· January, 2008

Stories about Trinidad & Tobago from January, 2008

Trinidad & Tobago: Where's The ‘Mas?

  30 January 2008

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: On Not Eating Meat

  29 January 2008

“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

  28 January 2008

“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

  28 January 2008

“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

  26 January 2008

“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

  26 January 2008

“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

  26 January 2008

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: Stolen Generation?

  25 January 2008

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

  23 January 2008

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: ‘Mas in April?

  21 January 2008

“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: King Cobo

  14 January 2008

Thebookmann highlights one of Trinidad and Tobago's Carnival characters whose role is “to upkeep the traditions of Carnival from the grip of commercialism.”