Jamaica Gleaner In Focus

Published: Monday Sunday | March 8, 2009

Jamaica's losing battle with corruption
Jamaica ranks 96 out of 180 countries in Transparency International's 2008 Corruption Perception Index, with only Guyana, Haiti and the Dominican Republic ranking lower in the region. Between 2006 and 2007 alone - just one year - Jamaica fell from 61st to 84th place, and last year we tumbled even a farther. Read More...

Jamaica as an international financial centre
It has long been a topic of discussion, the potential for Jamaica to be established as an international financial services centre (IFSC). The proposed benefits are clear: job creation, increased government revenue, real estate development, diversification of Jamaica's economic base, and an increased presence of Jamaica on the international financial market. Read More...

Broadcasting Commission: Don't change course
The Broadcasting Commission should not change course. They will make mistakes; perhaps, they have made mistakes. That is the story of all human endeavour. If truth be told, I remain convinced that they fell into procedural error on at least one occasion recently. Read More...

Michael Manley: nation-builder
Michael Manley died on March 6, 1997. He still speaks to us, first through The Politics of Equality, a collection of 17 budget presentations delivered in Parliament from 1969 to 1991 as leader of the Opposition and prime minister. Read More...

Fiscal budgets (Part I) - Prepayment of bauxite and alumina earnings
As the two major long-term alumina contracts Jamaica has entered into over the last 23 years have been tied in one way or the other to prepayment arrangements it would be useful to provide some information on (a) the raison d'etre for having prepayment arrangements; (b) the factors which influenced the terms of these contracts... Read More...

Investment schemes - Religion or biology?
Canute Thompson's article 'Investment schemes and fundamentalist thinking' (February 22) in this newspaper was certainly thought-provoking. He observed that "A good many of the investors in Olint (like many other such former clubs) were church people, many of whom classified as fundamentalist." Read More...

Anansi, Miss Lou and the 'raw chaw' argument
Rigidly upstanding citizens are quite upset with me because I've brought the uncomfortable issue of language into the conversation about dancehall culture and public morality. I've been accused of 'anancyism' for diverting attention from the 'real' issue: the need to clean up 'raw chaw' dancehall lyrics on the public airwaves. Read More...