I am a writer and media producer based in Trinidad and Tobago. Follow me on Twitter @JanineMFranco.
Latest posts by Janine Mendes-Franco from April, 2011
Bahamas: Grasping at Straws?
Jerome Pinder at Weblog Bahamas explains why the new Straw Market “will be a test for The Bahamas Government.”
Barbados: Barrow's Beach
Mullins Bay Blog wonders how one of the country's national heroes “would…have graded his heirs and successors, …who sat idly by and did nothing as the sand disappeared and coconut trees were unearthed and toppled at Kings Beach.”
Guyana: Unsolved Murder
Last week marked five years since Government Minister Satyadeow Sawh was was murdered in Guyana; The Caribbean Camera interviews his family, who are still searching for answers.
Cuba: Ferrer Held
According to Uncommon Sense and Babalu, Dr. Darsi Ferrer and other activists were arrested today “during a protest in which they were calling for the Castro dictatorship to allow Cubans to travel freely, among other demands.”
Bahamas: Shark Tales
Bahama Pundit‘s Larry Smith shares some good and bad news about sharks.
Cuba: Bosch Dies
Cuban bloggers note the passing of Orlando Bosch, with Machetera saying: “There are good terrorists and bad ones, and clearly the mainstream media have settled on the fiction that Bosch is the former, so he gets to be a ‘militant’.”
Jamaica: Honesty in Poetry
Diaspora litblogger Geoffrey Philp notices “a brutal honesty” in his featured poem by Kei Miller.
Cuba: Right to the Internet
“Any ‘supposition’ about what a farmer should do on Google, or in the furrow, is called control over the free actions of another, personal choice and individual freedom”: Octavo Cerco wonders “why it’s a problem to assume access to the Internet as a 21st Century human right.”
Suriname: Video Art
Srananart's Blog is excited about the launch of “a new art form for Suriname” – video art!
Cuba: The “Queen of Incredulity”
1Click2Cuba profiles Claudia Cadelo, “one of the best-known members of the Cuban blogging community.”
Haiti: Amnesty or Justice?
Toussaint on Haiti shares his thoughts about the possible granting of amnesty to Jean-Claude Duvalier and Jean-Bertrand Aristide by the new President-elect.
Trinidad & Tobago: Carib Queen Dies
Review of the Indigenous Caribbean and The Voice of the Taino People Online acknowledge the passing of Valentina Medina, the Carib Queen of the Santa Rosa Carib Community.
Trinidad & Tobago: Destroying Food
B.C. Pires blogs about “the Housing Development Corporation’s bulldozing of several acres of crops ready for harvest in Trinidad.”
Cuba, U.S.A.: Tamayo to Leave with Son's Remains
Bloggers are monitoring the impending departure from Cuba of Reina Luisa Tamayo, who is reported to be going into exile, but not without the remains of her son, “murdered Cuban prisoner of conscience Orlando Zapata Tamayo.”
Guyana, St. Lucia, T&T: Literary Achievements
Lots of literature in the regional blogosphere today – Signifyin’ Guyana asks, “You going Trinidad for Bocas?”, while Caribbean Book Blog notes that Trinidadian author Earl Lovelace “has been awarded the first Grand Prize for Caribbean Literature by the Regional Council of Guadeloupe for his new book, Is Just a...
Bermuda: MPs’ Salaries
Bloggers are unimpressed by “the continuing refusal of MPs [Ministers of Parliament] to take a pay cut, even a symbolic one.”
Jamaica: Walcott's Work
Litblogger Geoffrey Philp features a poem by Derek Walcott, saying: “I swear, [he] makes writing verse look so easy…a poet whose oeuvre shows a deep love for the Caribbean–its language, landscape and light.”
Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago: REDjet Delay
“People don’t take kindly when you make newspaper announcements that you’re coming for dinner, but you didn’t bother to inform the host”: Barbados Free Press blogs about new regional carrier REDjet's apparent failure to comply with licensing processes in Trinidad and Tobago.
Cuba: Fonseca Released
“The publicity on Facebook, Twitter and blogs only intensified…”: Uncommon Sense says that the release of Cuban human rights activist Sara Martha Fonseca “is a victory for freedom.”
Bermuda: Shrinking Population = Shrinking Economy?
In the face of declining local retail sales, Vexed Bermoothes believes that “the real reason for the anaemic economy is that Bermuda’s population has shrunk … and that the local economy has shrunk correspondingly.”
Cuba: Women as Soldiers?
Octavo Cerco is irritated by a sign which suggests that “we Cuban women form a battalion for the defense of the fatherland”, saying: “It bothers me greatly that the multiple mass organizations which supposedly represent groups of Cubans feel like they have the right to speak for everyone, robbing individuals...
