When Prime Minister Andrew Holness declared at Stephen "Cat" Coore’s funeral that “Culture is not ornamental to nation building, it is fundamental,” he was absolutely correct. I only wish he had delivered the message himself. Because if culture is fundamental, then it requires more than ceremonial presence. It requires policy, Infrastructure, Investment, and Vision. At the funeral, Culture Minister Olivia “Babsy” Grange spoke eloquently of Stephen “Cat” Coore as a “Reggae A

By Richard Hugh Blackford This year marks seventeen years since Jamaica officially began observing Reggae Month . Seventeen years of concerts, speeches, official ceremonies, and annual declarations about the importance of Reggae to Jamaica’s identity. But if we are serious; serious about culture, serious about development, serious about outcomes, then one uncomfortable question must be asked: What, exactly, has Reggae Month achieved? Beyond staging performances. Beyond deliv

By Richard Hugh Blackford -  Fine Artist, Author, and Social Commentator Jamaica is again confronting a painful truth about itself; violence among children is no longer episodic; it is symptomatic. The recent ruling of the Supreme Court of Jamaica, which ordered a school to pay Ja$2 million after a teacher failed to intervene in an escalating argument that turned physical, did more than settle a claim. It clarified responsibility. Silence, the Court affirmed, is not neutralit

Written by Richard Hugh Blackford I woke up this past Monday to the news that Sly Dunbar had passed. Like most Jamaicans—especially those with a deep interest in the island’s music—the news hit like a bolt of lightning. Social media lit up like the night sky, accolades coming thick and fast. And as I read through those torrents of praise, I was reminded that accolades are, in many ways, for the living. They remind us of the work of the dead, provide a bridge to the past, and

I came across a response from a Facebook user's response to a thread of mine in which he lambasted Jamaica's music culture, particularly Dancehall as "dead". According to the poster, "Jamaica has lost its culture nor its identity world wide, especially in music. So if we can go back to the drawing board there that's will be good. Love him or hate him Vybz Kartel destroyed our musical culture, almost every artist after him is worst. Jamaican music was love, inspirational, weed

Jamaica’s government and police leadership are celebrating what they describe as a historic achievement: a reported 43 percent reduction in murders last year. Critics, they insist, are waging a “sustained attack” on the security forces, undermining public confidence in crime-fighting strategies such as focused deterrence and intelligence-led policing. But statistics without context are not truth. And Jamaica’s current approach to policing is not a success story, it is a warni

After nearly three years of silence, the Stocks and Securities Limited (SSL) fraud saga is back in the headlines. But Jamaicans should be careful not to confuse movement with meaningful justice. Over the weekend, authorities arrested SSL founder Hugh Croskery, his daughter Sarah Meany, and former CEO Zachary Harding, laying more than a dozen charges tied to the collapse of the investment firm linked to losses of roughly Ja$3 billion, including over US$2 million reportedly bel

For generations, Jamaicans have wrestled with the unresolved question of land ownership. In more recent decades, that struggle has sharpened into a deeply emotional and visible fight over access to public beaches. These two issues are often discussed separately, but my sense is that they are not separate at all. They are historically and structurally linked; born of the same injustice and sustained by the same political habits. To understand where Jamaica is today, we must be

Why Jamaica Must Choose Long-Term Resilience Over Short-Term Fixes- By Richard Hugh Blackford; Fine Artist, Author, and Social Commentator Three of Jamaica’s leading engineering and construction bodies—the Incorporated Masterbuilders Association of Jamaica, the Jamaica Institution of Engineers, and the Jamaican Institute of Architects—have issued a sober warning at a critical moment. In a rare unified statement, these organizations are urging the Government to rethink its gr

Sugarcane cutters in Westmoreland, Jamaica. Hurricane Melissa has left more than one-third of Jamaica in ruins, tearing through communities and crippling everyday life across the island. The storm’s devastation has also placed a hard question at our door: If the country has supposedly enjoyed five years of economic growth, why were so many Jamaicans living in structures so vulnerable that a single natural disaster wiped entire communities off the map? The truth is uncomfortab

By Richard Hugh Blackford; Fine Artist, Author, and Social Commentator Eric Donaldson 7-time Jamaica Festival Song Contest winner As Jamaicans everywhere wrestle with the devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa, something remarkable is happening. Across social media, images flood in from New York, Miami, London, Toronto, and beyond; photos of shipping depots stacked to the rafters with barrels, boxes, and containers filled by Jamaicans in the Diaspora. These scenes, overflow

The fact is that in a free society, citizens should be able to comment, criticize and hold their government to account, even during emergencies. Yet when Jamaica’s Prime Minister, Andrew Holness' warning that those attempting to “be famous” by spreading misinformation about the relief efforts for Hurricane Melissa will be “tracked” and face consequences, felt less like caution and more like a muzzle.

By Richard Hugh Blackford; Fine Artist, Author, and Social Commentator In the face of disaster, effective leadership is more crucial than ever. Unfortunately, the recent response to Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica has exposed a glaring weakness in the country's leadership structure. It would appear that the Prime Minister's decision to assign himself to multiple critical portfolios, including Land, Housing, NWC, NHT, NEPA, and more, has led to a catastrophic failure in disaster

By Richard Hugh Blackford; Fine Artist, Author, and Social Commentator Hon PJ Patterson, Hon Bruce Golding -Former Prime Ministers of Jamaica. The news that Jamaica’s two retired Prime Ministers PJ Patterson , now 90, and Bruce Golding , 77, have been invited to join the island’s hurricane recovery effort has been widely framed as a moment of national unity . On the surface, it’s an image designed to inspire: two elder statesmen, one from the PNP  and the other from the JLP ,

In April/May of 1995, West Indies Cricket experienced its first Series loss in more than 15 years when they were toppled by Steve Waugh's...

Bunny “Striker” Lee is one of the most influential and prolific producers in reggae history who grew up in the Greenwich Town area of...

West Indies Cricket Team Logo The recent collapse of the West Indies cricket team- being bowled out for a mere 27 runs by Australia in...

Mike McCallum - The Body Snatcher The CVM TV post flashed across my Facebook page at around 8pm yesterday. It said simply "Mike McCallum...

I came across Junior Byles somewhere around 1972 when his song “Beat Down Babylon” was released. The Peoples National Party had won the...

The evolving process of Reggae. Painting by Richard Hugh Blackford The Birth of Reggae It was the middle of the 1968 and Jamaican...