In Focus
The Maroons are a distinct but divided people. Some Maroons find their national identity through full membership of Jamaican society as Jamaican nationals, engaging in Jamaican cultural life, sharing as Jamaicans in the pleasures and pains of...
Comments
Drone footage and satellite images taken after Hurricane Melissa revealed a landscape littered with wreckage - trees stripped bare, vegetation ripped from the ground, roofing sheets, doors, windows, furniture, bedding, and every possible object...
The arrival of 117 Canadian electrical linesmen to assist the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) in restoring power after Hurricane Melissa has been greeted with official smiles, airport photo-ops, and an oddly incurious media tone. We are told...
This comes with the most bold-faced audacity; The Jamaica Public Service (JPS) claiming seven per cent increase in electricity rates. What makes this so jarring to the nerves is what went down before. As I previously stated, JPS is 80 per cent...
When the winds died down and the floodwaters receded, what remained was not only broken infrastructure, but broken routines, broken security and broken peace of mind. And yet, our recovery discourse still treats mental health as secondary, optional...
Some time ago you either bought or were gifted, probably by a spouse or parent, a different type of telephone. It was shaped like a half oval. It wasn’t attached to the wall. It could fit in your pocket. All you had to do was flip it open, punch in...
Trinidad and Tobago (T...
Driving into West Green, Montego Bay, the damage from Hurricane Melissa even a month later was still unmistakable. Dried mud crusted the roadway and, in front of almost every house were piles of damaged furniture, appliances, and mattresses -...
So, last week ( A very Private Public Service) I complained about the reaction to my critique of the JPS “loan”. I wrote: “….I’m told to shut up because I’m safe in Kingston and don’t feel what western-based Jamaicans feel.... Based on this puerile...
Jamaica’s public procurement system was built to protect taxpayers and ensure value for money. But, alongside these strengths sits a stubborn problem: delay. Too often, our own rules slow us down, dulling the impact of the very projects designed to...
In recent times, I have had conversations with persons with disabilities and others within the society about the Disabilities Act that has been enacted in Jamaica. Some of these individuals have concluded that the legislation is not impactful on...
In 2019, as Hurricane Dorian literally sat on Abaco in The Bahamas (between 27 and 36 hours) and achieved a consistent 185mph, none could know that it was sending a message to Jamaica about the monster to come: Melissa in 2025. Old-time Jamaicans...
If you travel far enough into St Catherine, past the bustle and the quick talk of the capital, you’ll find Wood Hall. It’s a quiet place, the kind of community where yards feel like open hands and children learn early that neighbours are family....
With winds stronger than those required for Category 5 designation, Hurricane Melissa made landfall in New Hope, Westmoreland, on October 28. Forecasts pointed to eastern Westmoreland and western St Elizabeth, but the storm shifted at the last...
The quote by John Muir ‘When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.’ or by Chief Seattle, that “All things are bound together. All things connect”, is in every way the reality of the environment....
So, after the fact, Jamaica learned that Government decided to take US$150 MILLION of our money out of the Consolidated Fund to “lend” to JPS. Let’s try to contextualize. First and foremost this “loan” sum represents about 0.8% of Jamaica’s GDP. So...
