Living Online with Humans and Birds: NAOC 2020

August 12th, 2020

In this COVID-19 life (yes, we’re “living with COVID,” aren’t we?) I, for one, am mostly living online. Whether it’s writing blog posts, posting on social media, or attending Zoom meetings, I spend a lot of time in front of a screen. It is actually quite tiring, sometimes. But I am staying home. This is […]

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Cockpit Country: Is It Really All About the Boundaries?

November 29th, 2019

Ceiling fans whirred and night sounds crept through the windows of the Webb Memorial Baptist Church in Stewart Town, Trelawny earlier this evening. A Town Hall Meeting was in progress, streamed live on Facebook on the websites of the sponsors, the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica (EFJ), the Public Access Channel (PAC) and the Jamaica Gleaner. […]

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Young Scientists in Jamaica Need “More Love”

November 26th, 2015

How can we nurture science and technology in Jamaica? How can we inject a new vigor and build genuine support for the sector? A couple of recent conversations gave me pause for thought. A few days ago I attended a discussion co-hosted by the University of the West Indies’ (UWI) Biotechnology Centre and Katalyxt on […]

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Action, Not Words: Pericles Maillis Likes to Get Things Done

July 31st, 2015

Pericles Maillis is an extraordinary man, and as his first name suggests, a great fighter and champion (the ancient Greek Pericles is normally portrayed with his helmet firmly on his head). I had the honor of meeting him, if only briefly, at the BirdsCaribbean 20th International Meeting in Kingston, which ended yesterday (July 29th). The […]

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The Summer of Youth

July 9th, 2015

The long, hot summer of 2015 stretches ahead of us. We are entering a deep drought. How are our young people going to spend those endless hours? The summer vacation is remarkably long, and only a small minority of young Jamaicans are lucky enough to travel or even to get out of their neighborhood for […]

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Bringing Back the Humanity to Tourism

June 2nd, 2015

Tourism is Jamaica’s “bread and butter.” Right? At least as far as foreign exchange is concerned. It makes up roughly 30 per cent of our GDP, which is not to be sneezed at. Despite ongoing crime and violence (which would be a major turn-off for me, quite frankly, if I was a tourist) Jamaica is […]

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