Stories about Trinidad & Tobago from January, 2008
Trinidad and Tobago: “Not playing mas”
Trinidad's Coffeewallah explains why she will not be participating in this year's Carnival masquerade.
Trinidad and Tobago: Water woes
If Trinidad and Tobago is so good at pumping oil out of the ground, OpenDepth asks, why are water mains so often dry?
Trinidad & Tobago: Where's The ‘Mas?
Thebookmann attends Trinidadian artist Ashraph's Carnival exhibition: “The Midnight Robber, the Fancy Sailor, Bats, Red Devils and Fancy Indians, Kings and Queens and to its current transitional state of feathers and beads, all inclusive, in a brown paper bag.”
Trinidad & Tobago: Panorama
Thebookmann reports on the pervasive mood as Trinidad and Tobago steelbands move closer to the Panorama finals.
Trinidad & Tobago: On Not Eating Meat
“I am not the preachy sort of vegetarian,” declares Trinidadian Nicholas Laughlin, as he links to an article that “summarises so succinctly the good reasons to stop eating meat–or at least reduce the amount one eats…”
Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago: Lusignan Massacre
“I've never felt so utterly hopeless about Guyana as I do today, and it weighs all the heavier in this prolonged season of hopelessness about my own country, my own society”: As news spreads about the horrific massacre in the town of Lusignan, Nicholas Laughlin‘s heart bleeds for Guyana.
Trinidad & Tobago: “La Fantasie” & Reality
“For most Trinidadians, giving the name ‘La Fantasie’ to a house is a bitter joke, rousing memories of the hundreds of millions spent to construct the new prime ministerial palace…it also pokes sardonic fun at the fantasy of social and economic progress peddled by the current Trinidad and Tobago government”:...
Trinidad & Tobago: Fancy Sailors
“Every year it seems, the few individuals who have kept the traditions of Old Mas alive are becoming less visible”: Thebookmann features Trinidad and Tobago Carnival's Fancy Sailors.
Trinidad & Tobago: The Bottom Line
“Trinidad is no longer the Land of the Hummingbird but the Land of the Cash Cow…in the new Trinidad Carnival, the only thing that need be considered is not the bottom in the road but the bottom line in the road”: Nicholas Laughlin quotes Trinidad and Tobago journalist B.C. Pires.
Barbados: Impact of CSME
While Bajan Free Press believes “the future of Barbados is inextricably linked to the future of the Caribbean region of which we are a part”, Barbados Underground says: “We will probably import many of the social ills of T&T, Guyana and several of the other islands.”
Trinidad & Tobago: Dame Lorraine
Thebookmann attends a traditional “Old ‘Mas” performance in Trinidad and Tobago and posts video of the well-loved Carnival character of the Dame Lorraine.
Trinidad & Tobago: Stolen Generation?
A schoolyard incident in Trinidad and Tobago makes Jumbie's Watch wonder: “How and when did society ‘tief’ our children, and their innocence? And how did we let them get away with it, without even a murmur of protest?”
Trinidad & Tobago: World Social Forum
Blogging from Trinidad and Tobago, Ramblings and Reason thinks World Social Forum “enables discussion of critical social issues that impact us”, but The Liming House is not convinced: “Yes, another world is possible, and another T&T is possible. But we have to come better than this.”
Trinidad & Tobago: The Merry Monarch
Discover TnT Blog has the latest Soca Monarch updates from Trinidad and Tobago's Carnival celebrations.
Trinidad & Tobago: On The Wire
Irony pervades Caribbean Free Radio‘s second attempt to improve her wireless broadband service.
Trinidad & Tobago: ‘Mas in April?
“They should save their symposium-organising money and use it for something else, because the idea is just plain absurd”: Caribbean Free Radio responds to news that a group of “Carnival stakeholders” is proposing “that Trinidad and Tobago’s age-old pre-lenten Carnival be moved to a more ‘convenient’ date”; while Nicholas Laughlin...
Trinidad & Tobago: Lara Hurt
West Indies Cricket Blog reports on Brian Lara's injury in the Carib Beer Series.
Trinidad & Tobago: Crime & Punishment
“Why do we allow such unworthy men to play with our lives?” Ramblings and Reason blogs about what she calls “the latest political red herring” in Trinidad and Tobago.
Trinidad & Tobago: Hosay
Thebookmann features traditional Hosay celebrations in Trinidad and Tobago.
Trinidad & Tobago: King Cobo
Thebookmann highlights one of Trinidad and Tobago's Carnival characters whose role is “to upkeep the traditions of Carnival from the grip of commercialism.”
Trinidad & Tobago: Short-Listed Books
Antilles is pleased that there are four Caribbean books on the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Awards shortlist.