Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI), particularly with releases such as ChatGPT, BingAI and CaktusAI, give the impression that educators can be replaced. In fact, one Internet survey showed that 64 per cent of respondents believe...
Many, many years ago, a type of trousers called a ‘Sister Boy’ reached the Caribbean market. The difference between the ‘Sister Boy’ and other pants was that it had a short, ornamental, buckled belt at the back. Seeing a schoolmate wearing one, I...
One of the reasons the popularity of the Andrew Holness administration is plummeting is their high-handed approach to governance and their resistance to genuine consultation with the Jamaican people. This is playing out right before our eyes in...
It is heartening that there is a counter-argument that Jamaica’s business process outsourcing (BPO) sector will not only survive the advance of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, but thrive in it. The only thing is that the optimism...
The Church is and has always been very influential in the formulation of laws and policies, purportedly for the good of society. Through its usual advocacy and campaigning, it has managed to put up striking defences for the buggery law, laws...
In the event it was needed, Jamaicans last Saturday were again reminded that they live in an active earthquake zone. A magnitude 4.9 earthquake, whose epicentre was 17 kilometres northwest of Yallahs, St Thomas, in the island’s southeast, was...
THE PNP and JLP are agreed. Our specialised educational institutions must continue to pursue the win-at-all-costs approach to sports. After all, it has produced the recently ended world-acclaimed Champs and exciting schoolboy football competitions...
I AM unapologetically a ‘90s child. That decade was the greatest in the history of mankind. From music to fashion to culture, it seems society peaked in the ‘90s, then went over a precipice right after. Who remembers rayon shirts and baggy Karl...
Labour Minister Karl Samuda got it wrong. So, too, did Robert Morgan, the information minister, who usually has good instincts of what is politically advantageous for the Government and his party. If Mr Samuda has not yet changed course, he should...
French President Emmanuel Macron has angered America and her European allies by warning them not to allow America to draw them into a war with China over Taiwan. “Europe must not be a vassal to America’s US-China conflict,” Monsieur ‘Le Poulet...
The forum of emerging economies, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS), is very much in the news. There is much global interest in the economic developments in this group, especially as it relates to creating an alternative...
The Gleaner editorial of March 29 made reference to the origins of the Integrity Commission, the act that establishes and governs that entity, and the position of the Opposition with respect to it, on which I wish to shed light. This is necessary...
Even after last week’s first public disclosure of the matters on which it is already agreed, it remains unclear how the Constitutional Reform Committee has structured its work and its timetable for delivering its report to the Government. This...
It appears Chris Tufton can’t stop thinking about Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) or, more precisely, ways to avoid accepting responsibility for that expensive public health shambles. On March 10, he was marking a new steam boiler installation at...
The late appointment of Elaine McCarthy to the committee reviewing Jamaica’s constitution will be interpreted as a move by the Government to appease the anti-LGBT rights lobby and people who are against liberal abortion laws. If this is indeed a...
April is being observed as Venous Month. One of the most common and troubling vascular diseases involves our veins. Veins carry blood back to our heart. As a rule, they transport deoxygenated blood. The only exception is the pulmonary vein (which...
Read the Letter of the Day in last Wednesday’s Gleaner from two teachers pleading for understanding of the horrible deficit of learning and behaviour standards among school youths in the wake of COVID-19. We were losing a high proportion of that...
One of my favourite Anansi stories has a stinging moral about greed. It’s one of the many tales recorded by the American anthropologist Martha Beckwith who did research in Jamaica between 1919 and 1922. Her collection, Jamaica Anansi Stories, was...
It is surprising that Delroy Chuck, the justice minister, is resistant to amending the law to narrow the pool of people exempt from jury duty. He apparently believes that the crisis of courts being unable to find sufficient jurors can be solved...
In recent times, an expressive saying has developed among the populace that ‘Jamaica is not a country, it is a place’. They say that too many of the usual attributes of a country are absent from this land of ours. When questioned, they explain that...
Do not muzzle the ox, that is grinding the grain (1 Timothy 5:18). Oxen are cattle, generally male and believe me, if you approach them from the wrong end, you have to deal with a lot of bull chips. Bovine species have served man for centuries. And...
The past two years have been the most health-conscious period in recent history. One only has to give a “pandemic baby” a bottle of sanitiser and they will automatically rub their hands together. Mask wearing and the awareness of droplets and...
Making justice equal to all Jamaicans is a work in progress. Impatience with the slow advancement of that ideal has caused various sectors of society to clamour for criminal justice reform. Concerns range from access to bail, the lack of jurors, to...
I was astonished, recently, to be told by one of the representatives of the Caribbean on the board of the World Bank (WB) that Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, St Kitts-Nevis and Trinidad and Tobago, should not expect any change in the...
The Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw, believed, “If you want to tell people the truth, you’d better make them laugh or they’ll kill you.” This is why I write a humorous column. Then the Spanish philosopher, George Santayana, took it from...
