Following the untimely death of singer Whitney Houston, a handful of Caribbean bloggers are talking about her talent, her music and her legacy.

From Trinidad and Tobago, The Liming House posts a video of the singer performing “I Look to You” and says:

Goodbye, Whitney. Because your voice, even when ravaged, could still reduce me to tears.

Barbados Free Press expresses similar sentiments.

Blogging from Jamaica, one of the things that most strikes Active Voice is that many of the international mainstream media “[seem] to have one clip of Whitney singing/performing”, to which one of her Twitter followers responded:

You know they don’t keep black folk in stock.

The post continues:

I couldn’t understand why for a couple of hours CNN kept showing the same footage of Whitney in a grey dress singing on stage, while NBC seemed to have slightly more diverse clips to accompany the sparse details of her death yesterday. @106harlem’s terse response is shocking but true. Within a few minutes @diverseworld chimed in saying @anniepaul @106harlem … If this is about the footage. I agree. Finally BBC moved from the Bodyguard…

Plain Talk begins his post with a line from “The Greatest Love of All”, but soon voices his concern that the cult of celebrity may be sending the wrong message to regional societies:

The truth of the matter is that the deepest needs of a human being cannot be medicated away; human beings, people, need love, acceptance, intimacy and a feeling of belonging as much as air, water and food to develop, regardless of how unfashionable and contradictory that statement may sound…

Our society is now at the cusp of a complete breakdown because we bought the lie wholesale and sprung for all of the attachments as well. The modern day man-made dilemma of depression that is caused either by the abandonment or outright abuse of our children when they are at their most vulnerable can only be turned around through deep self examination and acceptance in a healthy loving environment and by a life of purpose and of service to others.

We need teachers who love children, who chose the profession out of the desire to mould and develop healthy young minds in a world of immense possibilities and dreams. We need to put back the structures of a healthy society into place, that encourages family life rather than its destruction; that rebuilds our nation into a place where it is safe and beautiful to be a child, and where it is healthy and possible to grow up and become an adult. We need to love each other, take care of each other, and to treasure and grow our communities into spaces of human development and care once again, so as to have somewhere to retreat to when times get dark and we need the trust and support only loved ones can give.

Finally, over in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Abeni writes:

When the phone rang last it was to report two deaths. One was yet another female homicide and the other the death of mega star Whitney Houston. Both were devastating for various reasons. The blood of females continue to drench the soil and it makes me scared,helpless and angry at the same time.

Ms Whitney was an icon, She was gorgeous,regal and had the most amazing voice ever. It seemed like everything she touched turned to gold. From being the first black woman to grace the over of Seventeen magazine, to an endless succession of hits,to lighting up the screen she had the fans eating out of her hands. As a 90's teen her music was a constant in my life.

Many would prefer to reduce her life to her struggles with drug addiction as if it were the single defining factor. I can't and I won't because I believe we or most of us have our demons. We however, have the luxury of not having them played out on the public stage. In the end she was a human as human as all of us.

Rest in peace sweet girl and thanks for sharing your talent with us.