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Stories by Contributor

In Portmore, we'll be voting on issues

Published:Friday | September 25, 2015 | 12:00 AMHoward Hamilton, Contributor

We ready! We ready! The nation has been placed on election mode and the prime minister is ready. One senior party official states that this election must be about issues. As a resident and civic leader of the...

Tips to make next back-to-school easier

Published:Friday | September 25, 2015 | 12:00 AMPauleen Reid, Contributor

At the start of each school year, administrators can expect to hear the incessant ringing of the telephone as they are bombarded with calls from media houses. Quite predictably, news reporters are making enquiries about the level of preparedness for...

Our apathy will be our demise

Published:Wednesday | September 23, 2015 | 12:00 AMJaevion Nelson, Contributor

It is no secret that many of us, young people or professionals in particular, are utterly frustrated with the way in which successive governments and political parties conduct themselves and the affairs of the country. We have lost hope. We have...

Mandela - The man and his mistakes

Published:Wednesday | September 23, 2015 | 12:00 AMDevon Dick, Contributor

On Tuesday, the Government of Jamaica signed a memorandum of cooperation with Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, South Africa's minister of international relations and cooperation. Much work has already been done in science and technology, sports and education...

Time stands still in 1,500m

Published:Wednesday | September 23, 2015 | 12:00 AMHubert Lawrence, Contributor

It's almost funny. Jamaica's 1,500 metres national records turned 20 and 21 this year. Given that we view it as a 'non-traditional' event, it's no wonder time stands still for Jamaica in the metric mile.Twenty-one years ago, Yvonne Graham, the...

The nature and meaning of sport

Published:Monday | September 21, 2015 | 12:00 AMJennifer Ellison-Brown, Contributor

Sport is about a range of specific activities which involves competition and requires physical conditioning and skills. A good way to define it would be to say, "It is a structured physical activity, usually competitive, that requires complex...

Are you worried about CHOLESTEROL?

Published:Friday | September 11, 2015 | 12:00 AMDr Tony Vendryes, Contributor

cholesterol-free diet (like strict vegetarians) can still have high cholesterol. Many of the 'low-cholesterol foods' being advertised are so full of sugar and carbohydrates that you are swapping 'black dog for monkey' when you use them hoping to...

Let the puckery begin

Published:Monday | September 21, 2015 | 12:00 AMPatria-Kaye Aarons, Contributor

Can elections just come and go already? The political puckery has begun, and I'm so over it.Puckery: It's a word I've coined to describe the silly actions of politicians in the weeks leading up to elections. In some media jurisdictions, they call...

Civil society the new scapegoat

Published:Monday | September 21, 2015 | 12:00 AMHorace Levy, Contributor

Civil-society representatives are being accused of hypocrisy: They defend their donors' desire for privacy, but want donors to political-party campaigns made public. Sauce for the goose must be sauce for the gander, accusers argue. But is there...

On ISSA, schoolboy football and unruly behaviour

Published:Monday | September 21, 2015 | 12:00 AMDr Paul Wright, Contributor

The school teams are now sponsored (some more than others) and it seems as if the other aspects of school life are now on the back-burner. The playing surfaces remain woeful and the prevailing drought conditions are definitely not helpful. In the...

The JAAA also got exposed

Published:Monday | September 21, 2015 | 12:00 AMOral Tracey, Contributor

The dust is yet to settle and the clouds are yet to clear. The debate continues to spiral as to whether or not Jamaica's track and field athletes should get preferential financial help, and if so, how much can we afford to give them, and which...

PM blowing hot air

Published:Monday | September 21, 2015 | 12:00 AMMarlon Morgan, Contributor

Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller spoke for just under two hours at the People's National Party's 77th annual conference on Sunday, and, like me, I'm sure tens of thousands of Jamaicans did not come away from her presentation with any clearer or...

Heart of a Champion

Published:Wednesday | September 16, 2015 | 12:00 AMDevon Dick, Contributor

After the Jamaican women won the gold medal over the United States team in the 4x400m relay, Novelene Williams Mills, who ran the anchor leg, when asked what was the cause of the team's victory, said, 'When you have the heart of a champion, you run...

