Stories about Jamaica from July, 2006
Jamaica, Cayman Islands, St. Vincent and the Grenadines: Blogger linkup
Cayman-based Jamaican blogger Mad Bull posts a short report on last night's “Caribbean Blogger Linkup”, at which ten bloggers, mostly Jamaican but including one from St. Vincent, assembled at a restaurant in Kingston.
Jamaica: R.I.P. Louise Bennett
Poet and actress Louise Bennett, popularly known as Miss Lou, perhaps the most beloved public figure in contemporary Jamaica, has died at the age of 86. At the Caribbean Beat blog, Jeremy Taylor offers a tribute. “She wrote unforgettable poems in the Jamaican ‘patois’ or ‘dialect’ which we now learn...
Jamaica: Reggae aesthetics
Jamaican writer Geoffrey Philp thinks about the role of “reggae aesthetics” in the post-colonial Caribbean, and posts a podcast of his poem “version break”.
Jamaica: Emancipation and Independence
Charles Nesson announces that he is hosting a programme on the the Public Broadcasting Corporation of Jamaica on August 1 (Jamaica's Emancipation and Independence Day) “in which Jamaican leaders talk with me about Jamaica’s journey to freedom and the issues of emancipation and independence which still confront them.” The programme...
Caribbean: Stanford 20/20
Jeremy Taylor at the Caribbean Beat weblog notes the début of the Stanford 20/20 in Antigua, the “fastest and whackiest form of the game [of cricket] yet,” adding that “the purists will no doubt gnash their teeth, as they did when one-day matches were begun in 1963 and when Packer...
Jamaica: Hypersexuality
At The Pan Collective, Mikaila writes about the “hypersexuality” of Jamaica.
Jamaica, Cayman: Rocking on
Mad Bull offers a capsule history of his experience with rock music in Jamaica and welcomes the arrival of a new rock station in the Cayman Islands.
Jamaica: Agents are agents are agents
In an entertaining allegory involving a beach house in Negril, a barman and a “rent-a-dread”, Jamaican writer Geoffrey Philp contemplates the role of one of the key players in the modern publishing business: the agent.
Jamaica, USA: Loving America through literature
Some years ago, a young Geoffrey Philp overcomes his trepidation at passing the armed Marines guarding the US Consulate reading room in Kingston, and falls in love with American literature: “For on that evening in that reading room, America gained a friend.”
Caribbean: Google maps Caribbean territories
Ryan at The West Indies Cricket Blog notes that Google Maps has added high-definition satellite images for Guyana, Jamaica and Barbados that allow for “upclose overhead shot[s]” of the cricket grounds in those countries. The grounds are being prepared for the 2007 World Cup.
Canada, Caribbean: West Indian restaurants
Barbadian blogger Jdid writes at length, and with great humour, about his experiences of West Indian restaurants in Toronto.
Martinique: First Caribbean Social Forum
Le Blog de [Moi] is pleased (Fr) to learn that the first Caribbean Social Forum is happening in Martinique this week (July 5-9) but does not think its timing was particularly smart what with the World Cup's final taking place this weekend as well as an annual cultural fair in...
Caribbean: New series of news blogs
Online newsmagazine Caribbean360.com announces a series of blogs by writers and columnists.
Jamaica: At the US Embassy
Scratchie is displeased with the way the US Embassy in Kingston treats those awaiting appointments, but acknowledges “the roaring business opportunities that have been created surrounding the rules that one must abide with when visiting the Embassy. There are cellphone holders and baggage handlers and. . .”
Jamaica: A reggae novel
“I would write a reggae novel, and I would call it, Benjamin, My Son,” writes Geoffrey Philp in his two-part account of the genesis of his first novel.
Jamaica: The day Bob died
Geoffrey Philp remembers the day Bob Marley died.
