Columns

Obama's legacy will not be one of peace

Nobel Peace Prize recipient Barack Obama

THE Financial Times recently reported that Nobel Peace Prize recipient Barack Obama has conducted 10 times more drone strikes than his predecessor George W Bush. As far as we can tell, that number is somewhere in the ballpark of 500 strikes and spans a wide array of countries, including Iraq, Afghan ... Read More

Soldiers stand at the ready on the bullet-riddled exterior of a building in Tivoli Gardens during the joint police/military operation of 2010. (OBSERVER FILE PHOTO) Tivoli’s tears and others’ fears
WHEN we consider that over 60 per cent of Jamaicans polled wished to migrate from this fair isle, we ... Read More

Action Social advocates' call to [real] action
Although I do not usually respond to negative criticism, the article written by Grace Virtue in the ... Read More

Anthony Hylton The PNP seems afraid to 'call it'
OVER the last several days I have received many tweets from those reliable and seemingly ubiquitous ... Read More

The risks of early elections and the challenges for the PNP

CHRISTOPHER BURNS | Sunday, September 13, 2015    

The People's National Party seems set to call early elections.

THE People's National Party (PNP) seems set to call early elections, even though a general election is not constitutionally due until January or early February of 2017. To begin with, our constitutional arrangements allow the prime minister to call a general election at any time during the five-year term stipulated in law. Consequently, early elections would not in or of itself molest our constitutional arrangements or deviate from precedence, as both parties, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and ... Read More

Does Dr Phillips consider us daft?

By Donald Wray | Sunday, September 13, 2015    

Peter Phillips

Two weeks ago the Government of Jamaica successfully negotiated funding from the international capital market to effect the discounted buyout of the PetroCaribe debt. Riding on its bragged creditworthiness in the international markets, the Ministry of Finance took an extra US$500 million of loan funds, in addition to the $1.5 billion needed to liquidate the Venezuelan debt. Finance Minister Dr Peter Phillips was challenged at a subsequent press conference as to whether this extra borrowing woul ... Read More

The church picnic that never made it back home

LANCE NEITA | Sunday, September 13, 2015    

Beverly East’s Reaper of souls

The white crosses were laid out in rows that stretched perhaps 100 yards or more parallel to the railroad tracks. They marked more than 100 graves, hastily dug, with mounds of red dirt covering the final resting place for the victims of a railway tragedy that has become seared in the minds of Jamaicans for almost 60 years. The Jamaica Government Railway passenger train on its way to Montego Bay slowed just outside of Kendal Station to allow its passengers to look at the chilling scene, with the ... Read More

The Queen's history-making reign

RONALD SANDERS | Sunday, September 13, 2015    

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II has become the longestever reigning monarch in British history, surpassing Queen Victoria who served for 63 years and seven months. (PHOTOS: AP)

ON September 9, 2015, Queen Elizabeth II became the longest-reigning monarch in British history. Her record also applies to her 15 realms other than Britain, the majority of them in the Caribbean even though they are independent from Britain. The nine independent Caribbean countries of which The Queen is the head of state are: Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, St Kitts-Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines. Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu and Solomon Is ... Read More

PROBLEM: The people we elect

HUGH MDUNBAR | Sunday, September 13, 2015    

PROBLEM: The people we elect

IT is very disheartening not seeing vibrant discussions initiated by the representatives of the people about what we can do about our present situation in Jamaica. The areas of job creation, viable economic activity, and infrastructural development are prime candidates for not only discussions, but planning and implementation. With a population of almost three million people I wonder what per cent are professionally and technically capable to take on the challenges of these activities. The info ... Read More

On the road to a better North West St Ann

BY DR DAYTON CAMPBELL | Sunday, September 13, 2015    

(This is an edited version of the presentation made in Parliament by Dr Dayton Campbell, Member of Parliament for St Ann North Western, during the State of the Constituency Debate last week) The mission for us in St Ann North Western is to find practical solutions for complex problems as we pave the path from poverty to prosperity. Our achievements span from: (1) Infrastructure -- several roads have been repaired including Hazelwood, Old Road, Club Street, Farm Town, Top Town among others. ( ... Read More

America's presidential jigsaw puzzle

TONY MILES | Sunday, September 13, 2015    

ALONG with death and taxes very few things are certain. What may surely be added to the list is the fact that people are fed up with the behaviour of politicians. Given the chance, they will not hesitate to change them faster than their birthday anniversary. I have been a student of American politics for the past 30-odd years, and at no time have I seen such pathetic rejection of incumbents running in a presidential campaign. Although it is 14 months from the presidential elections, and less th ... Read More

Pipeline been going dry long time

DORLAN FRANCIS | Sunday, September 13, 2015    

The inadequacy of water supply has been a major constraint to development

WATER is life. After oxygen it is next in line on the hierarchy of needs for mankind. It is essential for proper hygiene, disease prevention and sanitation management. Economically, water is needed in every sector directly or indirectly. The economy cannot grow and it will not prosper without an adequate supply of water. We have had perennial problems with water. Over the years we have had droughts of varying severity necessitating water rationing. But with the undeniable evidence of global war ... Read More

With this new Keith Rowley Cabinet, T&T is in for a rough ride

GERALD VINCENT | Sunday, September 13, 2015    

Avinash Singh, Nicole Olivierre, Camille Robinson Regis and Keith Rowley

AS expected, a collective sigh of relief has blanketed the nation following the end of the 2015 General Election in Trinidad & Tobago. The People's National Movement (PNM) leader has somehow manoeuvred his way into the driver's seat and, because of a mysterious decision to extend voting outside of extraordinary circumstances, suspicion will forever haunt him as to the legitimacy of the Government and Cabinet he now leads. At least half the population already sees him as illegitimate. And w ... Read More

A time of winners and losers

Barbara GLOUDON | Friday, September 11, 2015    

Soldiers inside Tivoli Gardens following the bloody May 2010 operation. (OBSERVER FILE PHOTO)

LAST week we talked of land selling and gentrification, ie, banishing the poor to accommodate the rich. Somebody tackled me to give me the advice not to "go there". "We have got to stop the sentimentality and accept the seriousness of the times", he said. What he seemed to be saying was that we must move along from this fixation with "poor people" and accept that we live in a new age of self-sufficiency, and so, what if some people earn plenty money and others likkle bit? It would have been amu ... Read More



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