Sociologists and medical specialists who are experts in studying the human condition are quite familiar with the sentiment as best expressed in the old 1969 film, The Desperate Mission. “Freedom is a powerful wine. It makes new tyrants out of old...
There’s a new wave of American sitcoms that seem to be actively discarding cardboard stereotypes formerly used for easy laughs. Instead these new sitcoms rely on intelligent, creative writing and directorial styles establishing a hybrid look...
CAPRI’s 2020 study on Jamaica’s violent gangs, Guns Out: The Splintering of Jamaica’s Gangs – https://shorturl.at/ixLX5, repeated the commonly held premise that Jamaica suffers from a “culture of violence”. Ongoing work in the security field has...
The happenings in Jamaica of the last two weeks confirm two truths about us as a society: we can really major in the minor while being alarmist. Second, politics is more theatre than reality, more theatrics than substance. And apologies to those in...
Integral to the development of orderly and prosperous societies are organisations that support, regulate, and hold accountable providers of essential goods and services. These entities are particularly essential nodes in societies in transition...
Former French president François Mitterrand (1981-1995) prophetically noted in 1957: “Without Africa, France will no longer have a history in the 21st century.” From the 17th to the 19th centuries, French slave traders operating out of the ports of...
September 6 was the 208th anniversary of La Carta de Jamaica (Letter from Jamaica), written by the revolutionary Simón Bolívar. As Jamaicans, we love to claim people as ‘One a We’, and we do claim Simón Bolívar. We remember that Bolívar spent...
In the global spotlight, all eyes are currently fixed on the 78th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA 78), in New York, as we reach halfway of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. With the clock ticking on majority of the Sustainable...
After a brief lull, Dayton “Chatty Chatty” Campbell has resumed what appears to me to be a campaign to become JLP’s most potent asset. His past performance on political platforms appeared to feature personal abuse as his go-to political strategy....
We have been communicating now for over a year. His skills are in forensic accounting. Since the SSL scandal broke, we have been in touch more than usual. “As I hinted at in our last talk, more investors who have been fleeced have been identified...
The climatic phenomenon known as “El Niño” is intensifying its presence worldwide. Projections are not favourable for the countries of the region. Below-normal rainfall is expected in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, northern Venezuela...
A former bauxite industry executive and expatriate Edward (Ed) Coyne, who lived and served in Jamaica from 1975 to 1986 as president and general manager of Kaiser Jamaica Bauxite Company, has shared with me a collection of some of his speeches made...
IN JAMAICA, a health crisis looms – one tied not to nature but to nutrition. Despite fertile lands and a rich farming legacy, Jamaica finds itself over-reliant on imported ultra-processed foods and the resulting rise in obesity and non-...
Looking ahead to the rest of the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season, forecasters have revised their predictions to indicate a more active season than originally expected, even with a strengthening El Niño in play. The current forecast points to a...
I am extremely fortunate. I was born in Dominica to a father who was part of a generation of great Caribbean men. He believed in equality, and he believed in me. To him, his daughters were just as exceptional as his sons, and with my mother, he...
I’m constantly amused by Jamaicans’ fascination with United States politics. These days that fascination has intensified into a Category 5 obsession. Friends send me daily anti-Trump messages on Rerun (work it out; it’s comic) plus stories of...
As Jamaica aspires to achieve its Vision 2030 goals within the next seven years, a critical hurdle stands in the way. The ramifications of inefficiencies linked to obtaining a police record reverberate across multiple fronts, casting a shadow on...
Chairman of the Transport Authority (TA), Owen Ellington, was commissioner of police from April 2010 to July 2014. Very few of us would be prepared to say that he was anything, but a good and decent man at the top. I cannot find anything which he...
On International Human Rights Day in 2021, The Gleaner, celebrating 70 years of publishing in the UK, held an e-conversation in which the main question to be considered by the six panellists was, “Should Jamaica become a republic?” I was one of the...
Every credible expert at betting elsewhere than casinos (only masochists bet in casinos) knows motivation is the most important factor in sports wagering. In horseracing motivation is important but in a different way. My friend The Terrible Tout...
In a dual narrative in the media shone spotlight on the journey of Jamaican scholars, celebrating their achievements while obliquely touching upon the formidable obstacles that hinder the educational progress of deserving youth in the nation and...
Rastafari chose Jamaica’s Independence Day to review the unfinished business of reparations. As in previous years, the country echoed sentiments that criticised the government, United Nations and European leaders for their inattention to pressing...
There have been spirited responses to my recent statement on the potential threats to inflation at this time, particularly the reference to the possible effect on cost-push inflation of large wage increases if those increases are without...
Mr Richard Byles, as the governor of Jamaica’s central bank, must exist in two places at once. The first place is that fog, that bubble where he must coexist with people who talk the language of the highly skilled financial technocrats. He must be...
St Thomas is blessed, and the people are brave, innovative, and resilient. History has underscored them as accommodating and long-suffering and yet very disrespected and mistreated. Whenever things become unbearable, St Thomas people are the ones...
