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Sports, culture must play role in youth development |
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Saturday, 23 August 2008 |
The Caribbean region and its Diaspora, and Jamaicans in particular, are beyond themselves with pride and excitement at the performance of the region’s athletes at the current Beijing Olympics. Congrats to all the athletes from the region who have excelled so far at the Olympics.
It is fitting that our Caribbean athletes are excelling at this time, not just because of the thrill of seeing our fellow country men and women on the winning podium and hearing our national anthems play as they collect their gold medals, but because of the vast potential that sports have for social and economic development in these developing countries, which many of us call home. We, and the regional leaders, have grown accustomed to wringing our hands in despair trying to figure out how to deal with the problems related to limited opportunity for the region’s youth and the often related problem of rising crime. |
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Politicians should come clean about themselves |
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Monday, 18 August 2008 |
What do we expect of the people who run for public office? Is the
quality of their personal life as important as the potential they show
for improving our (and our children’s) standard of living? These
questions loom large as news of former presidential candidate, John
Edwards’ marital infidelity is revealed.
News of Edwards’ 2006 extra-marital affair is not unique to him.
Several presidents were alleged to have extra-marital affairs. These
include William Jefferson (who had several children out of wedlock),
Franklyn D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Bill
Clinton. And, these are only the presidents whose infidelity we are
aware of. Others may have succeeded in keeping possible affairs secret.
What is characteristic of the presidents we are aware of is that
despite their infidelities, they were all remarkable, competent
leaders. Thus, the fact that they cheated on their wives, and could be
said to have moral flaws, didn’t make them any less capable of running
these great United States.
Although some people may be able to forgive these leaders their
inability to withstand the temptations of the flesh, they find it
difficult to forgive or forget those that lied. Bill Clinton was
brought to Congress to face impeachment proceedings, not because of his
affair with Monica Lewinsky but because he lied that he “did not have
sexual relations with that woman, Ms Lewinsky.”
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Sunday, 10 August 2008 |
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Whoever thought that the issue of race and racism would not raise
its ugly head and become a major factor in this presidential election
campaign must be in eternal hibernation. From Barack Obama announced,
almost two years ago, that he was running for president, race has been
an issue. Race, despite efforts to keep it under wraps, became front
and center as the Senator from Illinois won primary after primary to
clinch the nomination. It continues to be an issue as Obama contends
with Republican, John McCain for the presidency.
Some people
really did believe McCain when he said last April that he would be
staying away from a negative political campaign because the American
people were tired of that and wanted a campaign where the two
candidates would focus on the issues.
However, ever since Obama
embarked on a highly visible trip to Europe and the Middle East,
particularly pulling a crowd of over two-hundred thousand at his speech
in Berlin, Germany, not only has McCain turned negative, but downright
silly as well.
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Over Jamaica’s 46 years – both pride and shame |
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Saturday, 02 August 2008 |
Congratulations to Jamaica and Jamaicans on the island’s 46th
anniversary of independence from Britain. Forty-six years have
certainly gone by quickly, and the memories are still strong of all
that has happened to the Jamaican nation and its people over these
years. Certainly, a lot has been accomplished by this tiny nation,
which despite many hardships has persevered to be one of the strongest
democracies in the Western Hemisphere.
Since 1962, Jamaica has regularly and democratically changed
governments, although one would have preferred that all the elections
were violent free. There have been experiments with different
ideologies, notably Democratic Socialism, which although proven to be a
poor experiment, the country was able to bounce back from it and embark
on the road of free enterprise and relative stability.
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Obama looks effective on foreign policy |
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Friday, 25 July 2008 |
Barack Obama has been criticized by his political opponents, in
particular his Republican presidential opponent, John McCain, for being
weak on foreign policy. It is therefore quite ironic that the current
Republican administration appears to be converging on some of Obama’s
foreign policy proposals.
Last week, for instance, the administration made a significant policy
shift when it agreed to send a senior member of the State Department,
Under Secretary of State William Burns, to attend diplomatic talks with
Iran’s top nuclear official in Geneva, Switzerland. Burns met with the
Iranian representative along with members of the “P5 + 1 partners”
(consisting of representatives from the permanent members of the
Security Council - the United States, Britain, France, China, and
Russia - and Germany, that have been negotiating over Iran's
controversial nuclear program).
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