Columns

Don’t allow telecoms firms to drag Ja backwards

Don’t allow telecoms firms to drag Ja backwards

RECENTLY our telecoms providers have indicated their intent to block our access to VoIP services, and in so doing undermine the significant advances Jamaica has made in the manner in which we conduct business. Around the world today millions of people are communicating using VoIP services. It is o ... Read More

The late Sir Howard Cooke Sir Howard Cooke: the leader who was a participant
THE passing at the envious age of 98 of Sir Howard Cooke — Jamaica's fourth native governor ge ... Read More

Edmund Bartlett A road already well travelled
EDMUND Bartlett, MP for East Central St James and the Opposition spokesperson on foreign affairs rec ... Read More

Arguably, some of the most dysfunctional aspects of our culture have their genesis in native politics, where the desire to win elections has been facilitated by gun violence, intimidation, coercion, bribery, clientelism, and other forms of misconduct. When our leaders speak
WHEN our leaders speak we ought to be able to believe them. Otherwise, the relationship is mostly p ... Read More

Of buggery and rationality

Lloyd B SMITH | Tuesday, July 22, 2014    

The scene is Half-Way-Tree on June 29, 2014 when thousand of Jamaicans gathered as a show of support for the buggery law and against a homosexual lifestyle.

"Every dog have him day, every puss him twelve o'clock." — Jamaican proverb. Homosexuality is not a crime in Jamaica. Anal sex, described by statute as buggery is a criminal act that can attract a maximum sentence of 10 years. Case in point, some time ago, a Montegonian resident was arrested and charged by the police after he was caught in a romantic embrace kissing another man. When the matter was brought to court, the accused was freed as the presiding judge declared that there was n ... Read More

Sir Howard’s unshakeable faith in Jamaica

Jean LOWRIE-CHIN | Monday, July 21, 2014    

Sir Howard Cooke (centre) with Food For the Poor Chairman Andrew Mahfood (left) and Director Emeritus Pokar Chandiram.

LAST July, I was part of a Food For the Poor contingent that presented a citation to our beloved late Sir Howard Cooke for his tremendous support of the organisation's work. I seized the opportunity to interview him and below are excerpts from the resulting column which was published on July 29, 2013. "When the last surviving founding member of modern Jamaican politics speaks all Jamaica should take heed. We spent a precious hour last Friday with Sir Howard Cooke transfixed by his unshakeable ... Read More

Towards a level playing field

Kevin ASHER | Monday, July 21, 2014    

In Jamaica, in particular, sports have been shown to keep kids off the streets and out of a life of crime and violence.

MUCH has been written about high school sports and the transfer of elite athletes between the top schools. For those who have weighed in on the subject of athletics in school I have no doubt that they have the best intentions for Jamaica's youth and would like to see improvement in the way our schools educate our youngsters. I have no doubt, also, that their time spent debating the ills of high school athletics have been counterbalanced by the work they do within these institutions to rectify ... Read More

Predatory State?

GARFIELD HIGGINS | Sunday, July 20, 2014    

The trial lasted for six days and police and soldiers testified that Cunningham was in possession of a rifle and fired at them. However, the swab results were negative for gunpowder residue and he was freed on March 16, 2005 on a no-case submission.

"A wise government knows how to enforce with temper, or to conciliate with dignity, but a weak one is odious in the former, and contemptible in the latter." — George Greenville DOES government in Jamaica exist to protect the citizens within its borders, or is it just a rapacious and unconscionable imposer of taxes and principally a predatory beast? For years, hundreds of Jamaicans, in particular the poor and dispossessed, have been maimed, killed and/or otherwise emotionally and physica ... Read More

Go free, Mr Bicknell, but not so fast, Mr Vaz

MARK WIGNALL | Sunday, July 20, 2014    

BICKNELL… the prosecution has decided not to proceed with the case against him VAZ… the Crown will proceed with the matter against him

Plumbers do not refer to their fellow plumbers as 'my learned friend', and neither do auto mechanics with each other. My mechanic sometimes refer to me as 'my learned friend', but one suspects that he has spent too much of his time working on lawyers' cars, plus, he probably believes that I need a stoking of the ego, and if he does it I will gladly pay him an extra few thousand dollars for his excellent work. My mechanic is both professional and solidly Anancy. Highly skilled neurosurgeons do ... Read More

The New Bank of BRICS: What's in it for small economies?

