Janine Mendes-Franco · April, 2012

Latest posts by Janine Mendes-Franco from April, 2012

Trinidad & Tobago: Grammatically Correct

  27 April 2012

“I know that I would really judge someone who couldn’t construct a sentence properly. I write for a living. Can you blame me if I think that great grammar skills are sexy?” Karel McIntosh, writing at Outlish, says that “if a guy has poor grammar skills, that’s a deal breaker.”

Haiti: Death by “Clairin”

  27 April 2012

“In early 2011, a dozen people died after drinking ‘clairin’ – a traditional Haitian alcohol drink – made with methanol in the Fond Baptiste region, north of the capital. Another 20 or so were blinded or paralyzed”: Haiti Grassroots Watch learns that “judicial, health and commerce authorities have not investigated...

Jamaica: Of Art & Literature

  27 April 2012

Nadine, Unscripted, notes that there are three Jamaican writers who have made the shortlists for the 2012 Commonwealth Book Prize and Commonwealth Short Story Prize, while ART:Jamaica blogs about an exciting new local space for art.

Cuba: Resorting to Hunger Strike

  25 April 2012

Cuban netizens, primarily from the diaspora, are once again blogging about instances of police abuse in the country and how the island's justice system routinely makes hunger-strikers out of prisoners of conscience.

Bahamas: Elections Getting Closer

  23 April 2012

With just two weeks to go until the country's general elections, the Bahamian blogosphere has been filled with political discussion. Blogworld yesterday compiled her usual Twitter Weekly Updates, which gave a good overview of the issues being discussed.

Jamaica: Literary Festival Founder Gets Guggenheim Fellowship

  23 April 2012

Nadine, Unscripted says that “kudos are in order for poet, author and co-founder of Calabash International Literary Festival Trust, Kwame Dawes, who has been awarded a 2012 Guggenheim Fellowship for Poetry, one of the most prestigious of its kind in the world.”

This Week in the Caribbean Blogosphere

  21 April 2012

In last week's summary of the regional blogosphere, a young comtemporary artist from Barbados made the observation that the region is “more than the beach and coconuts.” Here's a round-up of what Caribbean netizens were talking about this week, with not one mention of beaches or coconuts...

Bahamas: Election Discussion

  18 April 2012

Bahamaians go the polls on May 7 in the country's 2012 general election. Bloggers have already started talking about it. In this post, the discussion continues…

Cuba: Diaspora Blogs About Dissidents

  17 April 2012

The plight of prisoners of conscience is a front-burner issue with Cuban diaspora bloggers. This week, they are talking about two in particular: Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia, a former member of the Black Spring “Group of 75″ and Andres Carrion Alvarez, the man who was detained after shouting, “Down with Communism!” prior to the start of a mass during Pope Benedict XVI's recent visit to the island.

Trinidad & Tobago: Review of Bagoo

  17 April 2012

Caribbean Book Blog publishes a review of blogger Andre Bagoo‘s first book of poetry: “One [has] to have ample amounts of time and quiet to properly ponder and appreciate the complexity of ideals, both subtle and raw, that are presented within.”

Cuba: No Calm After Papal Storm

  11 April 2012

“The visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Cuba left a storm of arrests, blocked phone lines, and beatings against non-violent dissidents”: Cuban bloggers note that dissidents are suffering in the aftermath of the papal visit.

Cuba: Unholy Actions

  9 April 2012

Pedazos de la Isla reports on the “wave of terror” that plagued the island's dissidents over Holy Week, here and here.

Trinidad & Tobago: Madness in the Ministry

  9 April 2012

The curious case of Cheryl Miller, an employee of the Ministry of Ministry of Gender, Youth and Child Development who reportedly got into an argument with a senior official and, as a result, found herself being taken from her place of work to the St. Ann's Psychiatric Hospital, has caused a commotion in the Trinidad and Tobago blogosphere, with netizens insisting that the issue is not Miller's mental health but whether her employers breached human rights and industrial relations codes.

Jamaica, U.S.A.: Asking for Justice in Martin Killing

  4 April 2012

Of the “Wild Wild West” killing of Trayvon Martin, Abeng News Magazine says: “When stories like these emerge from the streets of cities in the Middle East and other countries in the developing world, Western political leaders and ‘rights’ agencies lambast the nations as lawless and prepare to depose their...