Jamaica and the economic tsunami
The managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had to travel all the way from Washington to lecture us on some basic economics. It was sorely needed. For all the media had been reporting and commenting that, inexplicably, while developed countries were cutting interest rates, we were raising ours.
People-empowered crime fighting
For all the sound and fury pontification of the hanging debate, international trends make it extremely unlikely that Jamaica will ever again execute murderers. Yet we keep ignoring common-sense ways to make our country a safer place by empowering the people to fight crime.
Higher education at crossroads
The problem began unexpectedly. This year is the 50th anniversary of the University of Technology (UTech). The institution was established in 1958, to begin to meet the expected need for technology arising from the emerging manufacturing sector. Also, the mining sector was then on the verge of entering an industrial phase.
Needed: Crisis governance
The Jamaican economy has been in recession since March 2008, according to the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN). This means we will be having our Christmas in a recession. Yet, in a recent national broadcast, the minister of finance Audley Shaw told the nation that the economy was not in a crisis at all.
Bright future for science and technology in Jamaica
On December 2, I read a Gleaner editorial, which commented on the number of graduates of the University of the West Indies (UWI) in science and technology "Competitive economies demand of their workers, the ability to master technology and manipulate information."