Sexually Active Children Need Services

Published:Wednesday | September 16, 2015 | 12:00 AMJaevion Nelson, Contributor

Children under 16, the age of consent, who are sexually active are in dire need of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services, but we are too busy parading our warped morals and values while they suffer and scream desperately for our help. It's a...

Child abuse – we must stop

Published:Wednesday | September 16, 2015 | 12:00 AMMichael Aiken, Contributor

The current allegations of underage rape against a popular political and public relations personality, along with the recent parading of the Jamaican pilot similarly charged in Qatar, have brought to the surface again the dismal plight of some of...

Who is Jamaica’s female Athlete of the Year?

Published:Wednesday | September 16, 2015 | 12:00 AMHubert Lawrence, Contributor

Late-season marathons aside, the 2015 athletics campaign is practically over. It ended brilliantly for Jamaica, with the country's second best medal performance at a World Championships or an Olympic Games. Now it's time to begin to choose the...

Apply within: Rent a Gent

Published:Monday | September 14, 2015 | 12:00 AMPatria-Kaye Aarons, Contributor

There are 100 days to Christmas!I can't contain my excitement. I know some reading this article now want to punch out my pepper lights and are saying, "It's barely September; way too early for Christmas talk." But in truth, it really isn't.Already,...

Elpedio Robinson: Christian apologists can't find footing

Published:Monday | September 14, 2015 | 12:00 AME. Elpedio Robinson, Contributor

On Monday, September 7, 2015, in the online Gleaner, Dr Michael Abrahams published an article titled 'The God of the Bible is not merciful', which has disturbed an ants' nest of Christian apologists.It is generally assumed that those claiming...

Doping issues remain cloudy

Published:Monday | September 14, 2015 | 12:00 AMDr Paul Wright, Contributor

As the 2015 athletic season winds down, the final race of the Diamond series and the World Athletics Championships did very little, in my estimation, to remove doubts about the veracity of some of the results posted.The general reaction of the...

No additional support for athletes

Published:Monday | September 14, 2015 | 12:00 AMOral Tracey, Contributor

Emotional, irratio-nal, angry and in total denial are what lots of Jamaicans seem to become whenever anyone dares to question or criticise their sporting heroes, whether those criticisms are merited or not.It hit home to me first when I was critical...

Is God really merciful?

Published:Friday | September 11, 2015 | 12:00 AMIan Boyne, Contributor

Michael Abrahams has set off another firestorm of controversy and outrage over his online Monday Gleaner column, 'The God of the Bible is not merciful', in which he listed a number of charges against God.In that column, he lambastes God for...

The Pryce is right: full disclosure for lobbyists

Published:Thursday | September 10, 2015 | 12:00 AMDr Orville Taylor, Contributor

Although I hold no brief for North East St Elizabeth Member of Parliament Raymond Pryce, I fully back his private motion that non-governmental organisations (NGO) and lobbies must open to scrutiny their sources of funding. It is such a no-brainer...

Praedial larceny: thorn in a farmer’s flesh

Published:Thursday | September 10, 2015 | 12:00 AMTrudy-Ann Edwards, Contributor

When Jamaicans think about crime, they think about murders, rape, abduction and other usual violent acts. This is especially true for those in non-farming households and in many media reports. Yet the National Crime Victimization Survey Report (2013...

Framing Delroy Chuck

Published:Thursday | September 10, 2015 | 12:00 AMMartin Henry, Contributor

A leading newspaper, which shall remain nameless, reported the NE St Andrew MP's bold recommendation for housing development for inner-city renewal under the blaring headline, 'Buy them out! Chuck wants poorer Jamaicans removed from lands with rich...

Storm in a peecup

Published:Friday | September 11, 2015 | 12:00 AMTony Deyal, Contributor

When we refer to people as being part of, or even constituting, the 'elect', it generally means that they have been chosen or singled out. One can say that "President Obama is one of this century's elect". He contested the election for president and...

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