In Focus

The minister with responsibility for information issued a challenge to media houses last week that was both appropriate and timely: Get the political parties together from now to debate the issues and alternatives to the economic and social crises we face and let the people be the jury.

The long-awaited, highly anticipated, much-touted Progressive Agenda was finally unveiled - to an apparently widespread "what's that?" yawn among non-partisans and Labourites.

As Jamaica prepares for its participation in the upcoming IAAF World Championships in Athletics to be held in Daegu, South Korea, from August 27 to September 4, the discussion, particularly among track-and-field enthusiasts, becomes rife as to the country's medal prospects, and how well our athletes will perform.

A population of 1.34 billion in one country is staggering and can't be easy to manage.

The American economy is in deep trouble again; so is the world economy.

Placid, civilised, developed, tolerant Britain on the outside has exploded from the inside. Or, more correctly, England has exploded. The absence of solidarity disturbances in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland may be speaking volumes about ancient historical cleavages among the 'races' and countries of [Great] Britain.

The Sunday Observer of August 7 informed the Jamaican reading public that a gay TV advertisement has angered some of the clerics in the Christian Empire. According to writer Nadine Wilson, the catalyst of the clerics' outrage is a public-service announcement which has been produced to encourage the Jamaican citizenry to love their homosexual family members and friends.

To properly respond to Audley Shaw's recent invitation to submit ideas for economic growth (wants us to 'think outside the box'), we must first face some inconvenient home truths about our economy and current imposed economic 'policies' best described as It's Mostly Foolishness (IMF).

CHARLES JOHNSTON'S article in The Sunday Gleaner of July 31, titled 'Smart tax-policy reform' demonstrates why tax reform is such a difficult objective to achieve. Everyone agrees that there should be tax reform, but everyone has a different idea of what that tax reform should look like.

AS PART of a largely misguided exercise, various political philosophers throughout history, including the likes of Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau, have attributed tainted virtue to government by explaining the legitimacy of political authority as being derived from the consent of the governed.

THE BBC'S Country Profiles mostly start with a dry economic or political summary. One of the few exceptions is Jamaica, which begins "Known for its strong sense of self-identity, expressed through its music, food and rich cultural mix, Jamaica's influence extends far beyond its shores."