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Editorial | Delcy Rodriguez’s brooch
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Editorial | Delcy Rodriguez’s brooch

Delcy Rodriguez knew her brooch was provocative. That she wore it wasn’t merely a diplomatic faux pas

opinion
Peter Espeut | Contempt for the people
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Peter Espeut | Contempt for the people

“People shouldn’t be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people”

opinion
Kristen Gyles | Civic engagement or ‘donmanship’?
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Kristen Gyles | Civic engagement or ‘donmanship’?

After some years of muddy communication and mixed signals coming out of parliament on the use of body-worn cameras (BWCs) by our police, it is finally becoming clear. Apparently, the issue was never over whether or not the JCF should implement the use of BWCs, but over who gets to use them

opinion
Natalia Webber-Smith | Land a nuh escallion and thyme
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Natalia Webber-Smith | Land a nuh escallion and thyme

In Jamaica, we may have heard the phrase “land a nuh escallion and thyme”. This saying has been handed down through generations as a reminder that land is precious, limited, and should never be taken for granted

opinion
Louis E.A. Moyston | Where have all the PWDs gone?
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Louis E.A. Moyston | Where have all the PWDs gone?

Those persons who were born before Independence and probably a decade after 1962 will readily understand the acronym PWD which, of course, is the Public Works Department. I thought about the PWD the moment I heard about the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority (NaRRA)

St. Thomasopinion
Editorial | CARICOM and Caracas
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Editorial | CARICOM and Caracas

Delcy Rodríguez’s charm offensive in the Caribbean, and her promotion of a Venezuela-Barbados partnership on renewable energy, highlight the need for the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to fashion a coherent framework for its relations with Caracas, as well as to finalise its long-discussed regional energy policy. Jamaica has a stake in these matters, not least because of the unresolved issue of Venezuela’s 49 per cent stake in the Petrojam oil refinery, which the Holness administration re-nationalised six years ago

Kingstonopinion
Ruthlyn James | Masculinity under pressure: The hidden curriculum of violence
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Ruthlyn James | Masculinity under pressure: The hidden curriculum of violence

A recent school incident unsettled the country, not only because a boy was physically assaulted on camera, but because of what the explanation seemed to permit. In the school’s public statement, the assaulted student was said to have admitted taking items from a group of boys, and the matter was described as having led to “an altercation”

opinion
Dennis Blake | Jamaica is losing its classrooms — and we are all to blame
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Dennis Blake | Jamaica is losing its classrooms — and we are all to blame

Jamaica is facing a crisis that can no longer be softened with polite language or buried beneath statistics. Violence has moved from the streets into our classrooms, and, in some cases, our schools now mirror the very communities they were meant to transform

opinion
Editorial | CARICOM and Caracas
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Editorial | CARICOM and Caracas

Delcy Rodríguez’s charm offensive in the Caribbean, and her promotion of a Venezuela-Barbados partnership on renewable energy, highlight the need for the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to fashion a coherent framework for its relations with Caracas, as well as to finalise its long-discussed regional energy policy. Jamaica has a stake in these matters, not least because of the unresolved issue of Venezuela’s 49 per cent stake in the Petrojam oil refinery, which the Holness administration re-nationalised six years ago

Kingstonopinion
Ruthlyn James | Masculinity under pressure: The hidden curriculum of violence
GLEANER

Ruthlyn James | Masculinity under pressure: The hidden curriculum of violence

A recent school incident unsettled the country, not only because a boy was physically assaulted on camera, but because of what the explanation seemed to permit. In the school’s public statement, the assaulted student was said to have admitted taking items from a group of boys, and the matter was described as having led to “an altercation”

opinion
Dennis Blake | Jamaica is losing its classrooms — and we are all to blame
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Dennis Blake | Jamaica is losing its classrooms — and we are all to blame

Jamaica is facing a crisis that can no longer be softened with polite language or buried beneath statistics. Violence has moved from the streets into our classrooms, and, in some cases, our schools now mirror the very communities they were meant to transform

opinion
Leroy Fearon | Dress the part, win the week
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Leroy Fearon | Dress the part, win the week

There is a quiet discipline that often goes unnoticed at the start of a work week. It is not found in meetings or reports or strategic plans, but in something far more routine

opinion
Dean Jones | 80 per cent of homes uninsured in Jamaica
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Dean Jones | 80 per cent of homes uninsured in Jamaica

