In Focus

Almost 100 years ago, E.F.L. Wood, undersecretary to the British secretary of state, after participating in a three-month tour of almost all the British isles to assess the feasibility of regional integration, reported:

Peter Phillips lost it last Tuesday evening. Badly. Stung by a charge from government Member of Parliament Gregory Mair that he was a CIA agent, Phillips, after wailing that government members had put in danger the lives of himself and his family, threatened, "Mr Speaker, let them come, because I can deal with all of them."

This is the third and final segment of a three-part series on the state of the furniture and woodworking industries in Jamaica.

The Government of Jamaica is to be congratulated on raising US$400 million in the eurobond market. Coming a year after a painful restructuring of domestic debt, and with concerns about heightened debt in a context of protracted economic contraction, the achievement is even more remarkable.

When Dorothy Lightbourne declared that she heard about Manatt, Phelps & Phillips' involvement with the Government of Jamaica only when Peter Phillips made the revelation in Parliament, many were willing to believe her, even though her ignorance had a ring of incredulity to it.

Two trends in political studies of the past 40 years are captured by the titles, What Makes Democracies Endure and Why Men Rebel. Scholars have tried to find out how democracies emerge, survive and consolidate themselves. They had thought that there was a wave of democratic consolidation following the rebellion against military regimes from the 1970s and the fall of communism post-1990.

Jamaica is not the only developing country feeling the effects of rapid globalisation in the furniture and woodworking industries. I thought it would be of interest to share the challenges of the Jamaican industry - including the issue of globalisation - and what companies here are doing to fight back.

Most developing countries, like Jamaica, are characterised as rural nations, based on the greater part of their populations living in the rural areas and who are engaged primarily in agricultural enterprises.

In November 2010, UNAIDS released its report on the global AIDS epidemic. This very important and eye-opening report has provided the needed information for every nation to revise and reaffirm the world's commitment to conquering the scourge of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Jean-Claude Duvalier is back in Haiti. The worst fear is that the Duvalierists there are trying to take advantage of the confusion and political vacuum since the unbelievably bad decision...

Columnist Devon Dick, writing with a tone of absolute authority, may have unwittingly delivered half-truths that do not add up to a whole fact.

Whenever there is an announcement by the minister of labour of an increase in the national minimum wage, it has always sparked a controversial debate about the appropriateness of the increase.