In Focus

People walk through Santa Cruz, Jamaica, after Hurricane Melissa passed.
December 28, 2025

Dennis Minott | When self-interest is sacrificed

Jamaica’s prolonged mistreatment of Haitian migrants is often defended in the language of capacity, sovereignty, or political realism. Yet five years on — and now brutally exposed by Hurricane Melissa…
December 28, 2025

Sandra Latibeaudiere | Hurricane Melissa exposes vulnerable older adults

Hurricane Melissa’s vastly different human and infrastructural impact between eastern and western Jamaica has continued into the early recovery stages. There is another, far less obvious, disaster…
This aerial photo shows St. John Anglican Parish Church in Black River, St Elizabeth, razed by Hurricane Melissa.
December 28, 2025

Patricia Green | Hurricane Melissa architecture and land decolonisation

“… I will uncover your skirts over your face, That your shame may appear …” was spoken by God to the prophet Jeremiah about ancient Israel. Is this exposure applicable to post-disaster Jamaica?…
Mark Wignall writes: Nothing really surprises about the police reaching out to the residents in efforts to quell violence. In plain language, it makes sense.
December 28, 2025

Mark Wignall | Present me with real honour

In many ways, it has to be more than just what you feel about me and significantly deeper than that. It has to be much more than that. I want to feel an intense connection. Closer than it could ever…
Drummers seen playing at Maroon Festival in Accompong, St Elizabeth.
December 21, 2025

Stephen Vasciannie | Assessing Accompong assertions

The Maroons are a distinct but divided people. Some Maroons find their national identity through full membership of Jamaican society as Jamaican nationals, engaging in Jamaican cultural life, sharing…
A JPS electricity pole broken by the passage of Hurricane Melissa is seen in Mandeville, Manchester.
December 21, 2025

Mark Wignall | What a nerve!

This comes with the most bold-faced audacity; The Jamaica Public Service (JPS) claiming seven per cent increase in electricity rates. What makes this so jarring to the nerves is what went down before.…
A downed light pole along Authur Wint Drive in St Andrew during the passage of Hurricane Melissa on October 28.
December 21, 2025

Dennis Minott | Sunlight now is cheaper than scandal later

The arrival of 117 Canadian electrical linesmen to assist the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) in restoring power after Hurricane Melissa has been greeted with official smiles, airport photo-ops,…
In this October 30 photo a man is seen sitting by the roadside on High Street, Black River, surrounded by debris of structures damaged by Hurricane Melissa.
December 21, 2025

Theresa Rodriguez-Moodie | Disaster debris isn’t just garbage

Drone footage and satellite images taken after Hurricane Melissa revealed a landscape littered with wreckage - trees stripped bare, vegetation ripped from the ground, roofing sheets, doors, windows,…
Mangled remains of a house in Westmoreland flattened by Hurricane Melissa.
December 21, 2025

Imani Tafari-Ama | Hurricane Melissa didn’t end — It moved inside us

When the winds died down and the floodwaters receded, what remained was not only broken infrastructure, but broken routines, broken security and broken peace of mind. And yet, our recovery discourse…