CHAKA-CHAKA SPELLING Riggle mi dis, riggle mi dat, guess mi dis riggle an perhaps not: hell a top, hell a bottom, hell inna di miggle. Nuh pudding nah bake. Not potato, not corn meal. Nuh pudding pan nah siddong inna no fire inna no coal pot....
Our motto “Out of many one people” underscores the reality of Jamaica as one of the most progressive island nations with respect to immigration. With a long history of violent and peaceful migration, the island is home to various cultures and...
The Government of Jamaica has drafted a Tobacco Bill, which will be introduced and debated in Parliament in the coming weeks. The bill aims at protecting Jamaicans from the harmful effects of tobacco use and exposure to smoke. We expect a robust...
It won’t get too far if the “blue skies” which, according to Don Anderson, businesses and consumers are having a glimpse of, fall behind the clouds. Which is why this newspaper looks forward to a signal from the Holness administration of how it...
It was confirmed. She was just one step from the top of the podium. This black woman with the double consonant in the middle of her surname was making her story; not ‘his’ I couldn’t help but make a Freudian association between the ‘arri’ and the...
Events in Washington on January 20 were a welcome relief and release for the world. Once Joseph R. Biden took the oath of office as president of the United States and the noon hour struck while Donald Trump arrived, as a private citizen, at his...
On Wednesday morning, January 20, 2021, I watched the last hurrah and goodbye to Donald Trump who, in hat terms, was not just a bad hat with a bee constantly in his bonnet, but a mad hatter always talking through his hat. His successor, Joe Biden,...
The COVID-19 crisis may have done more for business efficiency than will ever be acknowledged. One of the upsides of this yearlong pandemic is that technology is playing a bigger role in everyone’s life – and all sectors, including business, public...
On Wednesday, January 20, 2021, The Gleaner published an article, ‘COVID INJECTION – Coronavirus fight boosted, fire trucks scratched as Budget slashed by $3.5 billion’, which unfortunately contains inaccuracies concerning the Third Supplementary...
It is a significant oversight by all of us not to have noticed, until Jeanette Calder pointed it out this week, that the Parliament, for a decade and a half, has not debated any of the reports from either its public accounts or public...
Millions of citizens and residents of the United States (US) and billions of others around the world are delighted to see the back of Donald Trump as he exits the world stage as US president. While he was in the White House the world was less...
This is in response to The Gleaner’s editorial, titled ‘Next move on abortion trail’, which seeks to jump-start the process to green lighting the shedding of the innocent blood of countless future Jamaicans in 2021. The editorial bases its pro-...
Many employers do not recognise the importance of conducting a disciplinary hearing before terminating an employee. A disciplinary hearing is a formal meeting between management and employee/employee representative on allegations of a breach of the...
DONNA PARCHMENT Brown’s proposal that her mandate be widened, allowing for criminal referrals to the director of public prosecutions (DPP) for election offences, such as those relating to campaign financing, makes sense on the face of it. For,...
The transfer of power in the United States, from one president to the other, is a big deal, not only for Americans, but the world. But few in American history, except, perhaps, for Abraham Lincoln’s succession of James Buchanan in 1861, and...
The men of the cloth and their surrogates, including those in the Love March Movement (who betray everything their name suggests), have awkwardly awakened from their deep slumber. It’s funny when you think how easily topics like buggery, gambling...
The Caribbean Community’s (CARICOM’s) outlook for 2021 could be a very short article; summary – not so good. The year 2021 is starting with general uncertainty about the trade and economic outlook. Much will depend on how countries are able to...
As this newspaper observed last week, Jamaica’s law-enforcement agencies are obviously in need of new strategies to stem the flow of illegal guns into the island. Either that or the national security minister, Horace Chang, should explain why...
January 2021 marks a year since the acknowledged advent of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and its persistent propagation across the world. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted...
People often ask me why I write so much about religion. The truth is that religion has always fascinated me, from the days when I was a Christian until now, years after I have walked away from the faith. In my youth, the fascination stemmed from me...
In 2016, when the 45th president of the United States of America was elected, I was numb with shock, disappointment, and foreboding. It didn’t require uncommon perspicacity to realise that serious trouble was brewing. The ascension of such a man to...
I have become anxious that we in Jamaica avoid the tragic polarisation of the United States (US) body politic in the inauguration week of President-elect Joe Biden. Actually, we have some reason for satisfaction. Never have we had to mount...
If only the press didn’t print those macabre headlines and lurid stories of actual homicides, or other crimes. If they didn’t tell the truth, or found a way to finesse the facts. If they found a way to portray an alternate universe, or soften...
Anyone who has been following The Gleaner and other news outlets over the past few weeks may have come across the biggest clash since Vybz Kartel and Mavado. This back and forth sees noted doctors and public figures sparring over whether COVID-19...
There have been recent comments about the Children (Adoption of) Act (‘the Act’), by relevant ministers indicating that they intend to make changes to the act, in order to, I assume, make adoption more efficient in Jamaica. Well before a problem...
