Stories about Caribbean from May, 2008
Bahamas: Education Consequences
Christopher Lowe at WeblogBahamas.com blogs about the consequences of an ineffective education system, saying: “We are reaping that which we have sown.”
Trinidad & Tobago: Indian Arrival Day
Today is Indian Arrival Day in Trinidad and Tobago and Coffeewallah reminisces on her former mother-in-law's legacy and the first time she taught her to wrap a sari: “It is an elegant garment…every woman looks beautiful in a sari.”
Jamaica, U.S.A.: Everglades Litany
“In anticipation of Caribbean American Heritage Month“, Jamaican litblogger Geoffrey Philp is running video series, which begins with one of his own, entitled Everglades Litany.
Haitian Literary Fair in Washington, D.C.
La Dous Ki Vyen Pwezi writes about a Haitian literary fair [Fr] held at Howard University in Washington, D.C. earlier this week.
Haiti: In memory of a murdered teenager
La Dous Ki Vyen Pwezi posts in memory of Kareem Gaspard [Fr], a 16 year-old boy who was murdered in Port-au-Prince last Friday. “I've spoken to, smiled at, or shook the hand of so many people who have disappeared this way. Killed. Like dogs.”
Guyana: Identity Crisis?
Signifying Guyana blogs about her “personal struggle with a hyphenated identity”.
Bahamas: Social Breakdown?
Larry Smith at Bahama Pundit believes that the country's escalating violence, especially among youth, “is not crime. It is impending social breakdown.”
Trinidad and Tobago: Shame
As an eight-year-old girl is found dead in a canefield in Trinidad, Coffeewallah says: “They're killing the children…casually, as though they are no more than sand through our fingers”, while Now is Wow Too quotes the anonymous subject of one of her photographs: “We have failed our children. What's going...
Bermuda: Freedom or Manipulation?
Bermudian bloggers are incensed about the Premier's statement that making certain information public is “akin to asking a neural surgeon to come out of the operating room in the middle of an operation to answer about costs and procedures”: IMHO.bm: “This is not progressive, this is regressive”; Vexed Bermoothes: “The...
Jamaica: Spinning
“Among its many atrocities, the single worst crime of the CD was that it made albums longer”: Jamaican Marlon James rediscovers the allure of vinyl.
Guyana: We the Bloggers
“You know that feeling you get when somebody compliment you but they slip in a few digs, so you end up puzzled?” A newspaper editorial compares news-blogs and traditional media, leaving Guyana-Gyal to comment: “Go on, you bloggahs you…give yourself a pat…for sharing your stories, histories, thoughts…and for bringing world-citizens...
Trinidad & Tobago: My City
Coffeewallah takes a walk along the streets of her city, Port of Spain.
Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago: Calabash Podcast
Caribbean Free Radio produces a podcast from Jamaica's Calabash International Literary Festival which includes perspectives on “Derek Walcott's unforgettable premiere reading of ‘The Mongoose'” and an interview with Jamaican writer Thomas Glave, who was quite vocal about the Prime Minister's recent comments about there being no place for homosexuals in...
Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago: Maslow & Art
Jamaican litblogger Geoffrey Philp sees a connection between Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and the Caribbean artist.
Guyana: Copyright Laws
Signifyin’ Guyana comes across an article on copyright laws in Guyana that “made (her) jaw drop.”
Haiti, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago: Caribbean Nostalgia
Haitian blogger kiskeácity links to an interview with Nicholas Laughlin, who is at the Calabash International Literary Festival in Jamaica talking about “Caribbean literature, imaginary roads, creoleness…”it all makes you a bit nostalgic…
Bahamas: Heterogeneous World
Bahamian Nicolette Bethel says: “Bahamians appear to imagine that the world is monocultural. More specifically, we tend to associate specific nations with specific ‘races’. But the world is a multicultural world, and, colonial mythology aside, it is not divided into clumps of people who fit specific moulds.”
Trinidad & Tobago: Got Mail?
KnowProSE.com reports that the mail strike in Trinidad and Tobago is still on.
Trinidad & Tobago: Ah Have ah Tabanca
“You know if this was a relationship with a man, you wouldn’t still be here. You would never stick around and take this abuse. Stay for what? Because this is where you were born? This is what you know? This is the only place that understands you?”: Trinidad and Tobago...
Jamaica: American Standard
Litblogger Geoffrey Philp is not in Jamaica for the Calabash International Literary Festival, but he's keeping track of what's going on, including Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott's criticism of the American standard.
Barbados, U.S.A.: Taking It Back
On the heels of Hillary Clinton's comment about Bobby Kennedy, Barbadian blogger Jdid comments: “You're just playing the spoiler now. It almost looks like you are trying to muddy the waters for your fellow democrat. All I can say is both you and Bill showed a wicked and dirty side...
About our Caribbean coverage
Janine Mendes Franco is the Caribbean editor. Email her story ideas or volunteer to write.
