Tourism’s Fragility Exposed

February 29th, 2020

I am not an economist (and I may well be corrected by my friend and fellow blogger Dennis Jones, who is!) but recent developments have given me the sense that Jamaica depends too heavily on two areas: Tourism and Bauxite Mining (an unsustainable activity – how much longer do we plan to go on mining? […]

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Port Royal: A Rebirth or a Reinvention?

January 27th, 2020

I have mixed emotions about the little town of Port Royal. It is now undergoing some kind of transformation, due to the development of a (floating) cruise ship pier in the mangroves just north of the town itself. What is the future for the town, its beleaguered environment, and the livelihoods of its residents? It […]

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Road Safety Seems to be More About Roads Than People. Correct Me If I’m Wrong.

January 17th, 2020

I tuned in to a live stream of a two-day conference co-hosted by the World Bank and the WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities in Washington, DC this week. It is an annual event under the umbrella of Transforming Transportation 2020. This year’s theme was “Connecting People for Sustainable Growth.” So, how did the agenda look? […]

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Is Jamaica a Secular Democracy?

January 3rd, 2020

Our son is traveling in India at the moment, so we are looking at what is happening there. In my previous post, I discussed the ever-increasing habit of certain governments – shutting down the Internet at times of social or political unrest. This has been happening across India in the past few weeks. The situation […]

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2019: A Year of Internet Shutdowns, Disinformation, and Distrust

December 28th, 2019

2019 has been the year of “Internet shutdowns.” No, I am not talking about Jamaican companies that fail to deliver the services that we pay for. I am talking about shutdowns initiated by governments that are afraid of their own citizens. The Internet has become the lifeblood of many societies in almost every country you […]

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Celebration Time at IDB Caribbean

December 7th, 2019

Jamaicans know how to put on a great show – and how to do it right. When I arrived at the headquarters of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) (actually in my neighbourhood), I imagined that the 50th anniversary of the bank’s presence in Jamaica would be – well, a bit stiff. How wrong I was. […]

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