Reshaping Our Corner of the World: Love and Sandwiches

April 21st, 2015

It’s easy to dismiss something that you know little or nothing about as irrelevant. Now, I am guilty of this myself (and probably not for the first time). I am about to make amends. While talking to young (frighteningly young) entrepreneur and founder of EduFocal Gordon Swaby online not long ago, I poured cold water […]

Read More...

Class, Gender, Tribalism… It’s Sports in Jamaica

March 31st, 2015

As we all know, sports is woven tightly into the fabric of Jamaican society. Some Jamaicans live and breathe the stuff. Isn’t it a component of “Brand Jamaica”? When it comes to “Champs” (the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association/ISSA Championships) as it’s affectionately called, passions run high. It’s the largest high school track and field meet in […]

Read More...

World Water Day: Our Cities Are Thirsty

March 25th, 2015

Yesterday (March 22) was World Water Day. In years gone by, this might have seemed like just another of those “special days.” It might have been greeted with a shrug. Water? Why worry about water? Well, in 2015 I think we are taking water a lot more seriously. The Jamaican media love to call it “the […]

Read More...

Corruption Kills

March 17th, 2015

Just as the sun set over the UTech campus this evening, the Chair of Transparency International (TI) José Carlos Ugaz made this dramatic assertion. The steadily growing audience (and it was a very decent-sized crowd, including many young people) sat up and took notice. The occasion was the University of Technology (UTech)/National Integrity Action (NIA) […]

Read More...

The Silent Community

March 9th, 2015

Sometimes the news overwhelms you, doesn’t it? It has not been an easy week for Jamaicans. Let us focus on two specific incidents, in the midst of a sea of crime and violence: the murder of two girls, Santoya Campbell in Westmoreland and Kayalicia Simpson in St. Thomas. The two cases have much in common: […]

Read More...

Making The Case, Over and Over: On The Pathway to a Green Economy

February 24th, 2015

It was Kermit the Frog who sang, in that lugubrious voice of his: “It’s not easy being green…” For the Caribbean, it appears, it has not been easy so far to persuade regional governments and private sectors that greening our economies is the way to go. Speaking at the Caribbean Green Economy Conference 2015 in Kingston […]

Read More...