Commentary

Hurricane Melissa’s violent winds tore through this house.
12 Nov, 2025 0

SSP Diaries | Protecting our lifeline in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa

I HAVE seen death and destruction throughout my life but what has been experienced in Western Jamaica because of Hurricane Melissa cannot be described in mere words. The loss of life, the greatest of…
Auditor General Pamela Monroe Ellis
11 Nov, 2025 0

Editorial | Real-time audits warranted

The decision by the auditor general (AuG) to conduct real-time audits of foreign aid to Jamaica in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa is a welcome move that need not add bureaucracy to, or delay, the…
Indigenous peoples perform at a plenary session at the COP30 UN Climate Summit in Belem, Brazil, on November 10.
11 Nov, 2025 0

Elizabeth Morgan | Climate Change (COP30) and CARICOM

FROM STUDIES now done, Hurricane Mellissa is being assessed as the third most intense Atlantic/Caribbean hurricane when it made landfall on Jamaica’s southwest coast on Tuesday, October 28. Some…
A banana and plantain field in Elderslie, St Elizabeth, that was wiped out by Hurricane Melissa.
11 Nov, 2025 0

Norris R. McDonald | A storm of crises: Hurricane Melissa and IMF budget woes!

“Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows!” —William Shakespeare, The Tempest SHOULD JAMAICA continue to pay the International Monetary Fund (IMF) while its people starve in the wake of the…
The United Nations Climate Change Conference COP30 in Belém, Brazil.
10 Nov, 2025 0

Editorial | Looking towards Belém

As Jamaicans continue to dig their way out of the massive disaster left by Hurricane Melissa, this newspaper is also paying attention to the COP30 climate conference in Belém, Brazil. For what happens…
This photo shows a part Oxford community in St Elizabeth ravaged by Hurricane Melissa.
10 Nov, 2025 0

Michael Abrahams | Why we need to follow the money

Last week, the presidents of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), the Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association (JMEA) and the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce (JCC) wrote a letter to…
10 Nov, 2025 0

Gordon Robinson | Old BC in Digihell

Bad news comes in threes as Melissa, then her aftermath, were two of the worst but now the Old Ball and Chain is outraged at Digicel. So we’ve no choice but to experience a third storm.
Commander Alvin Gayle, director general of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management.
09 Nov, 2025 0

Editorial | ODPEM in risky times

Unless the recommended restructuring of the government’s disaster management system was only for a change of its top leader, last week’s shake-up at the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency…
This photo taken on November 3 shows a collapsed fence, uprooted powerlines and trees at Ferris Primary School in Westmoreland.
08 Nov, 2025 0

Editorial | Melissa exposes the Jamaican state

Melissa, the horrendously intense category 5 hurricane that smashed through western Jamaica nearly a fortnight ago, did not simply tear up infrastructure and take lives. Although plenty of that…