Commentary

Gleaner editorial writes: This shift toward consumption-oriented spending is understandable. But it is also a warning. Unless capital spending execution improves, Jamaica risks underinvesting in the very reconstruction that will power its medium-term recov
December 2025

Editorial | Surviving the crisis

Before October 28 when powerful Hurricane Melissa wrecked the west of the island, Jamaica was on a path of modest, but encouraging, recovery from the impact of hurricane Beryl of 2024. Inflation had…
In this file photo, a group of students  is seen standing at their school gate.
December 2025

Ronald Thwaites | Astonishing turnarounds

There is one state in the US where they calculate the number of prison cells needed in 15 years time by checking the number of male students leaving grade 3 who cannot read. We could do the same.…
Michael Abrahams writes: Calls for such broad-based oversight have also been made by the Opposition, civil society, journalists, social commentators, vloggers and others, but the pleas have fallen on deaf ears.
December 2025

Lloyd Barnett | Duties and responsibilities of parliamentarians

Historically and universally the elected representatives of the people have been regarded as constituting the critical agents for the control of arbitrary government. An early and famous…
Houses in the Brompton Manor development destroyed by Hurricane Melissa.
December 2025

Christopher Burgess | Rebuild housing in western Jamaica

Almost six weeks ago, Hurricane Melissa devastated western Jamaica and exposed long-standing inequalities. It damaged 190,000 homes and hit the most vulnerable — families in board houses on leased and…
Comments
December 2025

Garth Rattray | The paradoxical desocialisation by social media – Part 2

I am a huge fan of the WhatsApp social media platform. I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit that I get hundreds of messages daily. WhatsApp was especially helpful in maintaining stability, connectivity,…
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December 2025

Orville Taylor | Delicate balances

Sometimes the lines between competing positions can become so blurred, that one wonders if the ultimate objective can be accomplished. Two persons jumped to the front of the news last week. Member of…
Don Anderson
December 2025

Don Anderson | WI batters show value of applying themselves

Current West Indies cricket captain Roston Chase was recently quoted as saying, after a series of poor batting performances by the WI test team, that the real challenge for the team was the weaknesses…
Gleaner editorial writes: ... the obligation of making "accessibility and inclusion more than a catchphrase” belongs, both in law and as a moral imperative,  primarily to the Government ...
December 2025

Editorial | Equality for persons with disabilities

In marking the International Day for Persons with Disabilities earlier this week, Pearnel Charles Jr, the labour and social security minister, stated a truism. The days of discussing this subject, or…
Dr. M. Audrey Stewart-Hinchcliffe, CD, JP, BA, M.Sc., DBE (h.c.), Chairman of Manpower & Maintenance Services (MMS) Limited Group
December 2025

Audrey Stewart-Hinchcliffe | After Hurricane Melissa – Understanding sanitation vs sanitisation: A public health dilemma

We will agree that the passing of Melissa, a Category 5 Hurricane, on Tuesday, October 28, 2025, has again brought us to a place akin to where we were during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. It is a…