Hire principals on fixed-term contracts
No one could, with credibility, argue against Prime Minister Bruce Golding's observation several weeks ago that Jamaican taxpayers do not get value for what they spend each year on education which, in the...

Public affairs: Underestimating our crisis
An intense debate has erupted around the details of the $547-billion Budget. The deficit which remains unfinanced is about $55 billion. Government operational expenditure as well as the capital budget will have to be to cut to the bone. There will have to be at least a freeze on public-sector wages. - Don Robotham

Culture, liberation and fertility rituals
I told you so. There is a massive return to and celebration of pre-Christian paganism in so-called 'Christian' cultures. An important element of pagan culture is the fertility ritual. - Martin Henry

Diminished Caribbean leverage
The countries of the Caribbean will this week get their turn at the Summit of the Americas to be held in Port-of-Spain to frame the issues affecting the region as a result of the worst global economic crisis in over 60 years. - Dennis Morrison

On the road to dictatorship
Imagine you are driving on the road anywhere in Jamaica. As you know, here we drive on the left, but all of a sudden a driver decides that he can't wait and starts speeding down the right hand side of the road and crashes into your car. - Lambert Brown