Stories about Caribbean from February, 2008
Blogger of the Week: Nicholas Laughlin
Today's Blogger of the Week is Nicholas Laughlin - an author, editor, art enthusiast, activist and "occasional" blogger, who has dreams bigger than life for his hometown in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, and writing projects and engagements which make him wish the day was longer than 24 hours.
Trinidad & Tobago: Assisting Guyana
“Perhaps…this can be the precursor to a properly organised Caribbean-based defence initiative which…moves us one step closer, even through tragedy, to a single pan-Caribbean nation”: Keith in Trinidad shares his thoughts on T&T's offer of assistance to Guyana.
Jamaica, Haiti: Haitian Creole
“I learned many things from Felix Morisseau-Leroy and one of the most important was his commitment to the Haitian Creole language”: Geoffrey Philp posts one of the writer's poems.
Bermuda: Immigration
Politics.bm has a suggestion for helping Bermuda's “appallingly slow Department of Immigration.”
Trinidad & Tobago: Music Festival
“It seems to defeat the purpose of competition when it seems no matter how hard you try…you could still end up tied with fellow competitors in the top three. Wither, then, the prestige and the incentive?” Discover TnT Blog is a tad disappointed with the Trinidad & Tobago Music Festival.
Guyana: The Reality of Distance
“The murders at Lusignan and Bartica are outside my realm of reality…”: Signifyin’ Guyana tries to make sense of the recent massacres and bridge the gap between the Guyanese disapora and those still living at home.
Barbados: Hair Them Out
“Why should these young men be barred from finishing their studies and leading productive lives because they made a hairstyle choice?”: Cheese-on-bread! blogs about the latest controversy in Barbados – students being banned from classes because of how they choose to wear their hair.
Inmates use blogs to start a reform of society
This week we are introduced to another of the Rising Voices second round grantees, “Prison Diaries”, based in Jamaica. It will use citizen media tools like blogs, video and podcasts to share the daily journals of inmates, allowing all Jamaicans to learn about the realities of Jamaica’s overcrowded prison system with the hope that this will counteract the false ideas of veneration of gang leaders implanted by the media.
Barbados, Cuba: Castro's Legacy
As David Thompson praises the Castro legacy, Barbados Free Press says: “A damned shame. We had hoped for better from the new Prime Minister.”
Trinidad & Tobago: Cultural Preservation
“Even as we fret about the loss of our historic architecture, we are losing the architects of our history”: Blogging from Trinidad & Tobago, The Liming House writes about the importance of preserving “our collective memory.”
Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago: Moon Shadow
The Life and Times of Michmac and Caribbean Free Radio post photos of last night's lunar eclipse.
Jamaica: School's Out
“Jamaican teachers have taken a stand that they will no longer tolerate the impish, rude, violent and classless behaviour which takes place in our schools”: Jamaican Lifestyle blogs about the island's “bad behaving school children.”
Trinidad & Tobago, Australia: de Boissiere Passes On
Blogging from Trinidad & Tobago, Antilles acknowledges the passing of author and centenarian Ralph de Boissiere: “one of the chief figures in the Beacon group, a circle of young, talented, ambitious writers that formed around the Trinidadian magazine of that name in the early 1930s.”
Jamaica, USA: Obama the Orator
“No, this isn’t an endorsement for Barack Obama—this is a literary blog after all,” writes Jamaican Geoffrey Phlip, as he examines the text of a speech that the Democratic presidential candidate gave in Wisconsin.
Trinidad & Tobago: Eclipse Tonight
Caribbean Beat Blog reminds stargazers in The Americas, Europe and Africa to look out for the total lunar eclipse tonight!
Bermuda, Guyana: Government Media
Politics.bm blogs about the implications of state-owned media in Bermuda.
Barbados: Strike on Hold
Barbados Free Press reports that the national strike is on hold, while Notes From The Margin says: “We…always felt that the Union had painted itself into a corner by reaching for the ‘big gun’ prematurely. The lateness of this climb down also has several knock on effects that may be...
Martinique: Dockworkers on strike. Again.
In Martinique, le blog de [moi] writes that the port of Fort-de-France is completely blocked [Fr], and has been for a week, by dockworkers on strike. She's not too sympathetic, noting, according to one report, that dockworkers’ salaries have doubled in the last five years, and that they last went...
Caribbean: Castro – End of an Era?
The buzz in the regional blogosphere for the last 24 hours has undoubtedly been the retirement of Cuban leader Fidel Castro after nearly 50 years at the helm of the socialist republic. The announcement hardly came as a surprise, what with the last couple of years of anti-Castro bloggers closely following reports of the leader's deteriorating health and speculating as to whether or not he was even alive.
Guyana: State of Insecurity
“It seems like only yesterday the Government said they had a plan, today 13 more souls lay cold as gunmen strike bold”: Guyana 360 experiences deja vu, saying: “This is the worst ever state of insecurity.”
Bermuda: Open Government
“Back in November, Bermuda was fixated on our little race war, I mean election, so it’s understandable that the release of Barack Obama’s Technology platform did not get much attention”: Vexed Bermoothes thinks it's worth a read, adding: “We have no vision for open government. Obama is talking about doing...
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