Stories about Caribbean from June, 2011
Trinidad & Tobago: Art & Politics
“Once more, art confronts us with the intersection of ideas”: Pleasure reviews Richard Rawlins’ recent art exhibition, saying that the icons of “white elephants, dangling flies that become pianos, non-performing arts academies and lego politicians all suggest what we all know: the realm of politics is one big megee.”
Bermuda, Bahamas: Moving Poetry
Take some time out to read a beautiful poem by a Bermudian writer, at tongues of the ocean.
Trinidad & Tobago: Disorganised Tourism
Lisa Allen-Agostini says that Trinidad tourism “is so poorly developed it’s a shame. I was horrified and embarrassed half the time at the paltry quality of our tourism product.”
Bermuda: The Attitude/Economics Equation
Politics.bm says that 30 years after tourism's heyday, “Bermudians are wondering where all the tourists went” and fears that the same thing will happen to the country's stake in international business; Vexed Bermoothes echoes his concern about Bermuda's economic outlook, saying: “At the rate we are going, we may soon...
Jamaica: Cabinet Reshuffle
Girl With a Purpose has the details about the Prime Minister's Cabinet reshuffle, one of the highlights being that “the post of Attorney General and Minister of Justice has been separated, as recommended by the Manatt/Coke Commissioners.”
Trinidad & Tobago: New Social Network Platform
TECHTT has its eye on Google+, “a social networking platform [that] will compete with Facebook and Twitter for a piece of our online socialising.”
Jamaica: Child Labour
When it comes to Child Labour, says Jamaica Woman Tongue, “traditional practices often clash with the law”, adding that “one of the most violent forms of abuse of children is enforced transactional sex in the home, a hush-hush subject in Jamaica.”
Haiti: Helping to Stop Human Trafficking
Stanley Lucas blogs about how the effects of 2010's earthquake have affected Haiti's “significant child trafficking problem” and offers a few suggestions to “guide government officials and organizations working on anti-trafficking initiatives.”
Suriname: On Art
SRANANART'S BLOG considers the work of Marcel Pinas to start a discussion about what constitutes art.
Barbados: Cricket Needs Managing
Barbados Free Press publishes the opinion of a reader who cannot rationalise that a psychologist has been hired to advise members of the West Indies cricket team, saying: “It’s about management, the mix and coaching. Management needs the shrink – the men need managing.”
Bermuda: Fiscal Mismanagement
Vexed Bermoothes is appalled at the country's debt.
Haiti: BBBC Benefits in Question
An interesting post on Bill Clinton's housing initiative, Building Back Better Communities (BBBC), which “seeks to construct housing projects across the nation of Haiti”, but upon closer examination, “seems as though the initiative won't live up to its name and in fact will build worse communities than even before the...
Trinidad & Tobago: Progress for Gay Rights
gspott says that the President's assention to the Data Protection Act is “of great significance to gay, lesbian and bisexual communities in Trinidad & Tobago” as it “provides heightened protections for ‘sensitive personal information’, which is defined to include one’s ‘sexual orientation or sexual life’.”
Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica: Buju's Prison
“Buju Banton was the one who helped us figure it out. He danced between social commentary and slackness. He transformed himself into a thoughtful prophet”: Attilah Springer says it's “a nightmare when you wake up to realise that the one to offer a place for escape is in prison too.”
Barbados, St. Vincent & the Grenadines: Racist Comments?
Barbadian bloggers are all over a WikiLeaks cable in which St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves is “quoted extensively”.
Bermuda: Position on Same-Sex Unions
Politics.bm looks at “some interesting scenarios [that] could play out…[if] Bermuda Immigration faces the question of a non-Bermudian worker coming to the island with a same sex spouse.”
Jamaica: Call for End to Anti-Gay Violence
Labrish remembers the life and work of her cousin, who was murdered on account of “his outspoken efforts to bring about an end to homophobia in Jamaica”, saying: “It is beyond time that the appalling homophobia that is a blight on certain parts of Jamaican society come to an end.”
Barbados: The Warner Effect
Barbados Underground comments on Jack Warner's FIFA resignation: “Warner is generating ‘heat’ which is not doing T&T and the wider Caribbean any favour in the international arena. All the world waits to hear if the sordid details arising from the Fifa Ethics Report will be leaked to the media. Worrying...
Trinidad & Tobago: A Case for Children & Computers
Lisa Allen-Agostini is irritated by “a call for the dismantling of the Government initiative to give laptop computers to all incoming secondary school students” and explains why “our children…deserve to reap the benefits of progress.”
Trinidad & Tobago: The CL Financial Letter
Afra Raymond posts a copy of “the CL Financial letter of 13th January 2009″, which he finally has in his possession after “three applications for this document under the Freedom of Information Act.”
Jamaica: Buju Gets 10 Years
As news spreads that reggae icon Buju Banton has been sentenced to 10 years in jail on drug charges, Jamaica Salt comments: “10 years is indeed a long time…but he’s reported to have took the news calmly and he was lucky in a way as the judge threw out an...
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Janine Mendes Franco is the Caribbean editor. Email her story ideas or volunteer to write.
