Columns

Need for transparent, rational debate on Chinese investments

CHEN… warns there could be a repeat of the anti-Chinese riots of 1918 and 1965

The proposal to locate a Chinese trans-shipment port and logistics hub facility on the Goat Islands in the protected Portland Bight area of St Catherine has generated heated debate about finding the balance between economic development and environmental protection. Government has been gung-ho about ... Read More

ZEEKS… thanked by the leadership of the PNP for keeping downtown Kingston out of the fray of the April 1999 gas riots Political street forces co-operated against the wishes of the JLPNP
IN the late 1990s when super spy Roderick 'Jimmy' McGregor was appointed by then Commissioner of Pol ... Read More

HYLTON… under fire for comments made at the 2001 West Kingston Commission of Enquiry (right) ISAAC… chaired the 2001 West Kingston Commission of Enquiry For God's sake, Ms Hylton, step aside
JAMAICA has had its share of challenges with the dispensation of justice. And in all of the cries a ... Read More

The pain and trauma of the security forces’ May 2010 operation in Tivoli Gardens are reflected on the faces of this woman and child on the day that police and soldiers escorted journalists into the community. (OBSERVER PHOTO) No political mockery, pleas
Here we go again, another enquiry into a past event that may result in nothing but an elaborate expe ... Read More

In Guyana, political negotiations could lead to real democracy

SIR RONALD SANDERS | Sunday, March 09, 2014    

RAMOTAR… was elected president of Guyana by a plurality of the votes cast in general elections in December 2011, but his party failed to win an overall majority in the legislature

The governing People's Progressive Party/Civic (PPP) and the Opposition parties in Guyana are locked in a unique governance struggle in which two combined Opposition parties command the majority in the legislature, and can therefore block legislation introduced by the Government. The PPP's Donald Ramotar was elected president of Guyana by a plurality of the votes cast in general elections in December 2011, but the party failed to win an overall majority in the legislature. Since then, the count ... Read More

Jah Rastafari lives — but the tension remains

EVERTON PRYCE | Sunday, March 09, 2014    

SELASSIE… there remain good reasons why many Jamaicans still have strong feelings towards him

TO many Rastafarians in Jamaica today, the ongoing kufuffle over the legal ownership of lands at Pinnacle and the resurrection of the unresolved judicial issues surrounding the events at Coral Gardens raise yet again profound questions concerning the age-old issue of the legitimacy of adherents of the Rastafarian movement to seek equitable accommodation within a society whose motto is 'Out of Many, One People'. Based on these occurrences, and the fact that respect continues to elude the genuine ... Read More

African-American nonsense

DIANE ABBOTT | Sunday, March 09, 2014    

MCQUEEN… some African-American writers are complaining that he is not qualified to make a film about plantation slavery At right: NYONG’O… a wonderful actress

THERE is no question that the star of this year's Oscars was the dazzling Kenya-born actress Lupita Nyong'o. She carried off the best supporting actress Oscar for her role in the film of the year, 12 Years a Slave. But what really captured the media's attention were her charm, exquisiteness and smooth dark skin. In an era when the archetype of black female beauty is Beyoncé, with her light brown skin and blonde weave, Lupita could not look more different. She is slim but not voluptuous; ... Read More

Inspiring change, reflecting reality

PAOLA AMADEI | Sunday, March 09, 2014    

Research shows that more women attain tertiary education than men in many developed and developing countries.

Jamaica has an impressive number of extraordinary women who occupy prominent positions in politics, business, academia and civil society. It therefore gives me great pleasure to join here in the celebration of International Women's Day and to acknowledge the extensive contribution that women make to human societies worldwide. It is nevertheless an obligation to deplore that — across the world — women continue to be under-represented in top positions of government and corporate board ... Read More

Women play a central role in peace

BY JOHN KERRY | Sunday, March 09, 2014    

KABUL, Afghanistan — In this Wednesday, February 12, 2014 photo, Afghan widow, Zar Afshan, 21 holds her daughter at her parents’ home in Kabul, Afghanistan. (PHOTO: AP)

International Women's Day is more than a moment marked on a calendar. It is a day not just to renew our determination to make the world a more peaceful and prosperous place, but to recognise that a world where opportunities for women grow, is a world where the possibilities for peace, prosperity, and stability grow even more. I see it every single day as secretary of state. Even as the Assad regime's barrel-bombing of Aleppo continues, showing the world a brutal regime's true colours, with ever ... Read More

Gender equality means smart economics

IMANI DUNCAN-PRICE | Saturday, March 08, 2014    

DUNCAN-PRICE… gender equality implies that the interests, needs and priorities of men, women, boys and girls are taken into consideration because of the diversity of issues faced and how these may impact them differently

An edited version of a section of Senator Imani Duncan-Price's presentation to the Upper House on Friday, March 7, 2014. Mr President, I stand today to lay the basis for the motion in my name which seeks to advance women's leadership in politics and decision-making. Of course, in bringing such a motion to this honourable Senate, I am quite aware and indeed humbled as I stand on the shoulders of the many brave women who have been the forerunners. I take this opportunity to publicly acknowledge ... Read More

A Jamaican woman was there before Putin

Barbara GLOUDON | Friday, March 07, 2014    

Mary Seacole

CRIMEA...CRIMEAN... CRIMEAN WAR. Why have these words been so persistent in my mind over recent days? Could it be the names of a new gang, considering that for years it has been the practice for certain of our communities, where the gorgons establish turf, to give them names synonymous with territorial wars? In inner-city communities you will find Russia, Angola, Zimbabwe... etc, but Crimea? Never heard of such a gangland. Then it dawned... We do have a Crimea link, and it is Seacole...Mar ... Read More

Airbrushed Jamaica

Friday, March 07, 2014    

The airbrushed image of Jamaica that we present would seem void of problems and poor leadership.

The furore about Sir Alexander Bustamante is interesting. We do not admit our favourites do wrong, and we do not handle some realities well. The books we write about ourselves and those about us are portraits, not history. The photographer immortalises the most flattering pose by his aesthetic. We need books about locals, but it does not mean they are history. Tessanne Chin makes history because those who write history found her, and history is the winner's story. Her trip to the White Hou ... Read More

17 years after Manley's transition

Michael BURKE | Thursday, March 06, 2014    

Michael Manley (December 10, 1924 – March 6, 1997)

TODAY is the 17th anniversary of the death of Michael Manley, Jamaica's fourth prime minister. Much has been said and written about Michael Manley already, and I suppose there will always be more to come. But today I am interested in highlighting what has happened in the last 17 years. In this way history enthusiasts may put in perspective what has occurred since Michael Manley died. Michael Manley did not live to see the People's National Party win a third straight term of office, let alone a ... Read More

Jamaica's 'badness' culture highly admired at street level

Mark WIGNALL | Thursday, March 06, 2014    

Whenever politicians address the nation or issue press releases on the troubling wave of criminality, they conveniently distance themselves from the nasty politics/gun nexus which was the norm in the past, and somehow expect us to take them seriously.

IN the mid-1990s when I met him, the glory of his past was as faded as an old copper coin. He was living in a room upstairs a burnt-out concrete and steel building on Oxford Street in one of the grittiest parts of downtown Kingston. The thick wrinkles and deeply etched lines on his face said very loudly that age had been unkind to him. By that time folks knew him simply as "Old Man —— ", and although the man who took me to see him spoke about him in glowing terms, as if he was some ... Read More



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