RONALD SANDERS | Sunday, July 20, 2014    

Brasilia, Brazil — Leaders of the BRICS and South American nations pose for a group photo at the BRICS summit at Itamaraty palace in Brasilia on Wednesday, July 16, 2014. Back row (from left), are Uruguay’s President Jose Mujica, Peru’s President Ollanta Humala, Guyana’s President Donald Ramotar and Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos. Front row (from left), are Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff and China’s President Xi Jinping. (PHOTO: AP)

IT is news that should awaken the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from their complacent attitude toward developing countries. It is also news that should confirm to the G20 that what used to be the G7 — a group of the seven industrialised nations -- no longer controls the world's financial affairs. On July 15, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) established the New Development Bank (NDB) and alongside it a Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA). The tw ... Read More

How I spent my summer holidays

LANCE NEITA | Sunday, July 20, 2014    

This group of villagers from Dumbarton in St Ann participate in traditional Freedom March on August 1.

WITH World Cup finally out of the way, everything is back to normal in Jamaica. 'Normal' meaning that we now have more time to pay to, or for, the high cost of living, the Commissioner Ellington issue, water woes, the heat, Professor Bain and the UWI, a noticeable spike in crime reports since the television went back to ordinary news, and the JLP wranglings in court over the Arthur Williams case. We are more at home with this day-to-day sorting out of our lives, although for those three gloriou ... Read More

Malaysian jet tragedy could be Ukraine crisis game-changer

BY CECILE FEUILLATRE | Sunday, July 20, 2014    

KIEV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko speaks at the Security Council meeting in Kiev last Thursday. Poroshenko called the downing of a Malaysia Airlines passenger plane an act of terrorism and called for an international investigation into the crash. He insisted that his forces did not shoot down the plane.

PARIS, France (AFP) — The apparent downing of a Malaysian passenger jet and the loss of nearly 300 lives could be a game-changer in the Ukraine crisis, piling pressure on key players, Russia foremost. The shock tragedy, which President Barack Obama described as a "wake-up call" for Europe on Russia, has brought painful proximity to a conflict which for many was, until Thursday, a faraway and localised stand-off. "After the crash of the Amsterdam-Kuala Lumpur flight in the region of Donba ... Read More

Economic shock therapy and the harsh road to progress

DR CHRISTOPHER TUFTON | Sunday, July 20, 2014    

In 2001, when the Government sold an 80 per cent stake in Jamaica Public Service Company, the annual cost of fuel used to generate electricity was US$170 million (five per cent of total imports). It has grown to US$730 million (12 per cent of imports) last year.

The following is an edited version of a presentation to the Rotary Club of East Kingston and Port Royal on July 14, 2014. JAMAICANS, in both their personal and professional lives, are experiencing a degree of economic shock therapy that they have not experienced in recent times due to the corrective measures being pursued by the Government under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme. It's an economic realignment that is expected to help us over the long term, but in the short to medi ... Read More

Why are Germans so darn good?

Franklin JOHNSTON | Friday, July 18, 2014    

German teamwork and precision won the World Cup. Their work is play and their play is precision.

I am happy Germany won the World Cup. It was not the most skilful game or the most cliffhanging, but football is about goals; he who scores wins. Talent can be fickle, but you can bet on training, hard graft, and teamwork. If you run 5k every day you can do it today; the natural may score seven goals, but there are no guarantees. Talent wins the derby on a given day, but the book gives much more reliable results over the long haul. The final was sullied by regret, not because of the game, b ... Read More



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