Stories about Caribbean from December, 2007
St. Vincent & the Grenadines: Windies Beat South Africa
“This victory is so huge given the history of South African tours”: Abeni is thrilled that the West Indies cricket team have finally won a test match.
Jamaica: Friends for Life
“Moving home to live in Jamaica has revealed to me that American friends are for a reason, but Jamaican friends are for life”: In Francis Wade‘s experience, West Indians and North Americans approach relationships very differently.
Haiti: Prayer for the New Year
Pwoje Espwa bids 2007 farewell and welcomes the New Year with a prayer.
Dominica: Bhutto's Son
Living Dominica is touched by the words of Benazir Bhutto's son and wonders “what the world would be like today if American leaders had spoken words like this in the wake of 9-11″.
Barbados: Homophobia
“In the Caribbean we are confused and hypocritical in our attitudes toward sex in general”: Living in Barbados blogs about the region's lack of tolerance for homosexuality.
Antigua: Fixing Crime
Talk Antigua thinks that crime is destroying the country “and no one seems to be doing anything about it.”
Barbados: Retired Immigration Chief Shot Dead
Both Barbados Free Press and Barbados Underground report on the murder of former Chief Immigration Officer Kenrick Hutson.
Trinidad & Tobago: Trip to Cairo
“I spent most of my first day swearing never to return, but I’ve been won over. I’ll be back.”: Club Soda and Salt visits Cairo, Egypt and finds a few similarities to his native Trinidad and Tobago.
Ethiopia: Queen of Sheba, Now Available in French
Francophone music blog Roots and Culture interviews Samuel Malher, a religious scholar from Strasbourg who has written the first unabridged French translation of the Kebra Negast, a sacred Ethiopian text. It describes the heritage of the Ethiopian monarchs, who trace their lineage to King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and how the Ethiopians became God's new chosen people when the Ark of the Covenant was taken from Israel to Ethiopia.
Congratulations New, Rising Voices
The Rising Voices citizen media outreach initiative will start out 2008 with five new and innovative projects based in Kenya, Madagascar, Uruguay, Jamaica, and Iran.
Trinidad & Tobago: Permaculture
Sharon Millar at My Chutney Garden interviews Johnny Stollmeyer – “a conceptual artist/deep ecologist working on issues of sustainability.”
Jamaica: Qualified Unemployment?
Francis Wade republishes a letter to the editor by a returning Jamaican national who can't get a job in order to make a point about why educated Jamaicans remain abroad.
Trinidad & Tobago: Stop the Traffic
“How can an island of 2 million people with an area the size of London have major traffic problems?”: Seldo.com blogs about the gridlock in Trinidad's capital city.
Barbados, Pakistan: What Now?
“I wonder what implications this tragic act will have for upcoming elections in Pakistan, as well as for the relations between the United States and the nuclear-armed nation”: Cheese-on-bread! speculates on the aftermath of Benazir Bhutto's assassination.
Barbados: Issues with LIAT
“Considering the massive investment the Barbadian taxpayer has made in LIAT, its difficult to understand why our Minister of Tourism does not represent ‘our’ interests on the board”: A reader writes in to Barbados Underground, drawing attention to the inefficiencies with one of the major regional carriers.
Barbados: Jordan Passes On
Cheese-on-bread! acknowledges the passing of Barbadian visual artist and costume designer Winston Jordan.
Trinidad & Tobago: Remembering Bhutto
“While she was far from perfect, and her government was plagued by corruption, I will always remember her as she was when she first came to power in the late 1980s, as a symbol of hope and democracy”: Further Thoughts pays tribute to Benazir Bhutto.
Puerto Rico, Trinidad & Tobago, Pakistan: RIP Bhutto
“Benazir Bhutto was for me an inspiration. She was fierce. She was bold. She was beautiful and smart and fearless”: Puerto Rican born blogger Liza Sabater recognizes Bhutto as a “sheroe”, while Coffeewallah, blogging from Trinidad, says: “Whatever Ms Bhutto may have been, she was seemingly trying to change Pakistan...
Bahamas: Theatre and Democracy
Nicolette Bethel agrees with artistic director Oskar Eustis that “The same emotion that is required for theatre to work is the emotion that is required for democracy to work — the idea we need to care about each other’s experience.”
Trinidad & Tobago: Slang
Jumbie's Watch responds to a Letter to the Editor that he finds “doltish”.
Barbados: Campaign Financing
Barbados Underground blogs about political campaign financing.
About our Caribbean coverage
Janine Mendes Franco is the Caribbean editor. Email her story ideas or volunteer to write.
