Commentary
December 9, 2025
Byron Blake | Hurricane Melissa: lessons for policymakers
Hurricane Melissa passed Jamaica by arguably the shortest and least expensive route. Yet, the destruction and deaths must be seen to be believed. It boggles the mind to think of Melissa tracking down…
December 9, 2025
Orville Taylor | Hard road ahead
At least 75 per cent of Jamaican households lost electricity and property. Most Jamaicans have relatives or close friends living in the affected areas. Therefore, unless you are a fortunate…
December 9, 2025
Garth Rattray | Some disasters are preventable
I am penning this piece on Saturday, October 25. Currently, Hurricane Melissa is creeping its way towards us with malevolent intent. Almost all the weather experts have predicted that Melissa will…
December 9, 2025
Editorial | Road to recovery – focus on mental health
Melissa, one of the strongest hurricanes to hit Jamaica in its recorded history, which decimated parishes in the western side of the island, has left more than a heap of mangled structures in its…
December 9, 2025
Editorial | A consensus path to recover
As the magnitude of the devastation left behind by Hurricane Melissa begins to become clearer, it is obvious that Jamaica has a massive recovery project on its hands. In the west of the island, where…
December 9, 2025
Kristen Gyles | We survived the unsurvivable
One foreign news reporter described the hurricane as being ‘unsurvivable’. But here we are, almost three million strong, having survived one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes on record. No, not…
December 9, 2025
Tony Deyal | Bon accord, bonne aventure
When I was 16 years old my parents decided to take me with them to Tobago where my father’s drinking partner and family member had a place where there were four rooms for “rent”. We got one for free…
December 9, 2025
Peter Espeut | Hoping for a good breeze-blow
I monitored Melissa on-line as she passed well to the south of Kingston on Sunday night, and rejoiced that the capital was spared the worst. And then she didn’t turn north when expected, and I hoped…
December 9, 2025
Ronald Sanders | Coercion in daylight: The world must outlaw arbitrary detention
The practice has an ugly name and an uglier intent: arbitrary detention in state-to-state relations means this: tyrannical regimes seize innocents to make other governments submit to their wishes. As…