Newspaper articles written by Professor Errol Miller.
At one time cars were scarce and roads were abundant. Now cars are in abundance and roads have become a scarce commodity. Driving in Kingston is more than an exercise in patience and going to the country risking your life on approaching almost every corner.
Advocates of different causes regularly criticise the Church in seeking to co-opt it to their cause. On many occasions, Church leaders are defensive in their responses to such criticism. At the 17th National Prayer Breakfast, the Rev. Sam Vassell gave an excellent demonstration of the Man of God operating in the prophetic tradition. Both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition in their comments had put their own brand of political spin on what the Church in Jamaica should be doing.
Recently there has been a great amount of outcry from exporters about the losses they have incurred as a result of the revaluation of the Jamaican dollar. Interestingly no one heard anything from them when the dollar was devalued. They engaged in quiet enjoyment of the windfalls from massive devaluation over the last five years but have been boisterous in their public wailing over the shortfalls resulting from a modest revaluation of the dollar.
There are some economists who maintain that fast foods are quite good indicators of the major economic trends in many countries. They have coined the term “Bergonomics” to describe and define this emerging brand of economics. In thinking about this matter it came to me that “Pattynomics” would really be the Jamaican version since hamburgers cannot yet rival the patty as a fast food in Jamaica
Recently the Ministry of Education released the results of the Grade 4 Reading Test that was administered early this year. The results are no different from those of 1999. Approximately 47 percent of the students were reading at or above the Grade 4 level, another 31 percent were just below that level, while 32 percent were reading at levels that would not suggest that they have not mastered the basic skills needed in order to learn to read.
