gordon House on Tuesday, March 22 for the passage of the Bill to enact a Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms. I had been invited to attend because of my role in initiating the charter. While waiting on the proceedings to commence, I contemplated how this historic legislation originated.
Historically, were the average citizen to benefit as much as large companies and interest groups from the policing arrangements which apply, then Jamaican society would be a tightly knit and nicely woven fabric. In principle, the police's obligation to the law-abiding citizen is to protect and to serve.
Earthquake and tsunami in Japan; uprising and intervention in Libya; oil-price rises and energy crisis around the world; Manatt enquiry and rise in poverty in Jamaica; we are all consumed with these concerns close to home and far away.
I am not perturbed by the recent announcement that Digicel, the number one mobile service provider (as measured by customer numbers) in Jamaica, has announced that it will be merging its Jamaican operations with those of the newest player in the market, Claro.
It's Tuesday, March 8 going past 7 p.m. The ballroom at a New Kingston hotel was filled to capacity as many Jamaican women from all walks of life came to celebrate International Women's Day.
Dr Peter David Phillips has been sought by the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Government to be placed further in the spotlight of the continuing Manatt-Coke nightmare.
On March 8, 2011, Jamaican women were reminded that it has been exactly 100 years since the second wave of feminism stamped its mark on the global agenda for women.
It has been long in coming - some 17 years. But it is now almost here. Last Tuesday, 51 members of Parliament enthusiastically voted for the Charter of Rights in a rare cross-party Government and Opposition agreement.
Having grown up professionally with hard-bitten newspapermen and women; and having read and experienced the style, performance and quality of giant political representatives, I am bewildered by today's sanctimonious wimps, weeping over verbal scratches;...
I wrote recently to Dennis Lalor, chairman of the Air Jamaica Divestment Committee, and subsequently visited him at his offices at the ICWI building. I had written to him to congratulate him at the announcement of the 'deal' that had been arranged between Caribbean Airlines and Air Jamaica.
Vybz Kartel, 'the Teacher' pulled out a "crowd apparently larger than the university's annual graduation ceremony held at the same venue, based on the expanse of bodies that stretched from the lectern on to Ring Road" when he delivered a guest lecture at the University of the West Indies (UWI) last Thursday, courtesy of Professor Carolyn Cooper.
A phantom email. A mystery letter. Obeah envelopes. St Patrick's Day at the Manatt enquiry was straight out of Alice in Wonderland. Perhaps the strangest turn was the reaction to the reply from Manatt to a letter sent by Attorney General Dorothy Lightbourne.
One of the online respondents to Martin Henry's article 'PIOJ's growth-boosting strategy' (The Sunday Gleaner, March 13, 2011) - where he (Henry) attempted to summarise the content of the recently released PIOJ document, 'A Growth-Inducement Strategy for Jamaica in the Short and Medium Term' - remarked: "The country is not short of so-called road maps. It is in the implementation of their prescriptions that we have fallen short...
At this juncture in human history, women and girls who have lived under some of the most repressive regimes might be afforded the window of opportunity to be released from traditions that have robbed them of the ability to develop to their fullest potential. In the CNN-ised global village, we all stood in awe and disbelief when we viewed the dramatic political and social changes that taking place in North Africa and the Middle East.
The minimum requirement for democracy is elections. Haiti is having trouble even meeting those requirements. The country will have another go at it today. It will have a run-off presidential election between Mirlande Manigat and Michel 'Sweet Mickey' Martelly. Many other run-offs will take place between candidates for the legislature as well.
I will begin by explaining some of my cultural involvements and how they have moulded me as a Jamaican, because culture is the most powerful force in shaping people and branding nations. This has proven itself to be unquestionably so for Jamaica.
