Columns

What does it mean to be a justice of the peace?

According to the Ministry of Justice, a justice of the peace (JP) is a person of unquestionable integrity who seeks to promote and protect the rights of the individual and helps to provide justice to persons in a particular community. Additionally, the JP serves as a justice in petty court sessions ... Read More

If he beats you, he does not love you If he beats you, he does not love you
I am no Pollyanna, and I am not even sure whether that is good or bad. I just prefer every day to c ... Read More

Members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force in action. Can we really entrust the JCF with the anti-gang legislation?
SOME weeks ago I listened with great interest to Mr Delroy Chuck, a Jamaica Labour Party member of p ... Read More

What a difference! Edith Dalton James High students Natasia Reid (sitting left) and Brihana Allison try out the new school furniture donated to Food For the Poor Jamaica’s (FFPJ) School Furniture Campaign by the Spanish-Jamaica and the Solo Jamaica foundations. Sharing the moment are (from left): Tristan Garcia Alvarado of Solo Jamaica Foundations; Andrew Mahfood, chairman of FFP Jamaica; Celsa Nuño, Spanish ambassador to Jamaica and president of the Spanish-Jamaica Foundation; Shaliese Dawkins, president of the St Catherine High School Spanish Club; Roy Finson, principal of Edith Dalton James High School; and Dr Rebecca Tortello, general manager, Spanish-Jamaica Foundation. Cheques totalling $2,380,400 were presented on Friday, March 7, 2014 and will cover the cost of 1,150 sets of desks and chairs. 'Out of Many One' strong
PROFESSOR Anthony Chen's address at the reopening of the Chinese Cultural Association (CCA) Sunday b ... Read More

Need for transparent, rational debate on Chinese investments

CLAUDE ROBINSON | Sunday, March 09, 2014    

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 the benefits to be derived from the US$1.5 billion investment and a potential 10,000 jobs. Many environmentalists and other critics say yes to the investment but no to the location. They recite the p ... Read More

Political street forces co-operated against the wishes of the JLPNP

Mark Winall | Sunday, March 09, 2014    

ZEEKS… thanked by the leadership of the PNP for keeping downtown Kingston out of the fray of the April 1999 gas riots

IN the late 1990s when super spy Roderick 'Jimmy' McGregor was appointed by then Commissioner of Police Francis Forbes to head an intelligence-gathering outfit called the Special Intelligence Unit (SIU), 'Jimmy' went to sea on wiretapping the phones of senior policemen, politicians, well-known political activists with suspected criminal links, and community dons otherwise known as 'area leaders'. Based on written transcripts of taped conversations I saw after the SIU was suddenly shut down (t ... Read More

For God's sake, Ms Hylton, step aside

HG HELPS | Sunday, March 09, 2014    

HYLTON… under fire for comments made at the 2001 West Kingston Commission of Enquiry (right) ISAAC… chaired the 2001 West Kingston Commission of Enquiry

JAMAICA has had its share of challenges with the dispensation of justice. And in all of the cries about how justice ought to be executed, comes a familiar saying that justice must not only be done, but must appear to be done. The latest brouhaha regarding the composition of the Commission of Enquiry that will preside over the Tivoli Gardens incidents of 2010 is again threatening to further divide the warring political tribes of Gordon House and with it, throw the whole business of trust and co ... Read More

No political mockery, pleas

KIMBERLY WILSON | Sunday, March 09, 2014    

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)

Here we go again, another enquiry into a past event that may result in nothing but an elaborate expenditure of taxpayers' money, comedic release, a façade of civil justice and political expediency. There arose a need for an enquiry after the long-awaited public defender's interim report recommended an investigation into what really took place during the Tivoli Gardens incursion of May 2010. The recommendation for an enquiry came about following the death of at least 73 people, according ... 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



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