In Focus
As I promised last Sunday, the reaction to announced salary increases for MPs, Ministers and Councillors has been overwhelmingly contentious. What did you expect from a system that allows Cabinet to pay itself whatever it wants? Democracy demands...
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Predictions of the imminent end of the Commonwealth are legion, with major events such as the death or ascension of the British monarch provoking especially dire warnings of the Commonwealth’s certain and justifiable collapse. In the public mind...
Significant changes are long overdue in St Thomas. Now, with over 60 years of independence and colonial retentions continue to batter this parish; causing it to be still the most disrespected and left-behind parish. Morant Bay is the only parish...
The massive salary increases for councillors, members of parliament (MPs), Cabinet ministers, and the prime minister have angered Jamaicans at home and abroad and led to calls for job descriptions to measure their performance. The critics argue...
“First, the increase is announced by Mr Clarke,” wrote my lawyer friend. “Then the public outcry and then the refusal to accept the increase by the PM and Leader of the Opposition. Either the increase is warranted or not. But the comedy routine is...
One in four women in Jamaica experiences sexual violence at least once in their lives. UN Women also reports that Jamaica has one of the highest rates of rape in the Caribbean. Many cases of sexual assault go unreported, though, and there is a...
Martin Luther King, in his famous 1963 speech ‘I have a dream’, noted ‘the fierce urgency of now’ while cautioning against what he called ‘the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquillising drug of gradualism’. Jamaica is at just such an...
So Government’s dog and pony show (a.k.a. Constitutional Reform) is now in full swing. Or, more fittingly, full see-saw. Because fundamental flaws in the process are so contrary that every rise in the tide lifts only some boats while sinking others...
In recent times, there has been much discourse about the University of Technology (UTech), Jamaica, and STEM education. The general interpretation seems to be of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) as a destination. Since all...
Based on polls over the years and an acute understanding of our people’s religious, social, and cultural predispositions it was a given, born out of reality that both the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the People’s National Party (PNP) would always...
There are two points from Sunday, May 7, The Gleaner editorial ‘Overhauling University of Technology’, on which I would like to expound upon. The first is governance. The University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech) Act mentions three main positions...
The People’s National Party (PNP) seems determined to turn opportunity into shambles and, like Mr Phelps’ Mission Impossible tape, self destruct. For too long politicians have felt free to publicly terrorise or abuse journalists, police, civil...
Jamaica’s tourism industry is critical to the country’s economic development, and it is essential that every dollar invested in the sector is spent effectively and transparently and can be accounted for. Unfortunately, the development of particular...
I somehow missed the word ‘estimated’ when Dr Michael Abrahams informed Stephen and me that we had an ‘estimated due date’ of March 11, 2011. Yes, that is what the E stands for in E.D.D. There I was with my focused, get-it-done self, as an...
‘Jamaica Yes, Federation NO’ was the political slogan I remembered in 1961 in the elections to decide whether we should pursue federation with other Caribbean countries or go, on our own, headlong into Independence. I knew little about what was...
It is not often that the Caribbean can claim to be first while also facing the possibility of coming last. On the track, Jamaicans are used to coming first, while often claiming second and third places, too. No one likes to come last, but when it...
