Commentary
Prime Minister Andrew Holness’ identification of the inadequacy of a “commercial ecosystem that supports long-term investment” by farmers, correctly diagnosed a critical problem affecting Jamaica’s agriculture sector. But only one of them. And it...
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The long-term effects of childhood trauma have been thoroughly researched and well-documented. One of the first studies on the topic was the ACE (adverse childhood experience) study conducted in the US in the 1990s. The study examined exposure to...
In August 2008 an e-mail popped up from then Gleaner Opinion Editor Colin Steer asking me to write a regular weekly Column for The Gleaner. It came out of the blue, like Thunderstorm Artis’s wife. I didn’t know Colin. He didn’t know me....
It’s a good thing, or so we think, that the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN), the government’s data collection agency, will conduct a census of people with disabilities. After all, governments need good population and demographic data to...
Start with the realities foisted on the world by the Emperor recently. What was the point about the on-then-off-then- maybe tariffs except to preen and embed universal distrust ? After the tirade about China’s unfair conduct, what was the point...
Jamaica’s housing dream is a nightmare for over 12,000 families each year. Prices are soaring, supply is dwindling, and bigger loans will increase demand. There aren’t enough affordable homes. Government should expect that raising the NHT loan...
Art has long functioned as a mirror, reflecting our world back to us in ways that illuminate hidden truths and provoke crucial conversations. In particular, science fiction and dystopian television have a unique power to translate real-world crises...
The preparations for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Olympics in America are being sidetracked by reports of concerns around security, hospitality, travel bans, and visa accessibility. Doubts are mounting as some countries and organising...
Perhaps they are still in a vertiginous whirl from Donald Trump’s recent tariff assault why the Jamaican authorities haven’t yet addressed an unfurling American plan that, if implemented, holds, at least in the near term, even more dire...
On April 24 United States President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order on seabed mining which has major implications for the work of the International Seabed Authority, based in Kingston, Jamaica. The authority as well as most states in the...
For months, I’ve followed public discourse across social media, political commentary, and academic circles on the effectiveness of the state of public emergency (SOE) and other crime-control policies in Jamaica. Unfortunately, much of this...
Parts of our Jamaican language come from broken English. People may say ‘furr’ when they mean ‘far’, and ‘sentance’ when they mean ‘sentence’. Some of us playfully use the broken version as a makeshift superlative. Therefore, when I heard about the...
“Machine!” said the fifth former looking admiringly at the car arriving onto the school compound. An undergraduate on the plantation, said “Nice car, sir,” a comment replicated at a deep rural school, with an over-representation of social...
Mayor Andrew Swaby’s suggestion that the three by-elections for vacant divisions in the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) be held at the same time as the imminent vote for the national government is quite sensible and should be...
Given the political differences between the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK), it would be easy to see them as totally apart. However, when it comes to politics and ‘poli-tricks’, they are like two peas in a pod. This is why, as I...
“A nation without borders is not a nation.” That is the opening line of an advisory issued by the US Department of State on May 15. It goes on to say, “Our government prioritizes the prosecution of offences for illegal entry and illegal presence in...
