Christmas is the most anticipated time of the year. It’s our Jamaican tradition to clean up, spruce up, and decorate our homes and communities, sometimes with a fresh coat of paint and some pepper light.  There is an increased buzz of activities, peaking in Grand Market; signaling the preparation for families coming together, gifts, good cheer, good food, merriment for...

Mr President, Excellencies, Colleagues, On behalf of the people of Jamaica, I thank the Governments of the United Kingdom and the Italian Republic, for their strong commitment and leadership in hosting this COP 26 within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and for the excellent arrangements that have been made to keep us safe. The message is clear - climate...

National Heroes Day Message - October 18, 2021 National Heroes Day is set aside as a public holiday each year to honour those great Jamaicans, who by their work and often ultimate sacrifice, revolted against slavery, secured our freedom, fought for equal rights and justice, guided our Independence, resisted oppression, and in so doing inspired a revolution and an awakening...

My Fellow Jamaicans, as we did last year, we are celebrating the anniversary of our nation’s Independence in the midst of a pandemic.  While the pandemic has dealt a severe blow to our lives and livelihoods, we have, as a nation, done well together in managing the crisis.  We have been able to do this through the hard work and...

183 years ago today on August 1, 1838, the descendants of trafficked and enslaved Africans, who themselves grew up in generations of slavery, finally celebrated their full freedom, as declared in the Emancipation proclamation. There are many reasons to be considered as to why the British Parliament decided to end slavery as a means of social and economic organization in...

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Madam Speaker, Members of this Honourable House, Jamaicans and friends joining us locally and overseas, as I rise to address the Nation in these Budget Debates for a 6th time as Prime Minister, we give God thanks for sparing our lives through the unprecedented travails of 2020 to see this day. Madam Speaker, this is your second time occupying...

We welcome 2021 with hope and optimism, giving thanks to God for sparing our lives to see this day. I am privileged and grateful to lead this great nation, small in size but large in stature, with endless potential. As difficult and challenging as it was, 2020 demonstrated that our greatest problems can only be solved when we cooperate and...

Madam Speaker, based on the information received from the Ministry of Health and Wellness, I wish to report that Jamaica has now recorded 11,875 cases of COVID-19. Of this number, 3,234 are active cases. This means that these are persons who contracted the virus and who are still able to transmit it to others. Information provided by the Ministry also...