· November, 2013

Stories about Caribbean from November, 2013

Jamaica: Language & Development

  23 November 2013

Jamaica needs to be declared the bilingual state it is asap. Annie Paul thinks that “half of Jamaica’s problems stem from its linguistic identity crisis, insisting its mother tongue is English when a huge proportion of the population can only speak Patois.”

Jamaica: Abuse of Police Power

  22 November 2013

If the police involved…are allowed to go unpunished aren’t you sending a message to other cops with no respect for human rights, especially the rights of the poor, that they have a license to behave like this? Active Voice issues a plea to Jamaica's police commissioner after two teens were...

Have Racist Behaviors Been Unleashed in France ?

  15 November 2013

Epitomized by racial taunts [fr] towards the French Guiana-born Minister of Justice Christine Taubira on the cover of the weekly newspaper Minute, many observers bemoan the rise of racist behaviors [fr] in France. One of those observers is Harry Roselmack, a prominent reporter born in Martinique, who wrote an editorial in which...

Jamaica: Get with the (Interactive TV) Program!

  15 November 2013

You can buy the exclusive rights to such shows but you can’t do that and treat them as if they’re the kind of traditional uni-directional, analog content that’s on its way out without raising the ire of your viewers. The Voice is stirring up some discussion in Jamaica – and...

Jamaica: Police Painting Out Murals

  15 November 2013

Many will say the murals are merely ‘a glorification of criminals’ and should be defaced for fear of their ‘grave effects’ on ‘poor Jamaicans’ [but]…How does a profoundly corrupt state determine criminality? A really interesting post by Active Voice about the police embracing iconoclasm as a crime strategy.

Puerto Ricans Demand Oscar López Rivera's Release From Prison

  12 November 2013

The Movimiento Independentista Nacional Hostosiano (MINH), a Puerto Rican pro-independence movement, is organizing a peaceful protest on November 23 to demand the liberation of Oscar López Rivera. López Rivera is the longest-held political prisoner in the western hemisphere, charged with “seditious conspiracy” for his struggle for Puerto Rico's independence from...

Unveiling the Many Mysteries of the Monthly Energy Bill in Puerto Rico

  7 November 2013

The non-profit think tank Center for the New Economy (CNE), based in Puerto Rico, has launched the innovative and creative online campaign “The Mysteries of Your Energy Bill” [es] in which they explain the unexplainable: Where do all those increases in the energy bill come from? What do those formulas and...

Dominican Republic and Haiti: Two very different versions

  7 November 2013

The blog Repeating Islands republished two letters to the editor of the New York Times that paint two very different pictures on the situation regarding the recent decision of the Constitutional Tribunal of the Dominican Republic to strip citizenship from all descendants of immigrants who entered the country extralegally, retroactive...

About our Caribbean coverage

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