Commentary

A banana and plantain field in Elderslie, St Elizabeth, that was wiped out by Hurricane Melissa.
December 9, 2025

Norris R. McDonald | A storm of crises: Hurricane Melissa and IMF budget woes!

“Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows!” —William Shakespeare, The Tempest SHOULD JAMAICA continue to pay the International Monetary Fund (IMF) while its people starve in the wake of the…
The United Nations Climate Change Conference COP30 in Belém, Brazil.
December 9, 2025

Editorial | Looking towards Belém

As Jamaicans continue to dig their way out of the massive disaster left by Hurricane Melissa, this newspaper is also paying attention to the COP30 climate conference in Belém, Brazil. For what happens…
This photo shows a part Oxford community in St Elizabeth ravaged by Hurricane Melissa.
December 9, 2025

Michael Abrahams | Why we need to follow the money

Last week, the presidents of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), the Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association (JMEA) and the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce (JCC) wrote a letter to…
December 9, 2025

Gordon Robinson | Old BC in Digihell

Bad news comes in threes as Melissa, then her aftermath, were two of the worst but now the Old Ball and Chain is outraged at Digicel. So we’ve no choice but to experience a third storm.
Commander Alvin Gayle, director general of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management.
December 9, 2025

Editorial | ODPEM in risky times

Unless the recommended restructuring of the government’s disaster management system was only for a change of its top leader, last week’s shake-up at the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency…
This photo taken on November 3 shows a collapsed fence, uprooted powerlines and trees at Ferris Primary School in Westmoreland.
December 9, 2025

Editorial | Melissa exposes the Jamaican state

Melissa, the horrendously intense category 5 hurricane that smashed through western Jamaica nearly a fortnight ago, did not simply tear up infrastructure and take lives. Although plenty of that…
 USS Wichita and HMJS Cornwall sail in formation during a live-fire exercise on April 9, 2021.
December 9, 2025

Stephen Vasciannie | Shiprider agreement should safeguard Jamaica’s national self-respect

Some of the main aspects of Jamaica’s relationship with the United States of America within the Caribbean Sea are governed by the Agreement Concerning Cooperation in Suppressing Illicit Maritime Drug…
A man examines sections of one of the rooftops at St Elizabeth Technical High School destroyed by Hurricane Melissa.
December 9, 2025

Ronald Thwaites | Choices have consequences

The Minister is right. Each local school board has the practical and legal responsibility to determine how and when to resume school after Melissa.The role of government is to harvest the most urgent…
Comments
December 9, 2025

Orville Taylor | John Crows to the rescue

Sunday is a day of rest for them, because the popular Jamaican folk song reports; our turkey vultures, “John Crow, say him no wuk pon Sunday.” Her logic might sound as if sucked into the eye of…