Hurricane Melissa’s vastly different human and infrastructural impact between eastern and western Jamaica has continued into the early recovery stages. There is another, far less obvious, disaster divide that is affecting some of the most...
In many ways, it has to be more than just what you feel about me and significantly deeper than that. It has to be much more than that. I want to feel an intense connection. Closer than it could ever be. Somewhat more tender than anything could ever...
Despite most of us having no clue where the time went it seems another new year is upon us. The thing about time is that it not only flies but changes direction, fortunes and perspectives while doing so. Time is multi faceted. And relentless. For...
Jamaica’s prolonged mistreatment of Haitian migrants is often defended in the language of capacity, sovereignty, or political realism. Yet five years on — and now brutally exposed by Hurricane Melissa (a manmade weapon of mass destruction without...
“… I will uncover your skirts over your face, That your shame may appear …” was spoken by God to the prophet Jeremiah about ancient Israel. Is this exposure applicable to post-disaster Jamaica? Hurricane Melissa making landfall on October 28...
Jamaica has agreed to a number of international agreements that bind it to providing an accessible and inclusive environment for persons with disabilities. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and the...
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...
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 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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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 -...
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...
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....
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...
When the president of the United States (US) announced that he was closing the airspace of Venezuela, I got the proverbial whiplash. With intense war threats a daily occurrence, this kind of escalation was expected. However, the bold declaration...
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...
Climate change is a pressing global issue, and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) like Jamaica are among the most vulnerable to its devastating impacts. At the start of the 19th century, the human population exceeded one billion for the first...
Neither Government nor private developers should continue taking over Jamaica’s good farmlands with either simple or sophisticated housing schemes. The use of highly productive agricultural lands for housing should be severely restricted and...
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...
