· May, 2013

Stories about Caribbean from May, 2013

Campaign to Liberate Oscar López Rivera

  29 May 2013

The campaign for the liberation of Puerto Rican independence fighter Oscar López Rivera has intensified. During 32 years López Rivera has been imprisoned in the United States charged with “seditious conspiracy” and “conspiracy to escape” for which he received a 70 year sentence. He is now 70 years old. The...

Jamaica's Blog Action Day: What Police Can Do

  26 May 2013

Jamaican bloggers marked their own version of Blog Action Day (dubbed JA Blog Day), on May 23. Netizens discussed the disturbing issue of police brutality, state security abuses and extra judicial killings - particularly fitting as the date for the event was the third anniversary of the "Tivoli Gardens Massacre", which took place during the country's state of emergency in 2010.

Trinidad & Tobago: Invented E-mails or Political Demise?

  23 May 2013

Monday's sitting of Trinidad and Tobago's Parliament saw the Opposition Leader quoting from several e-mails, which, he alleged, implicate key government ministers, including the Prime Minister, in attempting to cover up her administration's actions surrounding the Section 34 controversy. Netizens have been debating whether the e-mails are even real and what it could mean politically if they are...or are not.

Bahamas: Haitians are our Brothers

  22 May 2013

One of the most dastardly parts of the Atlantic slave trade was how fellow human beings were treated as as if they less than men and women. And it seems that many of us feel the same way about illegal Haitians here in The Bahamas. Weblog Bahamas’ Rick Lowe adds,...

Trinidad & Tobago: “Ordinariology”

  22 May 2013

The backlash, growing quietly by the second, apparently, against the Differentology video isn't that it's a bad video, it's that it's the wrong class of video entirely for the song. Mark Lyndersay explains why he thinks the video for the most transformative soca song of the year is simply ordinary.

Trinidad & Tobago: It Takes a Village

  21 May 2013

A generation of Criminals, just like a generation of Professionals, don't simply pop up. They are raised. Trini World Views challenges everyone “who breathes fire and brimstone at criminals and the policing of criminal activity…to put that same passion into getting involved in the process [of] crime prevention.”

Jamaica: Blogging about Police Brutality

  18 May 2013

To mark the tragic anniversary of the Tivoli incursion and the lives that were lost there, Jamaican bloggers are uniting to draw attention to the scourge of extra-judicial killings in Jamaica and a police force seemingly out of control and beyond restraint. Active Voice is gearing up to comment on...

Saint Lucia Jazz Festival's Controversial Couture

  14 May 2013

This year's Saint Lucia Jazz and Arts Festival featured a fashion show dubbed “Hot Couture”, intended to boost the island's burgeoning fashion industry by creating a showcase for local models and for designers both in Saint Lucia and throughout the region - but it was filled with controversy and behind-the-scenes wrangling.

Domestic Violence Protection for Everyone

  11 May 2013

Blogger and feminist lawyer Verónica Rivera Torres writes [es] about the piece of legislations that seeks to extend the Law Against Domestic Violence (Law 54) in Puerto Rico to same sex couples: Since our Supreme Court ruled that the Law of the Prevention and Intervention in Domestic Violence, known as Law...

“I Am a Director”

  11 May 2013

Alternative blog Puerto Rico Indie reviews [es] the recent Puerto Rican film “I Am a Director,” which was partially financed through Kickstarter: The film, made in the ‘mockumentary’ style or fictitious documentary, follows the steps of Carlos (Carlos Marchand), first-time filmmaker who longs to make a Hollywood-style film, but in Puerto...

“Mom, I Am in Love With a Woman”

  11 May 2013

On occasion of the celebration of Mother's Day, tomorrow Sunday May 12, feminist activist Amárilis Pagán writes about the experience [es] of telling her mother she was in love with another woman: The day I told my mom I was in love with a woman, she delivered a long and heartbreaking...

Mapping the Cuban Blogosphere

  11 May 2013

Blogger Yasmín S. Portales comments on the challenges of mapping the Cuban blogosphere, including everything and anything written in blogs. This is her most recent project: A directory is a map: you have the swamps of glorious battles swamps and the mountains of infamy. You include it all, or it's...

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Janine Mendes-Franco
Janine Mendes Franco is the Caribbean editor. Email her story ideas or volunteer to write.