YOU LEARN a lot working alongside the world’s greatest humanitarian actors during the greatest humanitarian crisis to hit modern Jamaica. One of these lessons is the importance of the careful and critical selection and coordination of the necessary...
As we observe the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, we are reminded that building an inclusive Jamaica begins with acknowledging the everyday barriers many citizens face. This year’s theme, “Fostering disability-inclusive...
An estimated 1.3 billion people experience significant disability. This represents 16% of the world's population, or 1 in 6 of us. In the Caribbean, there are over one million persons living with some form of disability – this amounts to...
People with disabilities are transforming societies — leading innovation, influencing policy, and mobilising for justice. Yet too often, they are denied a seat at the decision-making table. The Doha Political Declaration, adopted at last...
THERE IS a quiet revolution in Jamaican homes, not loud enough to make headlines, but powerful enough to reshape a generation. It is not driven by activism, legislation, or community change. It is driven by exhaustion, economics, shifting values...
OVER THE last few years, this column has addressed the relationships between CARICOM and Venezuela, CARICOM and the USA, and within this hemisphere generally. CARICOM’s foreign policy was also addressed, principled or transactional. Having looked...
Education minister Dr Dana Morris Dixon should formally embrace, and expand, the initiative of the opposition parliamentarian, Damion Crawford, of pairing students in parishes badly hit by Hurricane Melissa with host schools and foster families in...
Whitehouse, Westmoreland. Westgreen, St. James. Content, Manchester. Nearly one month after Hurricane Melissa, these and other communities across western Jamaica are still drying out. Parents now warn their children to avoid the “rat water...
Leptospirosis is a zoonotic (spread from animals to humans) disease with epidemic potential, and it is caused by a spiral-shaped bacterium (spirochete), Leptospira interrogans. Human-to-human transmission occurs only very rarely. More than one...
I couldn’t suppress a chuckle when I learned that both political parties cancelled their annual conferences. According to Party spokespersons the cancellations happened because they were concentrating on relief work post Melissa. Right…. It took...
Having recommended the creation of a special purpose vehicle to guide the post-Hurricane Melissa rebuilding of western Jamaica, The Gleaner continues to support Prime Minister Andrew Holness’ decision to establish a National Reconstruction and...
The United Nations Population Fund states that the Caribbean has the highest incidence rate of reported AIDS cases in the Americas. With between 350,000 and 590,000 Caribbean people living with HIV/AIDS, the region has an adult HIV prevalence...
Today, as we observe World AIDS Day, we are called to embrace the powerful theme of “Overcoming disruption, transforming the AIDS response”. This call resonates deeply across our Caribbean region, not as a mere slogan, but as a...
This World AIDS Day reminds us that we have the power to transform lives and futures, and end the AIDS epidemic once and for all. The progress we have made is undeniable. Since 2010, new infections have fallen by 40 per cent. AIDS-...
This is not a time to spar with the major supplier and monopoly distributor of electric power. The company says they need at least US$350 million to fast-track restoration. That’s double what the Cabinet has agreed to lend. Government expects...
The aftermath of Hurricane Melissa has revealed more than just infrastructural damage – it has uncovered a dangerous pattern of preventable household tragedies. In the weeks following the storm, the Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB) reported that about...
This newspaper is grateful that there hasn’t been a serious fire at any of Jamaica’s growing number of high-rise buildings, so as to test the integrity of their construction, or the capacity of the island’s firefighters to adequately respond to...
My visit to Jamaica this week comes just over a month after Hurricane Melissa – the strongest storm ever recorded here – swept across the island, leaving devastation in its wake. I will be visiting the western parishes that bore the brunt of the...
The current geopolitical environment is arguably not conducive to pursuing reparations for slavery and colonialism. But Africa and its diaspora in the Americas, the Caribbean, and Europe continue to make headway, with a focus not only on seeking...
Ignorance can be fatal. Panicked demagogues drew attention to a pond teeming with tadpoles. In a viral video, thousands of little black creatures wriggling and darkening the water. They were so plentiful that J$100 for each single animated dot...
With the omission of five small words, “transition away from fossil fuels”, from its final Declaration, COP30 sentenced Jamaica and other small islands and low-lying coastal states (SIDS) to an early and costly demise. The headline out of COP28 in...
Over the years, human beings have been extremely inventive and creative in discovering, inventing, or improving / developing things that are extremely useful to us as a race. Although we (collectively) bask in our scientific achievements, and lord...
While her Cabinet colleagues have hogged the show, talking about everything – from its economic impact to plans for recovery, Fayval Williams, the finance minister, has been peculiarly quiet in the month since Hurricane Melissa devastated western...
We are in an era of overlapping crises – global financial instability, widening inequalities, and escalating climate shocks, among others, which compound the challenges faced by people living with and most affected by HIV globally. The devastation...
When Hurricane Melissa struck last month, the natural expectation would have been for the island’s local government authorities to be quickly on the frontline, among the first responders, providing relief to people in their jurisdictions. They...
