Betty Ann Blaine is likely to do better than Ras Astor Black at the polls. She should take comfort from this. She will not fare the worst. But I can safely stake my prophetic mantle on "the sure word of prophecy" that Betty Ann's New Nation Coalition will share the same fate as the old 'third' parties.
The recent state of emergency (SOE) inevitably targeted youth. It was a particular threat to the human rights of our youth. Young people between 14 and 24 are those most involved as victims and perpetrators of street crime. Persons 35 and older are probably the greatest perpetrators of business and public-sector fraud and corruption. There is no state of emergency for them.
The shocks that have hit the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, are unprecedented. Over the past year, the university has seen a 25 per cent reduction in its subvention from the Government of Jamaica, which is its major source of revenue.
The following is an extract from a presentation made by Wayne Chen, president of the Jamaica Employers' Federation, to the Rotary Club of St Andrew on July 27.
At the risk of being classified as belonging to what Don Robotham has called "lumpen", I write to express my congratulations to Ian Boyne for his article in the Sunday Gleaner of July 25 titled 'PNP is not the problem'.
The following is the second part of an excerpt from a speech delivered by Claude Clarke at the National Commercial Bank's 2010 Strategic Retreat, put on by its Group Human Resources Division on July 17.
Today is August 1, traditionally our Emancipation Day. Some Jamaicans had been uneasy that we might go into this celebration of freedom under a state of emergency (SOE).
The people have spoken - decisively and unequivocally. They wanted an extension to the state of emergency and must be mad as hell that the People's National Party (PNP) blocked it.
Today, August 1, is Emancipation Day, marking 176 years of freedom from slavery. In the same calendar week this year, Friday is Independence Day, marking 48 years of freedom from colonial oversight.
I told you not to write off Bruce Golding. And that a day was a long time in politics. After being on an incredible roll for months, courtesy of the Bruce Golding administration's handling of the Dudus extradition and Manatt, Phelps and Phillips issues, the People's National Party had an emergency hijack last week...
When both this column and I were considerably younger, a certain minister of health tracked me on the telephone to my desk at work. I had written a piece, 'A long night at the hospital', bitterly complaining about the long wait and shabby treatment experienced at a public hospital to which I had taken a relative for 'emergency' treatment.
Those who say the recently ended state of emergency (SOE) served no real purpose must place little value on human life. From January 1 to May 31, Jamaica experienced 737 murders, or 4.8 per day. Between June 1 and July 19 there were 137 murders, or 2.8 per day. That is an over 40 per cent drop.
Presidential systems, say of the United States, employ separation of powers between the executive and legislature. Neither the executive nor the legislature can dissolve the other. In contrast, parliamentary systems, like ours, are based on a fusion of powers. The executive is a committee of the legislature. Each can dissolve the other.
The following is an excerpt from a speech delivered by Claude Clarke at the National Commercial Bank's 2010 Strategic Retreat put on by its Group Human Resources Division on July 17.
The question that the front-runners in the harsh, sometimes vulgar and uncompromising criticism levelled at the Opposition for withholding its support for the resolution to have the period of public emergency extended for a further one month have deliberately chosen not to address is: Why did the Government downright refuse to accept the 15-day extension proposal?
On June 25, the People's National Party (PNP) members of the Senate brought a motion of censure against Minister of Justice Dorothy Lightbourne, citing assault on the "rule of law, scant respect for the administration of justice and gross dereliction of ministerial responsibility."
It is an absolute delight to see the two political parties ganging up against Greg Christie, the contractor general. Mr Christie can be a difficult man and regularly roughly ruffles feathers.
It has recently been reported on more than one occasion that the whistle-blowing bill mandates that employees should report matters to their employers in all circumstances, and further, that I am advocating that this should remain so.
In a recent edition of one of the local daily newspapers, it was reported that "a senior member of the Diaspora Advisory Board" had expressed his unhappiness with how the Jamaican public had responded to the apology of Prime Minister Bruce Golding in the ongoing saga of the Manatt, Phelps and Phillips affair and the related extradition drama of Christopher 'Dudus' Coke.
Crime, identified by Jamaicans as their number one problem, has seen a dramatic decline of 49 per cent over the May-June period, resulting in 87 fewer murders. There was also a 46 per cent decline in shooting incidents over the period. Rape, carnal abuse, robbery and break-ins are also down, praise the Lord.
Agriculture embracing cultivation, animal husbandry and fishing provides for human nutrition, clothing and inputs for other food and industrial processing.
On Friday, July 2, during the urgings of the opposition senators that the Government should establish an independent commission of enquiry to receive evidence and make determinations and recommendations concerning the non-receding, still in-your-face...
The following is the second part of an excerpt from a presentation made by Rupert Lewis, professor of political thought, University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, during a symposium 'States of Freedom: Freedom of States' at the Mona Visitors' Lodge,...