…Hurricanes exposed it. The numbers confirm it

opinion
Editorial | Searching for an SG
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Editorial | Searching for an SG

It is urgent that the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) engineer a sensible solution to the impasse over the extension of the mandate of its secretary general, Carla Barnett. At this point, that solution increasingly appears to be Dr Barnett’s dignified exit from the post

opinion
Elizabeth Morgan | A global state of distress
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Elizabeth Morgan | A global state of distress

Last week, this column looked at the oil crisis triggered by the US/Israel war with Iran, which started on February 28. This has led to the blockading of the Strait of Hormuz by both the USA and Iran

opinion
Norris R. McDonald | America and CARICOM’S psychology of ‘glad dependency!’
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Norris R. McDonald | America and CARICOM’S psychology of ‘glad dependency!’

Dr Eric Williams, in From Columbus to Castro, warned that the Caribbean suffers from a crippling psychological dependence that shapes every aspect of life – economic, cultural, and political. Centuries of colonial subjugation, he argued, left the region perpetually looking outward for validation and resources

opinion
Rabbi Yaakov Raskin | My friend Hugh Hart: A legendary figure with a huge heart
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Rabbi Yaakov Raskin | My friend Hugh Hart: A legendary figure with a huge heart

On Thursday, April 16, I got a notification that former senator and government minister Hugh C.E. Hart had passed away at age 96

opinion
Ryan Reddie | The violation of sacred and social spaces
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Ryan Reddie | The violation of sacred and social spaces

The recent killing of a young woman near a place of worship in Montego Bay, associated with the New Testament Church of God community, represents more than an isolated criminal episode. Rather, it reflects a widening pattern of violence that now threatens not only public streets but also schools, transport spaces used by children, and even environments traditionally regarded as sacred refuges

St. Jamesopinion
Editorial | External audit for NSWMA
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Editorial | External audit for NSWMA

There are some people who, intuitively, possess extraordinary insights, emotional intelligence, organisational skills and a capacity to absorb and process information, that make them, despite lack of formal training, excellent managers. Such a combination of gifts is rare

opinion
Gordon Robinson | A luta continua
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Gordon Robinson | A luta continua

Pundits worldwide are speculating on who’s winning the war between USA/Israel and Iran/Lebanon. Donald Dumdum keeps saying he obliterated Iran’s military assets and already won the war

opinion
Michael Abrahams | Exposing a ‘rape academy’
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Michael Abrahams | Exposing a ‘rape academy’

In September 2020, French police arrested a man named Dominique Pelicot for secretly taking photographs beneath women’s clothing (upskirting) in a supermarket. Unfortunately, that was just the tip of his enormous iceberg of depravity

opinion
Ronald Thwaites | Are they civil and do they serve?
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Ronald Thwaites | Are they civil and do they serve?

Senator Sherene Golding Campbell gets it. Her piece titled ‘The personal responsibility revolution needed in the public service’ was brave enough to confront a major cramp of governance and productivity – the inability of every government to get done what has been promised and paid for by the Jamaican people

Kingstonopinion
Lloyd Barnett | Selecting Jamaica’s final court of appeal
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Lloyd Barnett | Selecting Jamaica’s final court of appeal

In the discussions respecting constitutional reform, the question of selecting Jamaica’s final appellate court has probably been the most contentious. In fact, it has threatened to frustrate the entire constitutional reform programme

opinion
Editorial | Dr Chang is wrong
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Editorial | Dr Chang is wrong

Because he knows better, this newspaper is repeatedly taken aback by Horace Chang’s demonisation of civil society and other organisations that insist on accountability by the police, including that they wear cameras on operations, especially those that carry a higher risk of injury or death of citizens. There is a perception that the national security minister’s behaviour is an attempt at moral blackmail

opinion
Anthony Clayton | Can we solve traffic congestion?
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Anthony Clayton | Can we solve traffic congestion?

The worsening traffic congestion in Kingston has been the focus of much attention recently. The problem results from a combination of factors: • There are four times more vehicles on Jamaican roads today than there were 20 years ago, so the urban road network is now far more congested

Kingstonopinion
Christopher Burgess | Jamaica’s J$35-billion congestion problem
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Christopher Burgess | Jamaica’s J$35-billion congestion problem

For motorists across Jamaica, the last few weeks have been horrendous. Gridlock and rising fuel prices from tensions in the Middle East have made commuting both time-consuming and expensive

Kingstonopinion