Stories about Caribbean from July, 2006
Martinique: Plane Crash Aftermath
Bien Vu writes (Fr):”It's been more than 8 months since 152 Martiniquans died in a crash in Maracaibo [,Venezuela]. Since then, talks at cross-purposes between the Association aux Victimes du Crash Aerien [association of victims of the aerial crash] (AVCA) and the Brazilian insurer of West Caribbean Airways who cannot...
Haiti: 1941's Port-au-Prince
From Port-au-Prince, Marcel Salnave posts (Fr) an article written by his journalist father of the same name in 1941: “our capital is embellishing under the welcome influence of urban planning. Gardens designed according to the demands of art have replaced almost everywhere our empty lots and where weeds once existed,...
Bahamas: Goodbye, British Honours list?
Nassau Bahamas Vacation reports briefly on the plans afoot in the Bahamas to abolish the British Honours list: “Her Majesty will no doubt let her views be channeled through her own discreet diplomats at some stage.“
Trinidad & Tobago: FTAA
With the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) practically a “dead duck”, Jeremy Taylor suggests that Trinidad & Tobago remove the sign at the airport proclaiming the country “the natural home of the FTAA secretariat”.
Haiti: Investment Made Easier
Collectif Haiti de Provence points to (Fr) a Radio Metropole article about the launch of a new Center for the Facilitation of Investment thanks to a grant by USAID. Thanks to the Center, “a corporation can be formed in 4 days as opposed to the 264 it took in the...
Haiti: Protesters Ask for Debt Cancellation
Collectif Haiti de Provence points (Fr) to a Radio Signal FM article stating: “Tens of Haitian alternative globalization activists protested Tuesday in front of a Port-au-Prince hotel where international delegations were participating in a meeting of donors to Haiti. The protestors, students for the most part, demanded the cancellation of...
Martinique, France: Tribu Ka Suspended
France's Council of Ministers recently decided to dissolve Tribu Ka, a Black nationalist French group, accusing it of anti-semitism. French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy claims the group posted a graphic of a chimpanzee holding a star of David on their website. Martinique's Le Blog de [Moi] agrees (Fr) that Tribu...
Jamaica, Cayman Islands, St. Vincent and the Grenadines: Blogger linkup
Cayman-based Jamaican blogger Mad Bull posts a short report on last night's “Caribbean Blogger Linkup”, at which ten bloggers, mostly Jamaican but including one from St. Vincent, assembled at a restaurant in Kingston.
Bermuda: “Worst of Bermuda” awards
The Limey offers his tongue-in-cheek “Worst of Bermuda Awards 2006”. Categories include “most embarrassing mistake”, “worst corporate citizen”, and “worst act of political cowardice”.
Jamaica: R.I.P. Louise Bennett
Poet and actress Louise Bennett, popularly known as Miss Lou, perhaps the most beloved public figure in contemporary Jamaica, has died at the age of 86. At the Caribbean Beat blog, Jeremy Taylor offers a tribute. “She wrote unforgettable poems in the Jamaican ‘patois’ or ‘dialect’ which we now learn...
Martinique: More Prison for Wife Burners
Bien Vu deplores (Fr) 15 recent cases of women set afire by their husbands in Martinique. Some have been severely injured, others have died reports the blogger. He says: “even after the perpetrators have been found guilty, they remain a danger to their wives. We hope to see these individuals...
France, DOM-TOM: Victory against housing discrimination
Reunion-based Pierrot Dupuy, himself the father of a victim of housing discrimination in France announces (Fr) advocacy group CollectifDOM’s legal victory in the area of housing discrimination against French citizens from the French Overseas Departments and Territories (DOM-TOM) living in France. From here on, landlords can no longer ask for...
Guyana: US interference?
Guyana 360 asks why the US government has revoked the travel visa of Guyana's acting police commissioner Henry Green. “Instead of openly stating their position, the US resorts to public pressure and embarrasement.”
Barbados: Save Worrell's house
My Turn–a new blog started by Carson Cadogan, who Barbados Free Press describes as “The Barbados King of Letters to the Editor”–argues that some of the public funds being spent on the redevelopment of Barbados's main cricket venue, Kensington Oval, should be used to restore the boyhood home of cricket...
Bahamas: Consequences of foreign investment
Bahama Pundit's Nicolette Bethel worries about the consequences of “development” funded by foreign investment. “While it may have been wise a decade ago to invite all and sundry to consider The Bahamas as a good place to do business … foreign investment cannot remain an end in itself.”
Global Food Blog Report #25
#1: From Malaysia, Tham Jiak on Tastes of YesterLife: If one's life can be determine by food preferences, I believe that I might be an Indian in my past life. As much as I love Chinese cuisines, I am strangely drawn towards Indian food, my five senses transfix on the...
Barbados: Against the water park
Barbados Free Press tackles the question of the water park that's been proposed for the Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary near the island's south coast, posting a commentary from “Travel Guy”, a Canadian reader with Barbadian roots, and reporting on a controversy involving the proposed engineering firm.
Guyana: Pothole challenge
“Dear Car Manufacturers Abroad, I challenge you to come and test you cars in Real Life Conditions…. Some potholes so deep you can’t call them potholes, you got to call them cauldron holes.” Guyana-Gyal writes an open letter complaining about the state of the roads.
Gripes with Footballer Lilian Thuram
Of Lilian Thuram, a French football player of Guadeloupean origin, France-based Senegalese blogger says (Fr): “Wanting desperately to become a Martin Luther King-style defender of the Black cause, Thuram seems to have no friends around him to tell him to calm down and to stay away from politics, an artform...
Trinidad and Tobago: Hare Krishna
Rentaempress posts a charming vignette of life in multicultural Trinidad: an encounter with some Hare Krishna devotees. “Trinidad remains sweet and unbelievably bizarre.”
Jamaica: Reggae aesthetics
Jamaican writer Geoffrey Philp thinks about the role of “reggae aesthetics” in the post-colonial Caribbean, and posts a podcast of his poem “version break”.
About our Caribbean coverage
Janine Mendes Franco is the Caribbean editor. Email her story ideas or volunteer to write.
