KINGSTON, Jamaica - A lightly edited address by former Prime Minister P J Patterson at the Institute for Global Dialogue in Pretoria, South Africa on April 26, 2013. I welcome this pleasant occasion which allows me to address the Institute for Global Dialogue, a thriving brainchild of our living le...

KINGSTON, Jamaica - Having read Ronald Mason's blast against CARICOM, and the insipid reply by Hilbourne Watson, I must intervene. The whole thinking about CARICOM has gone off track. This business of whether Jamaica should be in or out is beside the point. Who told Trinidad and Barbados to set up s...

(Part 2) KINGSTON, Jamaica - It would be foolhardy at the commencement of any trial for attorneys to believe they will be persuasive with only an opening statement. I dare not believe that, and as such I welcome the dialogue triggered by the response to my column on May 5. I do not fear globalisatio...

KINGSTON, Jamaica - There comes a time when the only thing to do is make clear, definitive, unambiguous statements about things of importance. Here goes. I am a Jamaican, I am NOT a Caribbean man. I want no part of the totally useless creation we label CARICOM. The peoples who populate those islands...

KINGSTON, Jamaica - TENSION is developing toward the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) from some quarters in Jamaica. This was exemplified by a column in the Gleaner newspaper written by an Immigration attorney, Mr Ronald Mason. I believe it is fair to summarise what Mr Mason said as f...

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - Last week in the Senate an interesting exchange took place between Attorney General Anand Ramlogan and some PNM senators during the period set aside for questions to ministers. The essence of the argument was that the Attorney General indicated that he could prepare a draft...

KINGSTON, Jamaica - Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade A.J. Nicholson has appealed to the Jamaican private sector to participate in establishing an association to represent their interests at the regional level. He has also invited the private sector to participate in the preparatory proc...

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - The visit later this month of US Vice President Joe Biden, and the attendant holding here of the equivalent of a Caribbean summit, call attention to this country’s standing in the region and the world. Those events underscore T&T’s international recognition and its responsi...

KINGSTON, Jamaica - Spend time in Brussels, or in any other European capital that has a close relationship with the Caribbean, and it soon becomes apparent how fast thinking about policy is changing on a broad range of issues that may affect the region's long-term interests. Look at the matter from ...

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - SOME very interesting comments made the rounds last week when the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Barbados released the latest report on the Human Development Index. One of the comments attested to the fact that countries in the South are leading the way in ter...