The argument for SMRs as a “green economy” solution, when applied to a seismically active, debt-constrained, institutionally thin, tourism-dependent archipelago, becomes not merely optimistic but epistemically negligent. The book by Jorge Morales Pedraza and its successor paper are useful as catalogues of what SMR technology hopes to become. They are dangerous as blueprints for what Jamaica should do.

My old friend Everald “Warmy” Warmington deserves a patient answer. His reported contention that white people did not capture Africans, but merely bought people whom black people had captured, contains both a historically untenable generalisation and a conclusion that does not follow from its premise. Some African rulers, merchants and intermediaries participated knowingly in the slave trade. Their conduct deserves scrutiny and condemnation. But... Read More Online

Four services. Four amens. No preliminary theological examination. Let us resist cheap conclusions. Those timings were my observations of one encounter, not controlled measurements of comparative intelligence. Network conditions, service configuration and other variables were uncontrolled. Neither did four agreeable replies prove that the systems had independently reached a theological conclusion. The word “Amen” ordinarily carries assent. On a screen, generated by an AI serv

After all these years, I have reached a conclusion that is at once technically conservative and politically audacious: Jamaica could, with sufficient political courage and structured capital reallocation, become substantially energy-self-sufficient by 2031. Let us look at the cold arithmetic To transition Jamaica’s power sector to an integrated, storm-hardened, green energy system by 2031 requires deploying approximately US$2.15 Billion in capital over five years... Read Mo

Failure can be an expensive tutor, but sometimes an excellent one. Ours drove me to spend considerable time examining why our venture did not succeed and, thereafter, to study tourism—not as a triumphant hotelier dispensing wisdom from some Olympian height, but as a chastened and intensely interested outside observer trying to understand how this enormous global industry actually works. Who owns what? Who controls what? Where does the tourist dollar enter?... Read More Onl

Our grievance is legitimate. Our memory is necessary. Our demand for justice is neither begging nor charity; CARICOM itself frames reparatory justice in terms of recognition, accountability and transformation. But beyond grievance lies a nobler embraceable possibility. Let Britain atone — not by paying backwards, but by helping the Caribbean move forwards.

This is not an argument for indiscriminate punishment of contemporary Britons. Quite the contrary. It is an invitation to British institutions to investigate themselves honestly, and the documentary ground for doing so is unusually solid. Legitimate standing to negotiate reparations should belong to the injured and their descendants, not to intermediaries who have discovered a profitable enthusiasm for ancestry, rural Jamaican-accented vocabulary and darker complexions. Ima

There is an “F” word being spoken across Jamaica. I shall not print it. A Christian pulpit should not need profanity to tell the truth, and a national argument should not require obscenity to make itself heard. But there is another reason for my restraint: the unprinted word is less important than the material breakdown that has produced it. The word is being generated by frustration. By fear. By favouritism. By failure... Read More Online

I learned to swim in Portland. Not in a hotel pool. Not behind a resort gate. Not after producing a credit card, booking a room, or asking permission. My grandfather, Lester Maylor, taught me to swim in Jamaica’s sea. I was Jamaican. The sea was there. I went to the beach. Six decades later, I find myself asking a question that my grandfather never needed to ask: WHO OWNS JAMAICA’S BEACHES? Tourism is vital. Investment is important. Visitors are welcome. But tourism can

The question is not whether the enslaved created wealth. They did. The question is whether the beneficiaries of that wealth ever fully compensated its unwilling producers. They did not. And if the debt was never repaid, then the moral and institutional question remains: Who still owes—and what would genuine repayment look like?

A democratic State requires institutions, experts, journalists, academics, civil servants, opposition politicians and citizens willing to identify danger before danger becomes disaster. Their responsibility is not simply to possess information. It is to interpret it honestly and communicate it intelligibly. A trumpet that makes an uncertain sound defeats its very purpose... Read More Online

“If the judges cannot get along, how can we trust them to settle our disputes?” That question may be unfair. But it is real. And public confidence is not built by telling citizens that they are foolish for asking difficult questions. It is built by answering those questions. I therefore write this not as an opponent of the CCJ but as a Caribbeanist who desperately wants it to succeed. I want the CCJ to become the trusted final court of the Caribbean. I want our child

I have known many rivers, and I remember the stellings of Guyana and Suriname: crowded ferries, diesel-scented air, brown currents, shared food, laughter, prayers—and strangers becoming family before the opposite shore appeared. I also remember the shiver beneath the laughter: those anxious moments when a vessel stalled upon a Corantijn River bar and we were reminded, quietly, of the awesome power of the water. Today, that memory becomes a dirge for those lost... Read More

Her immediate objective should be admission to the strongest affordable undergraduate institution she can realistically enter, preferably one possessing excellent science programmes, research opportunities, medical-school preparation, accessible professors, and sufficiently generous financial aid that her mother is not financially crippled by the undergraduate years. During university, Kerlene can discover whether she is primarily... Read Online

Consider the case of British historian Orlando Figes, who admitted using aliases to praise his own work as ‘fascinating’ while rubbishing that of his rivals. A senior editor at The New Republic used a sockpuppet to offer extravagant praise to himself on his own blog. These were not harmless deceptions; they were calculated attempts to distort professional judgement and public perception. ECONOMIC DIMENSION Now, consider the implications for financial markets. In an era where

There is a fundamental difference between systemic corruption and state capture. Corruption ordinarily involves an individual bending or breaking a rule for private advantage. State capture is far more consequential: it occurs when powerful private interests, commercial cartels, or political networks become sufficiently influential that they can shape the rules, institutions, appointments, and public narrative by which everyone else must live. Corruption distorts the game;

Tomorrow, however, is the busiest liar on Anansi’s Island. It is always approaching, never arriving. It promises high-value employment that degenerates into temporary subcontracts; national ownership that dissolves into long-term concessions; open market competition that hardens into private monopoly; and national development that somehow requires ordinary insects to remain permanently outside the great milker's gates. The pre-dawn milking invariably begins with public

The prevailing economic model in Jamaica is not development; it is a meticulously structured extraction. It is a system of “billioneering” off Jamaica by money-men, rather than investing in Jamaica. To understand the mechanics of this modern economic bypass, one must examine the structural pipelines of our two most critical national domains: tourism and energy.

'A photograph decorates a wall; knowledge equips a life. If this difficult episode encourages Jamaica to invest more deeply in literacy, numeracy, teacher development, early intervention and genuine educational equity, then something valuable will emerge from this disappointment. Educational equity does not mean pretending that every child has reached the same destination. It means ensuring that every child receives the support necessary to get there.'... Read More Online

Much of the enthusiasm surrounding SMRs is driven by future promises rather than present performance.