Editorial

Go after tax dodgers instead

Go after tax dodgers instead

TODAY we return to the issue of that most cruel, unconscionable and unprincipled tax to be ever imposed by a government — the withdrawal fee, or 'ATM tax'. We find it difficult to believe that even the International Monetary Fund (IMF) would have asked for such a tax as part of any agreement ... Read More

ATM tax a wicked act! ATM tax a wicked act!
QUITE frankly, we didn’t believe a word of Finance Minister Dr Peter Phillips’ declarati ... Read More

Minister Dr Fenton Ferguson Great value in green spaces
HEALTH Minister Dr Fenton Ferguson often reminds Jamaicans of the challenge posed by non-communicabl ... Read More

Vendors and shoppers crowd a section of Beckford Street in downtown Kingston last December. (PHOTO: GARFIELD ROBINSON) Income inequality breeds resentment
Inequality of income and wealth is not good for societies because the disparity in standard of livin ... Read More

JADCO must do more

Saturday, April 19, 2014    

Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell-Brown takes the applause after winning the women’s 100 metres at the Jamaica International Invitational in 11.01 seconds at the National Stadium in Kingston on May 4, 2013, after which she provided the sample which was said to have tested positive for HCT.

MR Carey Brown and his new board at the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO) were presented with a grand opportunity, we believe, to begin rebuilding the trust deficit with the nation's athletes, following disclosure by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) of the agency's deplorably slack urine sample collection systems. Sadly, they blew it. Readers will recall that the decorated Mrs Veronica Campbell Brown had the tenacity, and the wherewithal, to successfully challenge the process whic ... Read More

Mrs McCalla's wisdom; Mr K D Knight's folly

Thursday, April 17, 2014    

Chief Justice Zaila McCalla (right) addressing the launch of three projects aimed at improving justice and human rights services for Jamaicans at the British High Commission in Kingston, last Thursday. The projects have received $52 million in funding from the delegation of the European Union in Jamaica. (PHOTO: MICHAEL GORDON)

CHIEF Justice Mrs Zaila McCalla can be cast in the mould of the typical judge. She does not jump mouth first into public debates. The chief justice has singularly helped our faith in the justice system by her utterances at Monday's swearing-in of five judges to the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court by Governor General Sir Patrick Allen. In her very pointed remarks, she reminded judges that while they were independent in the performance of their judicial duty, they were accountable to the p ... Read More

Chaos without change at the World Bank

Wednesday, April 16, 2014    

Chaos without change at the World Bank

THE appointment of Mr Jim Yong Kim by the United States Administration as president of the World Bank has come as a surprise because he is an academic with no financial expertise, no development policy experience, and no administrative track record. His lack of pertinent qualification was supposed to be his asset allowing him to bring a fresh approach to the leadership of the World Bank. Instead, what we see is a Bank now mired in a vortex of chaos without producing any positive change. As ofte ... Read More

‘Stupid idea of the year’ award to Minister Paulwell

Tuesday, April 15, 2014    

Phillip Paulwell

'Stupid idea of the year' award to Minister Paulwell So, Mr Phillip Paulwell, the minister of energy, wants to reward the people who steal electricity — a criminal act — with a monthly flat rate of approximately $2,000. The idea, he told the Standing Finance Committee meeting last week, is to have these people develop the practice of paying for the service until 2016 when, according to him, new capacity will come on stream. At that time, he added, those people will be called upon t ... Read More

Poor governance on show at Port Royal

Monday, April 14, 2014    

The unfinished structure of a house being built by a squatter among mangroves and acacia trees close to the Caribbean Sea in Port Royal. (PHOTOS: KARL McLARTY)

COUNCILLOR Lorraine Dobson says she is "aware" that there is "a growing migration problem, in terms of squatting" in historic, world-famous Port Royal. Further, she is aware of the links between squatting, such as has been taking place in Port Royal, and crime/social delinquency. Note her words: "If you have these people coming, then other things will follow." So we are left with no choice but to ask why Ms Dobson, the elected local representative of the people of Port Royal, has done nothing ... Read More

Dr Norman Girvan, intellectual warrior

Sunday, April 13, 2014    

GIRVAN… the bedrock of integration must be a sense of a community of identities

Jamaica, and indeed the Caribbean, has every reason to mourn the passing last week of Dr Norman Girvan, professor emeritus of the University of the West Indies (UWI). At a time when the Caribbean Community needs it most, we have lost a great regionalist, integrationist and intellectual warrior of the highest order. An economist by training, he received his Bachelor's degree in Economics from the then University College of the West Indies and his PhD in Economics from London School of Economics ... Read More

Valuable lesson from a sad episode

Saturday, April 12, 2014    

POWELL... this ruling is not only unfair, it is patently unjust

We suspect that the recent exoneration of Mrs Veronica Campbell-Brown will have encouraged Mr Asafa Powell and Miss Sherone Simpson in their stated determination to contest their 18-month doping-related suspensions at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. We would expect that the issues will be very carefully explored by the athletes, their handlers and lawyers before a final decision is taken. Another Jamaican, of far less prominence, Olympic discus thrower Ms Allison Randall, was also handed a ... Read More

Gov't must not bow to road hogs, terrorists

Friday, April 11, 2014    

Man held in latest attack on JUTC buses

If you go by the complaints, the Government went about the reorganisation of the public transportation system in a most high-handed fashion. Some people will agree with that analysis, others won't. What we all can't deny, however, is that, outside of the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC), what has been operating here is the Wild West of bus systems. We would be surprised to find a motorist or commuter in Kingston who has not experienced the rampant indiscipline displayed by minibus, Coaster ... Read More

Nice jab, Boxing Board

Thursday, April 10, 2014    

Nice jab, Boxing Board

LAST week, the Jamaica Boxing Board of Control (JBBC) did our country and the sport of boxing proud, by reversing the decision giving victory to Barbadian Christopher "Shaka" Henry over Jamaican Glenroy 'Bumpy' Beckford in the April 2, 2014 Wray & Nephew Contender bout. This action by the JBBC might well have saved the future of the Contender television series which we have commended in this space for reigniting interest in boxing and for inviting boxers from the wider Caribbean to compete ... Read More

Poor water supply unacceptable

Wednesday, April 09, 2014    

Poor water supply unacceptable

Jamaicans are so habituated to poor government over the last 30-40 years that we have come to accept inadequate standards for state-provided services such as in education, security, water, roads, health, public transportation and the like. The key functions of a government are to keep law and order within its boundaries, protect its borders from invasion by external enemies and create and maintain the conditions for human survival and hopefully human development. The availability of adequate s ... Read More



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