Selections from the Caribbean blogosphere

http://www.flickr.com/photos/knowprose/58975864/

“Divali in Trinidad” by Taran Rampersad

A few selections from this week's conversation in the Anglophone Caribbean blogosphere:

Bahamas
Expat Wolfgang has his tongue firmly in his cheek when he declares that his is not a Bahamian blog. The bloggers at Bahama Pundit have plenty to say this week, with Larry Smith reviewing a book on pre-Columbian languages and offering a useful overview of the Bahamian blogsphere, Sir Arthur Foulkes reminding Bahamanians not to be complacent about civil rights and Nicolette Bethel calling for a different approach to tourism. And Lynn Sweeting finds problematic the absence of women's rights from the current discussions around national heroes.

Barbados
Two reactions to the October 26 march staged in Barbados by the group Lifeline Expedition, in which descendants of slave owners donned chains in an effort to apologize for slavery: Jdid calls the event “a travesty, a mockery, a despicable imitation which trivializes a serious part of our history” while Titilayo is relieved it's all over and happy that Barbados is continuing to forge alliances with African nations.

Belize
Andy Hunt reports on the progress of the Belize Jungle Dome project..

Bermuda
The Limey wonders whether the creation of a National Drugs Control Ministry is a good idea, and suggests that hunting–of realtors!–would be a useful addition to the island's tourism offerings. And an “Open Mike” post about the national cricket team's removal from field during the recent tour of Namibia sparks a stream of lively comments.

Cayman Islands
Odd Blog talks about “light pollution” in the Cayman Islands.

Dominica
Billy posts a short report on the 27th anniversary independence celebrations in Dominica.

Grenada
YingYang engages in some eye-rolling at the notion that the region's banana growers are surprised that the recent WTO ruling didn't go in their favour.


Guyana
Voice of Guyana Radio reveals on its blog that during the month of October, listeners from 52 countries tuned in. Guyana-Gyal writes a song about being addicted to blogging and uses the local vernacular to talk about the two religious holidays–Diwali and Eid-Ul-Fitr–celebrated in Guyana this week and their significance.

Haiti
Spanish-language blogger Baturrico presents a recipe for the traditional Haitian dish, soup joumou.

Jamaica
Dancehall Blog highlights an article in the Jamaica Times which says that Rastafarians are still discriminated against in Jamaica, particularly in the corporate sector, and reminds us that there was lewdness in music before the arrival of modern dancehall. Michelle McDonald is outraged at the shooting in Kingston of two young priests who worked with the poor and people with HIV/AIDS. Missie at Jamaica Culture & People tells us how to fry plantains and offers a photo of a traditional thatch-roofed hut along with a short commentary. In an October 31 post, Stunner summarises some of the unfortunate events which took place over the space of a 24-hour period in Jamaica.

St. Vincent & the Grenadines
Abeni reports on the current election campaign, noting the use of catchy theme songs and the recruiting of local and regional performers by both parties.

Trinidad & Tobago
Nicholas Laughlin continues his analysis of the response to the October 14 “Death March” by asking “What's wrong with being middle class?”–a question which is also of interest to Jonathan Ali, though first he'd like the term “middle-class” defined. Taran Rampersad muses on the value of sharing photographs. Richard Bolai posts a few photos of Diwali lights in Trinidad. CaribPundit's weekly “Trawling the Islands” post highlights Antigua's forging of closer ties with Cameroon, St. Kitts's expectations of of MTV's Caribbean channel, corporal punishment in Bermuda, the Grenada prime minister's trip to Libya, the increase in price of airfare between Trinidad and Tobago and more. Free Trinidad is disappointed with the new political leader of the country's main oppostion party . Hassan Voyeau notes the arrival of the Islamic Broadcast Network on the Trinidad and Tobago airwaves. Richard Jobity applauds the BBC's continuing experiments with podcasting and rants about Trinidad and Tobago's failure to prepare for the end of the natural gas boom, signaling Dominica and St. Lucia as good examples to follow, and posts today about the brewing dispute between two telecoms companies.

Podcasts
Caribbean Free Radio launched its sister vidcast, Caribbean Free Video.

4 comments

  • Wow. You make it sound so good. I was angry at what TSTT was pulling, so I tend to cuss when I discuss them.

    For some reason, I need to write, so I’m writing. Hope it keeps up. Actually, it was something that you said here that resonated with me. We’re here. Talk about here, not as if you’re elsewhere.

    I think that link is what was missing.

  • Richard’s dead on with the natural gas boom and the telecoms. Keep writing, RJ!

    I am still not a big fan of podcasting, for reasons that go right back to what Ethan Zuckerman’s weblog points to if you do a google search for the improper spelling of my name. Podcasts have a use, but they are not the biggest thing since sliced bread for me… Until transcripts start appearing for the podcasts, I think it’s pretty elitist. That’s sort of a hint for better marketing as well, with lower bandwidth costs for the servers. ;-)

    There’s a few more Divali pics here that I took: http://www.flickr.com/photos/knowprose/search/tags:divali/
    I didn’t write anything up on that, and I’m not likely to – the celebration is well covered in the Wikipedia and all I did was wander around and take some pics, practicing with the camera: hardly worth writing about.

  • Taran:

    Certainly podcasting is elitist if you think of it purely as tool for development–though I think you can say the same of blogging.

    I do believe, however, that digital audio has huge implications for development, especially in cases where literacy levels limit the value of the printed word or where people simply do not care to read (they’d still have to read the transcript of the podcast!). Remember that at the end of the day, the term “podcasting” simply describes a method of delivering audio, not the audio file itself.

    Nor do I think the two media–text and sound–are interchangeable: they do different things in different ways, or at least they do when they’re done well. As Marshall McLuhan said, “the medium is the message”.

    Thanks for the link to the Divali photos–just borrowed one to put in the post.

    Take care,
    Georgia

  • Not for nothing, but blogging has to do with accessibility. Podcasting has to do with bandwidth, which is a level above accessibility. I’m not ripping on podcasting, just pointing out that byte for byte, text carries more information and it is easier to find with a search engine because of the nature of audio and the nature of the web.

    Now, I do see podcasting having applications – like Caribbean Free Radio (smile) and other things which are of a periodical nature. For development issues, I think that the infrastructure has to allow maximum communication for people – and podcasting, as it is, is one way. Mobcasting can be two way, and it is something Andy Carvin has tossed my way and which I do need to get to sometime in this life, when I unbury myself from other things.

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