WORLD VIEW: Good journalism is like a toothache: it hurts but it warns
REPORTERS Without Borders (RWB) just released its 2018 press freedom report, and, apart from two of them, the lowest mark for rated Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries is “fairly good”. The worst rated, as “problematic”, are Haiti and Guyana. Jamaica is the only CARICOM country rated “good”.
EDITORIAL: Jeff Lloyd's discipline is overdue
LAST week PLP chairman Fred Mitchell lost his way in the murky world of “right and wrong” when he turned his anger on a government minister who was doing his job by letting certain government employees know that their days of cheating the taxpayers of this country are over.
EDITORIAL: Health of Bahamian people must come first
YESTERDAY, The Tribune reported that all but five striking nurses — they officially called it taking “sick leave” — had returned to work after walking out on patients and a hospital that anywhere else would have been condemned for not being up to acceptable standards.
Diane Phillips: And the award for gross stupidity goes to . . .
If there were profit to be earned, some savvy entrepreneur would create an award that rewards the dumbest ideas ever. The scheme could work just like other awards, except it would be funnier. Like this letter which I received a little while back. It was sent to me by a well-known retailer.
CULTURE CLASH: Don’t be blind to Cosby - the criminal
Most of us know Bill Cosby as Heathcliff Huxtable. He is a doctor married to lawyer Clair Huxtable and father of five children. He is a funny, playful character with endearing eccentricity. Everyone loves Cliff, and wishes he could be their father. The Cosby family was aspirational, and The Cosby Show gave us somewhere to be when our own lives, homes and families did not quite manage to bring us joy.
EDITORIAL: A presidency like no other, Trump wasn’t kidding
With the election of Donald Trump as US president, many American observers learned for the first time that many government ethics and nepotism rules do not actually apply to the Chief Executive himself. Rules makers apparently assumed anyone elected president would treat the office with the utmost respect, as Barack Obama did.
FACE TO FACE: Lessons of life learned around the water pump
Take a slow drive through any Over-the-Hill community and you will find a water pump. It’s a necessity in an area where there are still homes without infrastructure for running water.
RICHARD COULSON'S BUSINESS BITES: Blacklisting – why not fight back?
I have just read press reports that another bill has been tabled in the House to avoid blacklisting, by satisfying - better read “appeasing” - the European Union (EU) in its campaign to extract full compliance on tax matters.
EDITORIAL: Environment Minister on Right Track with Plastics Ban
If Minister of Environment and Housing Romauld ‘Romi’ Ferreira accomplishes nothing more in his five-year term of office, he will still have had a remarkable impact on the future of The Bahamas through his single act of banning single-use plastics by 2020. Ferreira made the announcement during a press conference along with the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers’ Confederation on April 23.
EDITORIAL: Could Bahamas learn from Singapore?
SPEAKING at the CEO Network conference at the Melia Nassau Beach hotel last week, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis told his audience that the Bahamian economy had grown by about 2.5 percent in the past year, which, he said, could possibly signal its best growth in ten years.
A COMIC'S VIEW: Life's a riot with Spy Bill vs Spy Bill
LAST week, the ironies of the FNM administration took centre stage. This week, their “hypocrisy” is back for a cameo appearance. THE “SPY BILL” After branding it as a “Spy Bill” during the election campaign, and using it as a major talking point,
EDITORIAL: Opportunities from the Commonwealth
The events surrounding last week’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in London were remarkable for their grandeur and splendour, and, judging from the communique at the end of this biennial conference, it was notable for the wide range of issues covered during its deliberations over several days. No doubt, the warm spring-like weather contributed to the mood of goodwill and harmony enjoyed at the gathering.
DIANE PHILLIPS: Three cheers for the Commodore and his crews
There is a lot that many of you out there know about me. I’m the other side of middle age and stuck with too much energy for my own good. I say what’s on my mind. I have had a lifelong love affair with words and secretly confess that I spend ridiculous amounts of time thinking stupid thoughts like which is a better example of a double-middle-consonant verb that sounds like what it means, hobble or cobble. When you say the word hobble you immediately think of someone bent over, struggling for the next step. But when you say cobble as in cobbling a… anyway, you get the picture.
EDITORIAL: Corruption must be stamped out
TWO years ago then DNA leader Branville McCartney expressed amazement to Tribune Business that government MPs and their leading supporters seemed to justify corruption. It has “almost become a culture,” he complained.
CULTURE CLASH: Corruption is not just in high office, it’s all around us
At the G20-OECD conference, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Yury Fedotov said: “Corruption is a global threat. It is a serious roadblock to economic development. Corruption aggravates inequity and injustice and undermines stability, especially in the world’s most vulnerable regions.”
