In Focus

Dudus was saying nothing we in Jamaica never knew when he pleaded guilty to criminal charges in the United States (US) last week. In fact, we know those were relatively petty crimes compared to the atrocities and barbarism which characterised his ruthless rule over that incredibly monstrous and murderous Shower Posse.

The economy is slipping again just when some growth was reported for the first two quarters of the year. That growth followed 13 consecutive quarters without growth. Now, we hear that the next quarter might report flat performance, at best. Jamaica's team had secretly hurried off to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in August.

Jamaica has, within the past year or two, asserted a renewed commitment to prudence, discipline and accountability in its fiscal affairs. The specific vehicle of this renewed commitment is the February 2010 standby borrowing agreement (SBA) with the Inter-national Monetary Fund (IMF).

Ideology in word and description is missing from the newly launched Progressive Agenda of the People's National Party (PNP). The party admits to deliberately excluding a discussion of ideology. There is no reference to democratic socialism. I think there are two reasons for this.

Jamaica's next minister of finance would have received an object lesson in how not to conduct himself in the leadership of the management of the economy, if that individual had been paying close attention to the approach of the present minister, Audley Shaw.

In 1941 when Wilfred Adolphus Domingo went to New York Harbour to board the American vessel Veragua, on its way to Jamaica, he had been resident in the United States (US) for 31 years.

The People's National Party (PNP) launched its Progressive Agenda on August 17.

Wat a devilment a Englan!

It's an indication of our backwardness, appalling intolerance and bigotry that an ad calling for "unconditional love" of our homosexual family members and friends is unlikely to be shown on local television because the stations are just too scared to show leadership in this area.

Karl Samuda sat at the centre of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and its government for three years. But after those short years, he was shunted off to the margins of power and is probably now staring over the precipitous edge. His political life in the JLP now appears very short.

When the black, green and gold went up on midnight August 5, 1962, this island was unknown and insignificant to most of the world, and even to those who lived here the word, 'Jamaica' evoked little emotion.

Who'd have thunk it? The mighty United States (US): the bastion of world capitalism, the country whose currency has been the medium of exchange and measurement of value that undergirds world trade, and whose debt has been capital's safest haven since the gold standard, has been downgraded as a debtor.