Commentary
When Hurricane Melissa struck last month, the natural expectation would have been for the island’s local government authorities to be quickly on the frontline, among the first responders, providing relief to people in their jurisdictions. They...
Comments
I was at university in Canada hanging out with some of my colleagues in one of the lounges when one of them, looking at me, shouted loudly, “Doggone it, Tony.” I was upset and made it clear, “Listen man, I never saw your dog. If it gone somewhere,...
This commentary is dedicated to Patrick Cozier of Barbados, whose probing occasioned its writing. In my article last week, ‘Hunger and war: The oldest crime the world still permits’, I argued that global hunger is not caused by a lack of food but...
Hugh Grant, the CEO of Jamaica Public Service (JPS), the light and power company, is right about the tremendous cost if the island were to run its overhead power lines underground. His solution: consider subterranean grids in selective areas. “We...
It seems that the only interests that went home happy after the 30th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 30) that wrapped up last Saturday in Belém, Brazil, were the oil-producing countries....
Hurricane Melissa did more than devastate homes, infrastructure, and livelihoods across Jamaica. It exposed a weakness we have ignored for far too long. Our highly centralised system of government cannot keep pace with the principles of sustainable...
With markets uncertain about the company’s continued control of Jamaica’s power grid, the Government’s decision to lend Jamaica Public Service (JPS) US$150 million to help pay for the post-Melissa rebuilding of its electricity transmission and...
FOUR WEEKS on since the passing of Hurricane Melissa and you can rest assured that, whichever of the remaining 116 active shelters that you visit, the scene will be largely same. Among the debris, fallen trees and roofless structures, men and women...
SO MUCH already written on the hurricane and so much more to be written on this ineffaceable part of our history. I remember thinking as I watched the Twin Towers fall in 9/11, America will never be the same again. Melissa is a similar turning...
Garnett Reid, the president of the Small Business Association of Jamaica (SBAJ), succinctly encapsulated the argument this newspaper has been making since Hurricane Melissa devastated the western third of the island a month ago. “Give them care...
ON MONDAY morning with the announcement of the death of one of Jamaica’s most outstanding reggae music pioneers, Jimmy Cliff, the temptation was to focus on his career, his achievements, including his many international hit songs, and his starring...
ZOHRAN MAMDANI, a self-declared democratic socialist, has achieved what many thought was impossible: he defeated the Democratic party’s old guards, including Andrew Cuomo, to become New York’s mayor. Mamdani’s victory is a political earthquake. It...
The authorities’ confirmation of an outbreak of leptospirosis is not, in the circumstances, particularly surprising. Surges in infectious and communicable diseases often happen in the aftermath of natural disasters. What the Jamaican health...
Hurricane Melissa did more than destroy lives and infrastructure in Jamaica. The Category 5 storm exposed the fragility of the systems that hold our economy and communities together. With sustained winds near 185 mph and rainfall reaching 40 inches...
Over in Apocrypha, our favourite fantasyland beyond the clouds where all politicians are friends, the talk was all about football. The Apocryphan national football team had just blown what seemed a glorious chance to qualify for the World Cup and...
In 2017, the Jamaica Yellow Pages produced a telephone directory with a cover featuring a painting depicting a dancehall session. However, a church lobby group, the Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society (JCHS), led a campaign against the cover,...
