KINGSTON, Jamaica - JAMAICANS are an endangered species at the UN Secretariat housed in New York in the United States.
Of the roughly 43,000 people employed there, only 136 are Jamaican. Of that number, only 28 fall within the professional category, with "very few" in senior-level posts.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - A country enters a currency crisis if its exchange rate depreciates by more than 25 per cent in a given year. So far this year, the Jamaican dollar has depreciated approximately 12 per cent, moving from J$93 to US$1 in January to roughly J$104 to US$1 at the moment.
The last time the Jamaican dollar had such a significant depreciation was in 2008, when the exchange rate fell by 11 per cent from $71.59 to US$1 in January to J$80.21 to US$1 in December.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - HEALTH Minister Dr Fenton Ferguson has lauded the Pan American Health OrganiSation and the World Health Organisation (PAHO/WHO) for reaffirming their support to the Caribbean Community (Caricom) countries as they work to confront health challenges.
Addressing the 25th Meeting of the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) at PAHO headquarters in Washington DC last week, Minister Fenton said the support from the organisations is vital to the region continuing to provide the necessary health services to combat certain diseases.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - TORONTO, Canada (IDN) — A new report has highlighted the importance of funds remitted home by migrants, which are now nearly three times the size of official development assistance given by rich developed nations and larger than private debt and portfolio equity flows to developing countries.
They exceed the foreign exchange reserves in at least 15 developing countries, and are equivalent to at least half of the level of reserves in over 50 developing countries, says the latest issue of the World Bank's Migration and Development Brief.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - BURDENED as they may be with their respective domestic, social, economic and political challenges, it is becoming increasingly evident that the 15-member Caribbean Community (Caricom) has a moral obligation to ensure more focused attention by the international community on the widening problems and challenges facing the people of Haiti.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - Businessman Claude Clarke, in defence of Jamaican manufacturing, said last Thursday that Jamaica should suspend the Common External Tariff, no matter the legal consequences.
His appeal comes amid rumblings from critics of Caricom who want Jamaica to break away from the bloc, citing unfair competition especially from oil-economy Trinidad.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - JAMAICA loses $15 billion in revenues from subsidising imports from the Caribbean Community (Caricom), according to former industry minister Claude Clarke.
Clarke, who is managing director of Richmond Valley, made the declaration during his keynote address at the Jamaica Manufacturers Association (JMA) 45th Annual Awards Banquet on Thursday.
He suggested that Government collect the revenue by suspending Caricom trade subsidies, at least during the island's lending arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
KINGSTON, Jamaica - MS Shanique Myrie tells us she believes that, because she pressed her case against the Barbados authorities at the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), "things will be better for Jamaicans who travel to that country".
This newspaper thinks she has done much more.
By her courage and determination Ms Myrie has made life much easier, we believe, for all Caricom nationals, including Barbadians, who may choose to travel within and across the borders of those territories which are signatories to the Revised Treaty of Chaguramas.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - Much has already been made of the award by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) of approximately J$4 million to Shanique Myrie, the Jamaican woman who, two and a half years ago, was deported from Barbados after being held overnight in a cell and allegedly subjected to a vaginal search.
But the focus on the vindication of Ms Myrie misses the larger, and potentially more potent, import of the court's ruling and the lessons to be learned by Jamaica.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - If it intends to prevent a return to global financial turbulence and maintain America's pre-eminent place in the world, it is urgent that Congress end its latest bout of irresponsibility and begin to manage the country's economic affairs in a fashion not reminiscent of a banana republic.
This is how Washington appears at this time - a place of political hostage-taking, blackmailing and what some might consider as attempts at constitutional putsches.