All entries by this author

In a Time of Crisis Jamaica Must Look for Opportunities

May 14th, 2010 | By Peter Edwards | Category: Analysis, Headlines

It would seem that every day we wake up and open the newspapers, turn on our radios and watch the television Jamaica’s problems appear to be spiraling out of control.  If it isn’t the recent drought and water crisis it is the rising cost of living.  If not these crises, then it is the current [...]



Wanted: A Supreme Leader

May 12th, 2010 | By Michael Spence | Category: Letters

Jamaica is suffering from a credibility problem and that is affecting every aspect of our lives locally and internationally. As the late prime minister, Michael Manley said, “They lie, they lie,” referring to the opposing political party. But the truth is they all lie! The present Mannat, Phelps and Phillips affair and past Trafigura scandal [...]



It Is Not About Greg Versus Paula

Mar 28th, 2010 | By Orville Plummer | Category: Opinion

The Joseph Hibbert- Mayberry Johnson case demonstrates the usefulness of Contractor General Greg Christie’s proposal. In January 2009, the Contractor General announced that he had started investigations concerning allege corruption against Mr. Hibbert, after Britain ‘s Serious Fraud Office visited Jamaica to probe the allegation against Mr Hibbert. In October, some nine months after, the [...]



Fund Spins Positive Face on Ja Deal

Feb 5th, 2010 | By Mark Lee | Category: Headlines

The International Monetary Fund has put out a video that sells its new $1.25 billion agreement with Jamaica in a positive light. Past agreements in the 1970s and 80s resulted in severe hardships on wage earners, as public sector jobs were cut, social services reduced or eliminated and public assets sold.



IMF Approves $1.25 billion Stand-by Loan to Jamaica

Feb 4th, 2010 | By Mark Lee | Category: Business, Headlines

The International Monetary Fund has approved a US$1.25 billion loan to support Jamaica’s economic reforms and help the country cope with the consequences of the global financial crisis, Trevor Alleyne, the IMF’s mission chief to the island announced in Washington, Thursday. Alleyne said the executive board approved the loan Thursday and the period to be [...]



Puppets of the IMF

Feb 4th, 2010 | By David A. Comissiong | Category: Opinion

David Comissiong, president of the People’s Empowerment Party (of Barbados) argues that the island and other Caribbean countries are becoming puppets of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and marginalising their vulnerable populations.



Rex Nettleford – Country Boy to Urbane Icon

Feb 3rd, 2010 | By Mark Lee | Category: Arts & Leisure, Headlines

His is another of the stories of country come to town; the boy who left his dirt poor rural community for the brighter lights of his country’s tourist city of Montego Bay for his secondary schooling, who ended up an Oxford Rhodes scholar and then becoming head of the Caribbean’s premier institution of higher learning, [...]



To Rachel Maddow: On the State of the Union

Jan 26th, 2010 | By Doug Halsall | Category: Headlines, World

The USA’s bubble has burst (or is at best losing air fast). To further compound this, the USA continues to prosecute wars it can ill afford. Main Street is convinced that President Obama has access to some economic and other leavers which, in less than a year, should have been effectively manipulated to reinstate the old status and magically decrease unemployment. But think again



Caribbean, Central America Recovery Lags Behind Asia’s – IMF

Jan 26th, 2010 | By Mark Lee | Category: Business, Headlines, World

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has painted a more optimistic view of the global economy in its latest World Economic Outlook (WEO) and its Global Financial Stability Reports but officials say Latin America and Caribbean growth is still at pre-crisis levels. “In 2010, world output is expected to rise by 4 percent,” the WEO report [...]



Haiti’s Lesson – As Seen by Fidel Castro

Jan 19th, 2010 | By Fidel Castro Ruz | Category: Analysis

Two days after the catastrophic earthquake that devastated the Haitian capital, Cuba’s former president, Dr Fidel Castro, wrote the following observations on the event that has shaken the world and has fast become a circus of “me first”.