In Focus

Libel Reform joint select committee member Horace Chang was especially poignant in Parliament last Tuesday as the House passed the long-overdue report of the committee. "Freedom of expression is not synonymous with freedom of the press, as the press in the modern world is not free but very much part of the business elite."

It is generally felt that the powers of a prime minister in the Westminster system are too great. Jamaica has some useful test cases of this, and they are evident right now. Mr Golding was one who thought prime ministers had too much power. So, he opted for a separation-of-powers model.

In the November 14-20, 2010 edition of The Sunday Herald, attorney-at-law Stokeley Marshall argued that there could be a possible legal link between whipping, obeah and duppy tourism.

Consumers play a critical role in stimulating competition among suppliers. Unless consumers are sufficiently informed and purchase goods from only suppliers who meet their demand for high-quality, affordable products, suppliers will have insufficient incentives to compete.

Looking at the economy through rose-coloured lenses, we see the success of the Jamaica Debt Exchange (JDX) in easing the burden of debt servicing by stretching out maturities and lowering interest rates on a restructured domestic...

Now here is something that the departed John Maxwell and I could actually agree on. Almost exactly a year before his death, John wrote on Sunday, December 13, 2009 one of those classic Maxwellian bashers.

If you want to tempt the Jamaican media with irrationality and unreason, mention the issue of libel reform. They have absolutely no resistance in that regard. The Media Association Jamaica (MAJ) Ltd and the Press Association of Jamaica (PAJ) are unabashed and unrestrained in the defence of their special interests.

Act I, Scene I. A mother with a young baby has just learnt that the child has sickle-cell disease, diagnosed by newborn screening.

The continued debate regarding Jamaica's energy future is indeed very timely, particularly in the face of rising oil prices on the world market.

History has a way of repeating itself, as if to remind us that it is here to stay.

Jamaica has one of the highest rates of police killings in the Western Hemisphere, according to an Amnesty International statement.

The prophet Jeremiah, agonising over the difficulty of trying to liberate a person's mind rather than his body, asked in the 13th chapter of his book: "Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?" Two thousand years later, the question remains relevant; and it is made current by those unwise Jamaicans bleaching in quest of a lighter shade of skin.