Stories about Caribbean from January, 2007
Barbados: “Dear Police Force…”
In light of revelations that the Barbados police force may be using some of its newly acquired skills to identify the people behind their blog, Barbados Free Press writes an open letter to the constabulary.
Jamaica: Patties
Stunner offers a crash course in Jamaican patties.
Jamaica, St. Lucia, Barbados: Post-independence
Geoffrey Philp takes on the subject of post-Independence literature in the Caribbean, noting the particular significance of the work of poets Kamau Braithwaite, Derek Walcott and Mervyn Morris.
Why Independence for Quebec but not Guadeloupe?
Convention pour une Nouvelle Guadeloupe notes (Fr) that French Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal has endorsed the Quebecois party's principle of Quebecois independence. The blog continues: “We notice once more the double standard of socialist conservatives who share the goal of Quebecois Independence but reject the same outcome for Guadeloupe.”...
Barbados: Movie stars and unwashed masses
An article about an exclusive Barbados holiday villa in the UK's Times Online gets Barbados Free Press‘s back up with its trumpeting of the villa's private beach and seclusion away from the “hoi polloi”.
Barbados Free Press: The Great Barbados landslip of 1901
Barbados Free Press republishes a newspaper article from 1901 detailing the most dramatic landslip in the country's history, and expresses concerns that it took place not far from the site of a proposed dumpsite.
Bahamas: Leaving the tourism plantation
“All of us can collectively turn our backs by remembering that tourism is a job that we do, it is not who we are. It is a necessary evil, it is not our reason for being. Serving tourists well is not the greatest achievement we can aspire to, and it...
Bahamas: Inspired by Wangari Maathai
Lynn Sweeting is inspired by a letter from Kenyan environmentalist and Nobel prize winner Wangari Maathai, to plant trees in her neighbourhood.
Aruba: National park photos
ArubaGirl posts some pictures of Aruba's National Park Arikok.
Haiti: Port-Morgan Tourist Destination
Collectif Haiti de Provence posts (Fr) pictures of the Port Morgan resort in Ile-a-Vache, Haiti.
Martinique: Homophobia and Segolene Royal's Socialist Party
The French Socialist Party's presidential candidate Segolene Royal. Photo by Manuel MC. Le Blog de [Moi], the blog of an out Martiniquan lesbian, tackled a budding controversy in local Martiniquan politics last week. Martinique, though in the Americas, is a French Overseas Department (what the French call a D.O.M.) and...
Jamaica: Saved by The Cure
In the summer of 1987, Jamaican writer Marlon James is saved by The Cure: “I don’t remember 1987 by any sequence of days and dates; I remember it by breaths I lost, gasping at “Just Like Heaven.” I can’t recall any major events but I do remember the sad drum...
Trinidad & Tobago: School porn ring and cell phone cameras
Keith Francis on the recent discovery of a school porn ring in Trinidad involving videos recorded on cell phone cameras: “The fact is that despite our wilful efforts to ignore the fact, children have been screwing children – indeed adults both male and female have been screwing children – from...
Trinidad & Tobago: Blog love
The IZATRINI.com blog reviews shortdrop.com, a web site for Trinidadian car enthusiasts, and TrinidGourmet.com interviews fellow food blogger Chenette.
Image from French Guiana: Mind Your Kids
From the French Guiana forest, this sign captured by Photoblog sur la Guyane Francaise reads (Fr): “Look after your kids or … keep them on a leash.”
Haiti: Reflecting on National Soccer
Reflecting on Haiti's recent defeat at the hands of the Trinidad & Tobago soccer/football team, Collectif Haiti de Provence writes (Fr): “Yes, formerly our regional rivals had names like Mexico. Today we align with difficulty with nations where soccer/football has no popularity and hence no budget: Cuba, Martinique, Dominican Republic....
Bermuda: Racism plus a spineless opposition?
A senior member of Bermuda's opposition party resigns, citing racism in the party ranks. But the Limey finds the senior member's claims self-contradictory and thinks the party could have responded more promptly and decisively to the situation.
Guyana: Press freedom
In light of the recent withdrawal of state-sponsored advertising from the Guyana news daily The Stabroek News (an act condemned by Reporters Sans Frontières), Guyana360 writes a series of posts (one, two, three, four) on press freedom in Guyana.
Guyana: The Brown Book
GuyanaGyal recounts her struggles with a ledger known in her household as “The Brown Book”: “When I read about accountants cooking books I does imagine that they get so vex with they Brown Book they does reach boiling point and when they touch the book, it boil too, and that...
Haiti: President of the Caribbean
Inspired by Barack Obama's recent announcement that he was exploring the idea of running for the US presidency, and Wyclef Jean's appointment as roving ambassador for Haiti, The Nightshift Chronicler announces his intention to run for President of the Caribbean. . . .
Jamaica, Colombia: Identity etc
In response to some questions posed to him in December, Jamaican writer Geoffrey Philp writes an open letter recounting a visit to a Colombian restaurant in Florida with his (part-Colombian) family: “Of course, I’ve chosen to blog about it and this is one way about talking about your questions, which...