School sacrifice

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008

Ever on the lookout for the curious news story, I read in yesterday’s Sudonline of a new outbreak of mass hysteria at a Dakar secondary school. The first occurrence had been last Friday when some 90 students had experienced “hysterical” symptoms of screaming, trembling and falling into a trance-like state. Of the group, 88 were […]

Hold the front page

Monday, October 22nd, 2007

Another place, another great headline. Whereas my previous favourite headline from Jamaica was a classic in understatement, the front page headline in our local paper in The Netherlands this week was a gem of a different sort:
Man falls off bike
A 57-year-old man from E— was injured on Tuesday morning when he fell off his bike […]

Postlapsarian PNP: After the fall from grace

Friday, September 28th, 2007

The recent general election in Jamaica was a close run between the People’s National Party, in power for 18 years, and the Jamaica Labour Party. While at least one of the sixty seats remains to be decided by the courts, the JLP still managed to squeeze past the incumbents with a four-seat majority.
Politically motivated violence […]

Jamaica rundown

Friday, March 9th, 2007

The opening match of the Cricket World Cup (CWC) 2007 takes place on Tuesday 13 March, at Sabina Park, here in Kingston. Throughout the last year, the complaints and criticisms of the organization of the event have dominated all discussions about the World Cup — lack of Internet access for pre-booking tickets, closure of public […]

One step forward, two steps back

Wednesday, March 7th, 2007

The first item on the 8 o’clock news on CVM TV this evening was the parliamentary committee debate on the Offences Against the Person Act, in particular, marital rape. This might seem like old news in other parts of the world, but here in Jamaica, there remain laws left over from Victorian times that are […]