Jamaica Gleaner Commentary
Published: Monday Sunday | March 8, 2009
EDITORIAL - Time for hard decisions
If there is any good in last week's downgrade by Moody's, the rating agency, of Jamaica's sovereign bonds, it is the effect it might have in strengthening the resolve to fashion a budget with elements that, otherwise, might have been politically unpalatable. Read More...
An 'F' for education-financing policy
State financing of education has to be a major item of deliberation for Cabinet as it deliberates the next budget, for three reasons: education is supposed to be one of the soundest public investments; it is the sector receiving the largest share of the budget (13 per cent of the 2007-08 Budget); it is the main vehicle for transformation of the society and the economy. Read More...
Corruption in the spotlight
Jamaica is covered by a blanket of corruption. As with so many other negative things, Jamaica joins Guyana and Haiti among Caribbean countries at the bottom of the rankings for control of corruption on the index of the World Bank Institute, and we are in the company of Cuba, as well as near the bottom on the rule-of-law index. Read More...
Insults and red herrings
Far be it for me to seek to interrupt the very important activities of very busy, important people. But the Jamaican taxpayer is entitled to and should demand an answer to the very simple questions, "How did my asset in Clarendon Alumina Production (CAP) that was worth some US$500 million 15 years ago... come to be worth a negative US$250 million, or thereabouts, today? Does it mean I have suffered a capital loss of over US$1billion?". Read More...
The mother of all laws
Abe Dabdoub must be commended for bringing to the nation's attention the issue that some of our lawmakers possibly are themselves lawbreakers. The constitution of any country is the highest law of the land. The authority for all other laws springs directly from the constitution. Read More...
