As an occasionally practising lawyer, I agree with UWI including the Use of English in every first year course. Maybe the original reason was to try to improve on the functional illiteracy rate churned out by primary and secondary schools. But I...
Minister Kamina Johnson Smith suffered an embarrassing loss in the race for Commonwealth secretary general last week. The three-vote loss is immaterial. Bright and as exceedingly accomplished as the foreign affairs and foreign trade minister is,...
The United States Supreme Court has reversed Roe v Wade, ending 50 years under one of the world’s most permissive abortion regimes. The American abortion landscape has been fundamentally altered with the decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health...
I have watched with eager anticipation the pitch ball game of insults being hurled across social media following last week’s US Supreme Court overturning of the Roe vs Wade ruling. Amid the angry demands of some women that “privileged, old, white...
This edition of Reparation Conversations pays respect to George Lamming, by presenting excerpts from the 2014 George Lamming Distinguished Lecture, which was delivered by Professor Verene Shepherd at Errol Barrow Centre for the Creative Imagination...
In this article I highlight three women, Vivien Morris (Jamaica), Francia Elena Márquez Mina (Colombia) and Aminata Touré (Germany), who have leveraged their activism and advocacy resourcefulness to effect transformation at individual, community...
Let’s go through this one more time. I promise to try to be quick. The Constitution provides, regarding a governor general’s declaration of a State of Public Emergency (SOE): The Court shall be competent to enquire into and determine whether a [...
The entire Caribbean has been jolted by a loss of volcanic enormity with the muting of one of its most powerful voices: the death of novelist, poet, storyteller, and political advocate George Lamming. True to form, George seemed to have written...
Home today to over 13,000 residents, the construction of the formal community of Harbour View, located in east Kingston was completed in 1963. The low hills behind the community consist of unconsolidated sand and gravel which are unstable. The...
“It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable,” Moliere, French playwright and poet. The public defender told a parliamentary committee in January 2019 that nearly 4,000 people were detained during the St...
Recently, our Security Minister, Horace Chang, offered a view that if more money had been spent on upgrading the police rather than on social-intervention programmes, crime would have been reduced. Let me not accuse the minister of falling into a...
The practice is not new, but it is now blatantly nefarious. The murdering of children that our country seemingly grew accustomed to over the years has now sunk to a new low in the deepening abyss of serious crime. Shockwaves ricocheted throughout...
I find myself initially bemused then increasingly appalled at the intense public commentary on the off-again-on-again Festival Song competition. This example of skewed priorities tells a cynic like me that Government plans to turn Jamaica’s 60th...
Spanish tennis superstar Rafael Nadal’s recent victory at the French Open was his 14th at Roland Garros and 22nd Grand Slam victory, taking him – at 36 years old – two ahead of his “big three” arch-rivals: Swiss, Roger Federer; and Serb, Novak...
The 2022 sargassum season has begun. For the past 11 years, Jamaica and the Caribbean have experienced masses of floating brown algae that often end up inundating beaches. Although small quantities can begin arriving from March, we now know that...
On Tuesday, June 14, those who live in Spanish Town and surrounding communities would have seen the relevance of the lyrical statement that guns are a ‘wicked invention’. This was elaborated by Reggae vocalist Edi Fitzroy in his hit song, The Gun...
Last week, as armed gunmen with strong notional attachments to the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) fought among themselves over ‘gang conflicts’ in Spanish Town, a hapless Babsy Grange, in her role as MP for Central St Catherine, was interviewed on...
Interestingly, calls have been made for Jamaica to model the success that Rwanda gained by utilising agriculture as a springboard for growth and development. While there are insurmountable differences Jamaica and Rwanda – population size, access to...
Kudos to the Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB) for preventing the issuance of the clearance for the 86-unit National Housing Trust (NHT) Ruthven Towers. The Gleaner of May 29, ‘NHT Bungle: ‘Structural issues’ at upscale Ruthven Towers prevent owners from...
This is the third column in my education trilogy. We began with a close look at the new Teacher Council Bill and then an even closer look at the Patterson Commission Report. We found a metastasised cancer of mis-education; disrespect and scorn for...
Reference is made to yet more misleading political propaganda coming from Information Minister Robert Nesta Morgan, stating that the People’s National Party (PNP) mismanaged the National Housing Trust (NHT) during its time in office. It is...
In confirming Trinidad and Tobago’s (T and T) support for Jamaica’s Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister Kamina Johnson Smith for secretary-general (SG) of the Commonwealth, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said that T and T did not see the...
In this edition of Reparation Conversations, a collaborative initiative between The Gleaner and the Centre for Reparation Research (CRR) at The University of the West Indies, Prof Rosalea Hamilton (RH) speaks with Sheray Warmington (SW),...
Legendary Liverpool manager Bill Shankly famously noted: “Somebody said that football’s a matter of life and death … I said, ‘Listen, it’s more important than that.’” As in Brazil – another historically underperforming regional power – football is...
Thirty-four-year-old Bridgette is bright and is good at what she does. Teaching. After years of living hand-to-mouth, literally battling students in the Kingston 13 school where she was employed, she called it a day, secured her American visa and...
