Stories about Caribbean from December, 2006
Haiti: Government's Tougher Stance on Insecurity
Reacting to a Christmas speech by Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis announcing a tougher stance on gang-driven kidnappings, Deky Lakyel from Collectif Haiti de Provence writes (Fr): “Not so long ago the stance was still to negotiate with the bandits. Today the approach and the discourse are more a-propos to...
Trinidad & Tobago: Smeltdown
The Trinidad and Tobago government's decision to re-locate a controversial aluminium smelter project prompts Jeremy Taylor to raise numerous questions about some key development decisions taken by the current administration: “Would we really need a rapid-rail system costing TT$15 billion if a bit more common sense was applied to the...
Haiti: Competition for AA on Miami-Port-au-Prince
Jojo of Collectif Haiti de Provence is happy (Fr) that Spirit Airlines is offering a Miami-Port-au-Prince flight in addition to American Airlines’ but cautions: “Spirit Airlines is welcome so long as it doesn't align itself to the detriment of the public with American Airlines’ practices. $370 for a 2 hour...
Dominica: Respect the Caribbean consumer
Kenny Green of Dominica berates multinational companies for failing to create advertising and marketing campaigns that specifically target the Caribbean consumer, reserving some praise for Irish telecoms services provider Digicel: “I would love to see some multinational, be it LG or Pepsi or Starbucks or someone credible actually show Digicel...
Bahamas: Police brutality
Lynn Sweeting calls for an immediate investigation into police brutality in the Bahamas: “I call on the police force to recognize the enormity of this crisis in their ranks, and to assume that most men and women applying to the college are the products of violent homes, and to make...
Trinidad & Tobago: In praise of coconut bake
Trinifood sings the praises of the “simple, unleavened bread” known in Trinidad and Tobago as coconut bake, and posts a recipe.
Trinidad & Tobago: Corporate responsibility initiative
Karel McIntosh reports that a chamber of commerce in Trinidad has become the first indigenous signatory to United Nations Global Compact, the world’s largest voluntary corporate responsibility initiative.
Trinidad, Guyana, South Africa: Book talk
85-year old Guyanese writer Wilson Harris has a new novel and Nobel prize-winning South African novelist Nadine Gordimer's estranged biographer is half-Trinidadian, reports Jeremy Taylor, who also reveals his favourite Caribbean novels of 2006.
Barbados: The other Eid
Titlayo discovers the “other” Eid — Eid al-Adha, when “Muslims who can afford to do so sacrifice domestic animals, usually sheep, as a symbol of Ibrahim’s sacrifice.”
Barbados: Caribbean integration
Barbados Free Press takes issue with an ex-diplomat's comments about Caribbean integration.
Bahamas, Guyana: Garlic pork and Guyanese politics
The vinegary aroma of garlic pork incites Bahamian Larry Smith to a Proustian meditation on the modern political history of Guyana.
Guyana: Living Guyana Media Awards 2006
MediaCritic announces the results of the Living Guyana Media Awards 2006. GV favourite GuyanaGyal wins the Blog of the Year title.
Jamaica: What the country needs
Francis Wade grapples with his desire, as a returnee to Jamaica, to find solutions to some of the problems plaguing his homeland: “Certainly, I am sure, a part of the answer has to with where we draw our spiritual wisdom, and how we Jamaicans do not sufficiently engage in our...
Trinidad & Tobago: Trini geography
Chennette has an interesting commentary on the average Trinidadian's skewed vision of cardinal points: “Maybe it was growing up in a mathematical family, but I always viewed Trinidad as more or less a rectangle with some squiggly bits at the corners. Which means that I imagined lines bisecting the island...
St Lucia: Atmospheric landscapes
Arnold Pouteau has a Flickr set of atmospheric photos from St. Lucia.
Trinidad & Tobago: The smelter moves
As Trinidad and Tobago's caves into the protests against the establishment of an aluminium smelter in a community in south-western Trinidad — and moves the project to another part of the country — Taran Rampersad starts thinking that “it has become necessary to become vocal.”
Trinidad & Tobago: Christmas, credulity and commerce
Jeremy Taylor goes over some of the impossible notions about Christmas we have come to accept as fact, concluding “I take some comfort in the thought that the man at the centre of all the fuss would have dismissed it all, just as he furiously ran the bankers off the...
Haiti: Teacher's Union Denounces Insecurity
Many school children have recently been the victims of kidnappings in Haiti and the Haitian press reports that teachers’ unions have denounced what they feel is the government's inaction vis-a-vis the phenomenon. Collectif Haiti de Provence reacted (Fr) to the story: “The teachers’ declaration is timely but insufficient in the...
Guadeloupe, India: 152nd Anniversary of Tamul Hindus’ Arrival
Atout Guadeloupe announces (Fr) that Guadeloupeans of Hindu Tamul origin celebrated the 152nd anniversary of their ancestors’ arrival in Guadeloupe on Dec. 24. Says the feed: “Hindus arrived after the second abolition of slavery.” The ceremony which took place in capital Pointe-a-Pitre included offerings of flowers to the ocean and...
Martinique, Guadeloupe: A Star is Born
Atout Guadeloupe is happy (Fr) that 19 year-old Martiniquan Cyril won the Star Academy reality show/music contest, a French equivalent of American Idol. Says the feed: “19, millions of Euros, a budding career. Guadeloupe joins the pride and joy of Martinique for Cyril's victory… [We] predict a wonderful career for...
Jamaica: Development and apathy
Pondering the debate in Jamaica over proposed development for bauxite in Cockpit Country, AliceClaire asks: “Really, which is worse: our myopic vision and planning or a largely, and surprisingly, dormant civil society that let's too many things slide right on by them?“
About our Caribbean coverage
Janine Mendes Franco is the Caribbean editor. Email her story ideas or volunteer to write.
