Caribbean: 2007 – The Year of Elections   · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

2007 has been quite the eventful year for the Caribbean – we've had hurricanes and earthquakes,   rap stars behaving badly and Nobel Laureates behaving badly, not to mention the infamous terror plot.  Sadly, the year was also marked by tragedy and escalating crime – but if the Caribbean were to pick a recurring theme for Y2K7, it would have to be elections.
This was the year of regional politics, with elections being held in Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, the Bahamas and Bermuda and municipal elections even happening in Cuba. Not to mention, Barbados’ elections are scheduled to take place on January 15th – which is why, when reflecting upon the Global Voices Caribbean post that has had the most impact this year, it was a fairly easy choice: Caribbean: Elections Go Web 2.0 – simply because it asks whether citizen media can “genuinely and profoundly influence the outcome of a political election” in the context of the region's “small, close-knit populations, relatively low internet penetration, and the continuing primacy of the mainstream media as a source of information.”
I'd like to think the answer is yes and that this post has made Caribbean nationals rethink the role of citizen reporting and how it can change the world.