Janine Mendes-Franco · November, 2012

Latest posts by Janine Mendes-Franco from November, 2012

Trinidad & Tobago: No Simple Highway

  28 November 2012

University lecturer and environmentalist Dr. Wayne Kublalsingh, who began his hunger strike on November 15 outside the Prime Minister's office as a protest against the construction of one part of a billion dollar highway project in southeastern Trinidad, has the blogosphere talking about much more than a road - many netizens see his dissidence as a plea for transparency in the use of public funds and a demonstration against the cavalier manner in which the electorate's concerns are managed by those in public office.

Protests Put an End to Chris Brown's Guyana Gig

  27 November 2012

Just over a month ago, Guyanese bloggers were voicing their displeasure over talk of a Chris Brown concert that was allegedly being supported by the government. Much of the controversy was linked to the singer's 2009 assault of then-girlfriend Rihanna and the message that his notoriety could send in a country with a high incidence of domestic violence. Now, two Guyanese bloggers are reporting that the Chris Brown concert has been cancelled.

Guyana: Remembering Angela Cropper

  27 November 2012

Without destroying a single rainforest tree, she cut a path for we Caribbean women to follow. A touching tribute to the late Angela Cropper, by Guyana-Gyal.

Coming out of the Water Closet: Haiti on World Toilet Day

  19 November 2012

Today is World Toilet Day. Of a global population of 7 billion, a staggering 2.5 billion people have no access to clean toilet facilities - that's about 1 in 3 people. Some of them live in the Caribbean; many of these live in Haiti - and the lack of this fundamental human right to sanitation continues to cause unnecessary disease and death.

Trinidad & Tobago: Cropper was an Exemplar

  17 November 2012

A finer exemplar of the best that the Caribbean has to offer the world, one could hardly find. Norman Givan mourns the passing of philanthropist and Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, Angela Cropper.

Trinidad & Tobago: Useless Labels

  10 November 2012

In a society where name-calling and labelling is the easy way out, we must be mindful of the words we use. West Indian Mother suggests that it's time to throw out the labels.

The Bahamas: U.S. Election Result Sign of a Global Shift?

  9 November 2012

The recently-concluded U.S. election captured the interest of the entire world. Post-election, a couple of bloggers from the Caribbean territory that is geographically closest to the United States - the Bahamas - shared their thoughts about the outcome.

Jamaica: The Gay Man is Somebody's Son

  9 November 2012

Referring to the recent gay bashing at a Jamaican university, Active Voice republishes a poem by Tanya Shirley as “a timely intervention into the barbarism threatening to drown us.”

Guyana: Women are not Objects

  9 November 2012

[It is] a racist, sexist colonial throwback which draws on a long history of the sexualisation, commodification and thingification of the brown woman’s body. Code Red is trying to raise awareness of the dangers of sexist advertising.

Bahamas: Banking or Learning?

  5 November 2012

If a school in no way challenges its students to synthesize, analyze, interrogate, I fail to see how that school can produce critical thinkers, educated citizens or nation builders. Blogworld sees the value of displacing the banking concept in education.

Curacao: Feeling the Tension

  5 November 2012

The recent parliamentary elections in Curacao have brought a lot of racial and cultural tension to the surface. Karen Attiah thinks it is a real problem.

Cuba: “Hurricane” Damage

  4 November 2012

Notes from the Cuban Exile Quarter calls Fidel Castro “Cuba's longest and most damaging hurricane”, while Through the Eye of the Needle refers to Hurricane Sandy as “‘The Matador,’ — The Killer — who has come to give the final mortal blow to a bull already greatly injured by stabs...