At the outset of this Israel versus Hamas conflict I wrote it wouldn’t be solved by “picking sides” (October 15; Cleaning up the border mess). Those “sides” are Israel and Hamas who have been at each other’s throats for decades. Before that...
November 25 marked the annual International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (IDEVAW) and the start of 16 Days of Activism that will climax with the observance of International Human Rights Day on December 10. In sharp contrast,...
An undercurrent of seismic upheaval has been set in motion. Recent months have witnessed a subtle but discernible surge in seismic activities, an uptick, sending tremors of concern throughout the country. Are we on the brink of a major earthquake...
Recently, I posted an item on TikTok which spoke about a Jamaican friend of mine who works and lives in Florida. He spoke about spending Thanksgiving holiday time with a close relative and her family who lives in a nearby state. Sadly, he states,...
If you didn’t know you know now that our former enslavers have really done a job on us. For centuries we were indoctrinated in Anglo-Saxon superiority using educational tools such as whips, rifles and nooses. This putrid programming was accompanied...
Imagine a natural disaster that can potentially drive up the cost of food, energy, and retail items while negatively impacting manufacturing, tourism, exports, bank interest rates and even inflation, and basically impacting the whole of the...
There is a new development in public health in Jamaica – one that has been years in the making and which augurs well for improved access to healthcare, particularly for those persons from rural and underserved areas. It is that our nurses are to be...
In a world grappling with flailing social complexities, the significance of compassion and emotional learning (mCEL) has never been more apparent. mCEL, my strongly advocated examinable process (by CE, PEP, CSEC, CAPE, and the like) for acquiring...
Today (November 26), the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) will be dead sure that all of the shouting and crowing will be a fitting prelude to another official attempt to seal the Opposition People’s National Party’s (PNP’s) place as king of the backyard...
Silly season is definitely in full swing. Latest feature acts are a senseless scuffle regarding the tabling of Auditor General (AudGen) and Integrity Commission (IC) reports and a tedious tug-o-war regarding who can see an Opinion given on the...
In April, Jamaica hit a record low unemployment rate of 4.5 per cent, underlining a shift from a decades-long economic problem of surplus labour capacity. The current rate of less than five per cent, defined by most economists as “full employment...
With global metal producers celebrating aluminium as the green metal of the future, and the consumption of the metal increasing by more than 100 per cent since year 2000, aluminium is now being posted by marketing analysts as the metal with the...
In the Black community worldwide, mental ill-health manifests in myriad individual and social dysfunctions. The impulse to harm others, which is a version of self-harm, has now been normalised in crisis proportions. Jamaica has the dubious...
Pharmacy owner Dave Murphy and his employee John Love were recently arrested and charged by the St Catherine police, in conjunction with the Pharmacy Council of Jamaica, for illegally dispensing pharmaceutical drugs without the presence of a...
If I speak to 30 people for the week who are highly political, about 18 are likely to give me sound reasons why the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) will win, and 16 will definitely tell me that the party does not deserve to win. As for the opposition...
Located in the Leeward Islands, the island of St Martin comprises two individual countries: St Martin, colonised by France, and Sint Marteen, colonised by the Netherlands. The Netherlands recently issued two apologies on December 19, 2022, and...
Let me declare up front that I’m a big fan of Kamina Johnson-Smith. But I can’t fathom her convoluted and seemingly inconsistent “reasons” for Jamaica’s refusal to vote on a recent United Nations Resolution calling for a temporary cease fire in...
My heart was heavy, and bitterness had taken over my soul as I read of the horrific deaths of two young boys whose lives were recently snuffed out because an adult passenger in the taxi was the target of the shooting. Like you and those you...
The Jamaican Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade (MFAFT) has been embroiled in a string of controversies and gaffes in recent years, raising concerns about its competence and ability to effectively manage Jamaica’s foreign relations....
Before I travelled to Jamaica last December to become Ambassador of Japan to Jamaica, I asked my predecessor which books I should read to understand Jamaica. He immediately recommended The Confounding Island, by Orlando Patterson in 2019. He was a...
Current events in Gaza feel like Groundhog Day. Following a horrific attack by Palestinian Hamas militants in southern Israel on October 7 that killed 1,400 Israelis and resulted in the kidnapping of over 200 hostages, hardline Israeli prime...
While recently addressing the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in New York, the president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Félix Tshisekedi, demanded that the world body begin withdrawing its 18,000 troops from his country by...
Jamaica, the fabled “land of wood and water”, was so named by its indigenous people. A land enriched and naturally abundant is the birthright of every Jamaican. While it may sound like a cliché, the truth remains: Water isn’t merely a commodity. It...
It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. Alright, you got me. Dickens’ eyes are rolling wherever he may be. But yet…. Regarding governance, Jamaica is experiencing the worst of times. A Government with a super parliamentary majority...
