Latest posts by Janine Mendes-Franco from February, 2011
Haiti: Preventable Suffering
“The earthquake did not kill people. Bad buildings killed people. Lack of medical care killed people. Lack of infrastructure killed people. Lack of caring government officials kill[s] people”: Dying in...
Bahamas: The Right to Speak Out
“I always have and always will speak up when my rights as a homeowner, a citizen and a human being are being threatened”: Womanish Words believes that her voice is...
Cuba: Damas de Blanco Attacked
Bloggers discuss the latest crackdown on Cuban dissidents.
Caribbean: Bocas Announces Longlist
“The OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature — which will be awarded for the first time this year — has announced its 2011 longlist of ten books”: Caribbean bloggers discuss.
Trinidad & Tobago: The Death Penalty
“Faced with a major problem with serious crime in Trinidad & Tobago, the current government is ( rather predictably) pushing for the reimplementation of the death penalty”: Globewriter is heartened...
Cuba: Watching from Within
“There has not [been] enough coverage or information to even begin to address the complexity of these events and the numberless perspectives interpreting them”: Graham Sowa blogs at Havana Times...
Trinidad & Tobago: Saving by Sou Sou
“A sou sou is structured where one person will be in charge of collecting monies from a group of people. All the monies collected will be given to one person...
Cuba: The Day Zapata Died
Iván's File Cabinet remembers the day that hunger striker and prisoner of conscience Orlando Zapata Tamayo died.
Turks & Caicos, Barbados: Disappearing Blog
The tcipost blog “disappeared overnight without notice”; Barbados Free Press comes to the rescue.
Jamaica: Nothing for the Youth?
“We too busy having dramatic, Days-of-our-lives type enquiries to stop for a minute and realise that this year, more than any other year to date, is all about us. It's...
Haiti: Challenges & Hopes
Kevin Fortuna at Concern Blogs visits Haiti and writes about his experience.
Trinidad & Tobago: The Mayor's Way?
“We have been planting the seeds of the very breakdown in society we decry and lamenting the crops for too long”: Plain Talk suggests that perhaps the Mayor of Port...
Guyana: What you find on the Internet
Green coffee and porn? Guyana-Gyal explains the link.
Trinidad & Tobago: Political Developments
Jumbie's Watch mulls over a few political developments, saying: “The more things change, the more they remain the same, not so?”
Cuba: Marking Zapata's Anniversary
Diaspora blogger El Cafe Cubano posts photos from a march in honour of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, while Uncommon Sense reports that “Cuban independent journalist and activist Guillermo Fariñas…said the government's...
Turks & Caicos: The Courage to Protest
The tcipost wonders if protests in the Bahamas might serve to “wake the people of Turks and Caicos up”.
Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica: The Facts About Banton
Globewriter comments on the shocked reactions to the Banton verdict: “The fact is there is video of Buju Banton chatting with federal agents and tasting the cocaine…and he is now...
Trinidad & Tobago: What's After Carnival?
As controversy ensues over the behaviour of a “sore loser” at a Carnival music competition, Coffeewallah observes that the priorities of Trinbagonians may be skewed: “In two weeks this will...
Cuba: Zapata Vive
“The fact that Zapata’s death came about through starvation is one more piece of the hunger we have endured for over half a century”: Crossing the Barbed Wire explains why...
Guyana: Mashramani “Huge Success”
Check out photos of this year's Mashramani celebrations, here.
Jamaica: Bloggers React to Banton Verdict
Despite bloggers' impassioned calls to “set the captive free”, the jury in the Buju Banton drug trial yesterday returned a guilty verdict on three of the four charges against him. The recent Grammy winner could be facing a sentence of as much as fifteen years behind bars. For many bloggers, the long-awaited verdict is an uncomfortable case of life imitating art - the critically acclaimed Before the Dawn, which won Banton the Grammy award for Best Reggae Album, includes “a song in which Banton proclaims he is wrongly convicted though God knows he is innocent.”
