Author name: Professor Canute Thompson

The English-speaking Caribbean is a low-wage market of which Jamaica is the worst based on its GDP per capita and the size of that low-wage labour force.  While the Government of Jamaica has substantially increased the salaries of members of the political directorate, principals of schools and colleges and senior civil servants, the salaries of […]

Members of an organisation are entitled to their own perspectives and the right to disagree with a decision and direction of an organisation must be respected.  But when the leadership of an organisation takes a position, it is presumed to be reflective of, and binding on, all leaders in the organisation.  If this principle of

In the aftermath of the hiking of salaries of members of the political directorate by the Government, (by up to 300% – over three years), the Minister of Finance Nigel Clarke and Prime Minister Andrew Holness in seeking to justify the increases, promised that there would be “enhanced accountability measures”.  Among the measures promised (and

Editor’s Note: Part I of this series was published on May 22. The piece was titled The Constitutional Review Process: Is the minister giving false hope? You may read it here http://leadershipreimagination.com/uncategorized/the-constitutional-review-process-is-the-minister-giving-false-hope/ I am not a historian but the political history of the United States of America, from the period of the war of independence

When the leader of a country steps into a fractured national conversation, the society has a right to expect clarity and resolution, not further imbroglio, deeper chaos and confusion. But on Monday May 22, 2023, when Prime Minister Holness called a press conference to address the public consternation and anger engulfing the country in relation

The constitutional review process is said to be in its second phase, but it appears as though the Minister is guessing as she goes along. I say that not to be unkind but rather I am reflecting on the fact that we are now being told, after declarations to the contrary, that the issue of

The secret is out, the end has been reached and made known for all to see. What we are witnessing is the massive salary increases which the Government of Jamaica has given to the members of the executive and members of parliament.  The increases show a massive jump, effective April 1, 2022, and then increments

I had taken the decision not to engage in extensive public discussion on the matter of the hijacking of the process of the appointment of a new principal for the Mona Campus.  I intended to have raised it in my inaugural professorial address on May 11, but decided against it.  I am constrained to do

Serious political parties are not mere think-tanks, pressure groups, or fan clubs.  In a democratic society, they are organizations with a vision of what the country in which they operate may become and thus are seeking to gain state power to be able to advance the attainment of their vision.  In short, conscientious political parties

May 5, 2023 There is an exceedingly worrying reality in the Jamaican government which strikes at the heart of whether the Prime Minister, Andrew Holness, is the subject of (what the Russians call) kompromat. Kompromat is “compromising information collected and retained for use in blackmailing, discrediting, or manipulating someone, typically for political purposes”. (Oxford Dictionary).