Commentary
The timing of last weekend’s telephone discussion between Prime Minister Andrew Holness and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio – days after the United States named Jamaica among 75 countries for which it has suspended the processing of immigrant...
Comments
The latest drama in Apocrypha, our favourite fantasyland, unfolded as it appeared on a list of countries whose citizens were barred from applying for USA immigrant visas. Oma D’unn’s consultancy firm, Oma Unsacked, was deluged with frantic...
Empathy is “the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.” Last week, my article “The Decline of Empathy” was published in The Gleaner, and I shared the piece on my Facebook pages. In the article, I mentioned the value of teaching...
An important development which escaped significant attention last week was the disclosure by Information Minister Dana Morris Dixon that the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority (NRRA) is now in operation and would soon begin...
I appreciate Prime Minister Holness’ exhortation at the Wisynco function last week for the nation to craft a surge or productivity higher than the rate of inflation. For, if we don’t, the fate of the majority will be to tread water at best or, more...
There is a clear need for the establishment of a clear definition of the duties of parliamentarians. We must go beyond generalities and platitudes such as exist in the Handbook for Parliamentarians of 2012 and the Green Paper of Job Description...
One of the most controversial points of the meetings that bring together the international community at the recently concluded climate conference — the Conference of the Parties (COP) — centres on the discussion about the need to leave oil and...
Few phrases travel more easily through our society than “mind your own business”. It is offered as wisdom, as protection, and often as virtue. Closely tied to it are other familiar sayings: “keep out of people’s business” and the harsher, street-...
Jamaica has no shortage of water laws. For more than a century, Parliament has passed legislation to govern water supply, protect watersheds, control floods, license abstraction, regulate utility rates, and manage wastewater. Yet for many...
The great powers' current revival of a spheres of influence-based international order, coming at the expense of (once) US-led liberal internationalism, is being closely watched by Caribbean leaders. A subset of these leaders – i.e. Heads of...
A comforting story of multilateralism and liberal democracy that has guided Caribbean thinking for the last 70-80 years is fast disappearing. The region has to face a new era without an open world economy that is generally rules-based and broadly...
The recent exchange of harsh words and threats of violence between President Donald Trump and Iran government officials represents a mere smidgen of the hate that exists between the Trump administration and the Iran government. Netanyahu’s visit...
One of the stupidest expressions used regularly is “Life is not a bed of roses” When our relatives and friends migrate north, they often say it in reference to ‘Farrin’. Now, every Jamaican knows that whatever the country one emigrates to, only the...
Recently, I saw a short documentary on the Sargassum seaweed ‘invasion’ of the Caribbean Sea. Then I recalled that my wife and several of her relatives encountered mounds of the seaweed on the beach and a very large quantity floating near the shore...
For generations, the Church has been one of Jamaica’s most trusted institutions. In communities where schools struggled, families fractured, and governments changed, the Church remained – steady, visible, and influential. Yet today, as Jamaica...
Especially after the ruin left by Hurricane Melissa last October, it is understandable that, in the context of disaster preparedness, the attention of most Jamaicans is on hurricanes. The authorities, however, can’t afford not to be as deeply...
