· July, 2009

Stories about Ideas from July, 2009

Barbados: Breath, Art, Memory

  21 July 2009

As Barbadian blogger Ingrid Persaud struggles with an art commission about memory “in the context of a larger exhibition about the international preservation of documentary memory”, she says: “Memories are things we have a place in our history for. Trauma is the stuff that has not yet found its place....

Bahrain: Be Positive

Bahraini blogger aMal has decided to rid herself of negative feelings – but that's not so simple: “People, at least maybe in this part of the world, I wholeheartedly say, are allergic to positivity.”

Bermuda: Celebrity Tours

  20 July 2009

As Bermuda introduces “celebrity tours”, 21 Square says: “For those who believe that…tourism can be rejuvenated via exclusivity and prestige, this is horrifying…the absolute opposite direction for Bermuda tourism that we should be taking.”

St. Vincent & the Grenadines: Cricket Again

  20 July 2009

“Am I the only one who finds it amusing that WIPA has asked the Caribbean Govts to intervene in the cricket dispute?”: From St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Abeni blogs about “this cricket thing”.

Barbados, Jamaica: Rock & A Hard Place

  20 July 2009

Today, the Jamaican government will announce whether it is taking the International Monetary Fund up on its offer of financial aid – guest blogging at Bajan Dream Diary, Leesha Delatie-Budair says: “Basically, we are damned if we do and damned if we don’t.”

Russia: Comparing Hitler and Stalin

LJ user fesstagere turns attention to [RUS] an Ekho Moskvy survey, showing that the radio stations readers see greater similarities than differences between Hitler and Stalin – a comparative issue that recently has evoked strong reactions and protests in Russian debate.

Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados: Plantation Governance

  17 July 2009

“My thesis is that Caribbean governments today are run exactly like the plantations of old, the only difference being that there are fewer white people cracking whips; the overseers have taken over the Great House”: Barbados-based Trinidadian blogger B.C. Pires builds on the late Lloyd Best's Theory of Plantation Economy.

Puerto Rico: Playing the Princess?

  16 July 2009

“When things get tough, the Dream is what unites, what keeps an individual and a group moving forward”: Gil the Jenius is concerned that the Puerto Rican dream is to be rescued and throws out a challenge: “Show Me We aren't the princess. Go ahead, try to show Me Our...

Dominica: Investing in Women

  16 July 2009

Dominica Weekly says that the island's “muted” celebration of World Population Day was an opportunity lost “to start to create meaningful change in the lives of our women”, but adds: “It’s never be too late to create a positive movement…”

Jamaica: Returning Home

  16 July 2009

Francis Wade agrees that “the country you leave is not the country you return to”, advocating instead that returning Jamaicans come home “with a flexible, open mind that is willing to enter into an entirely new experience.”

India: Is divorce really the easy way out?

  16 July 2009

Aparna Singh at  Ultra Violet shares her view that despite the rise in the number of divorce cases in India, a divorce is never the easy way out of a marriage – never mind what some cynics may say.

Jamaica: Time for Arbitration?

  15 July 2009

From Jamaica, Girl With a Purpose thinks that the conflict between the West Indies Players Association and the West Indies Cricket Board “needs to go to arbitration…the West Indian public needs to know the truth behind this current impasse.”

Bahamas: Writers on Blogging

  15 July 2009

Nicolette Bethel blogs about The Bahamas Writers Summer Institute, at which one discussion focused on “the value of blogging” and “the radical power of blogs and bloggers” – Womanish Words, who attended the workshop, adds: “I'm still in love with the personal freedom and empowerment that writing and publishing blogs...

St. Vincent & the Grenadines: Hypocritical

  15 July 2009

Michael Jackson's death gets Vincentian blogger Abeni thinking about hypocrisy in the Caribbean: “Look at the Man in the Mirror people. We may be closer to the persons we dislike than we think.”

Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago: Crime Approach

  15 July 2009

“The idea that we are in CARICOM and a one size fits all is not possible. What is suitable for Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica might not be necessarily so for Barbados”: Barbados Underground suggests that one nation's approach to tackling crime may not be necessarily right for another.

India: Of Surnames and Globalization

  15 July 2009

In this post, Vinod Joseph discusses the problem that some Indians face while trying to split/fit their names into the conventional Western format of name plus surname and wonders if, in this age of globalisation, it would not be best to do away with this kind of templatising.