Should the PNP be doves or hawks?

Jamaican Opposition Leader Portia Simpson-Miller’s fiery speech at the People’s National Party’s annual conference this weekend has already sparked criticism.
 In an editorial today, the Jamaica Gleaner stated:
But responsible criticism can never be confused with the kind of demagogy displayed on Sunday. It was an outrageous performance with alarming implications for Jamaica and the PNP.
The editorial [...]

Is JA as homophobic as we think…I think not.

This post was spurred by this article in this week’s International edition of Newsweek called Land of Reggae and Homophobia which looks at the much-discussed homophobia of Jamaica.
Now having lived in Jamaica for a few years, I think Mr. Contreras is overstating the situation. I am not at all trying to make excuses for JA’s homophobia [...]

Poor, Poor QEH…

This morning’s post, over at Barbados Free Press got me to thinking about my own experience with QEH.I spent a number of nights in QEH last year, as well as attended the maternity clinic there.Late in my pregnancy I was admitted overnight for observation as an existing heart murmur became increasingly noisy. I laboured and delivered [...]

31-29…cyan done so?

Well as you can see here on the Jamaica Observer’s elections site, the results in JA’s elections – 31-29.
Not good. Not good at all. A result this close can only bring more political tension.
Not surprisingly, PNP leader Portia Simpson-Miller has refused to concede. Excerpts from her speech (as reported by an intrepid poster on Caribbean [...]

10-1 is murder but what about 30-30?

Hopefully, it won’t be so. Jamaicans go to the polls today, the conclusion of a protracted elections campaign- eight weeks! I never was convinced it should have been so long and Sista P may well live to regret it.
After Hurricane Dean, the state of emergency, the increasingly ominous polls which foretold an increasingly close election [...]

Our prayers are with them…

The prayers of all Barbadians must surely be with the Codrington family in Brittons Hill, whose home caved in yesterday in the wee hours of the morning. Apparently the apartment block which they had recently moved into was built over a well-known cave system. Yesterday the roof of the cave beneath their unit’s foundation, just [...]

Competition is bad…at least for CBC apparently

So as a cultural observer (and someone with an unused, government paid-for degree in the cultural industries) I was very excited by the Barbados PM’s announcement earlier this week that the long-mooted Festivals and Events Bureau would be taking over running of the Crop-Over festival from next year. This is to allow the NCF to focus [...]

The Jamaican dichotomy…an American analogy

Jamaica is the most conservative island in the Caribbean.
Sounds pretty rich coming from a Bajan doesn’t it? Considering that Barbados is usually considered the most conservative island in the Caribbean, ‘little England’ and all that.
But really it’s Jamaica even though it is considered the most radical and outspoken island in the region. But JA in [...]

In Praise of Old Schools

What with the scholarship results announced last week (lion’s share to BCC once more) I think this is a most appropos time to resurrect this article from my other blog…
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The other day, I was at Queen’s Royal College in Trinidad to do a story on that school’s contribution to West Indies cricket (a dozen WI [...]