I am a writer and media producer based in Trinidad and Tobago. Follow me on Twitter @JanineMFranco.
Latest posts by Janine Mendes-Franco from May, 2013
Jamaica's Blog Action Day: What Police Can Do
Jamaican bloggers marked their own version of Blog Action Day (dubbed JA Blog Day), on May 23. Netizens discussed the disturbing issue of police brutality, state security abuses and extra judicial killings - particularly fitting as the date for the event was the third anniversary of the "Tivoli Gardens Massacre", which took place during the country's state of emergency in 2010.
Trinidad & Tobago: Invented E-mails or Political Demise?
Monday's sitting of Trinidad and Tobago's Parliament saw the Opposition Leader quoting from several e-mails, which, he alleged, implicate key government ministers, including the Prime Minister, in attempting to cover up her administration's actions surrounding the Section 34 controversy. Netizens have been debating whether the e-mails are even real and what it could mean politically if they are...or are not.
Bahamas: Haitians are our Brothers
One of the most dastardly parts of the Atlantic slave trade was how fellow human beings were treated as as if they less than men and women. And it seems that many of us feel the same way about illegal Haitians here in The Bahamas. Weblog Bahamas’ Rick Lowe adds,...
Trinidad & Tobago: “Ordinariology”
The backlash, growing quietly by the second, apparently, against the Differentology video isn't that it's a bad video, it's that it's the wrong class of video entirely for the song. Mark Lyndersay explains why he thinks the video for the most transformative soca song of the year is simply ordinary.
Jamaica: “Good Gay” vs. “Bad Gay”
In this new discourse of the Good versus the Bad Gay, that what is being policed is class as much as sexuality. Under the Saltire Flag explains.
Trinidad & Tobago: It Takes a Village
A generation of Criminals, just like a generation of Professionals, don't simply pop up. They are raised. Trini World Views challenges everyone “who breathes fire and brimstone at criminals and the policing of criminal activity…to put that same passion into getting involved in the process [of] crime prevention.”
Bermuda: House & Senate Accountability
The Bermudian government has introduced a set of reform initiatives; Vexed Bermoothes puts forward one of his own – “mak[ing] MPs accountable for their vote.”
Jamaica: Blogging about Police Brutality
To mark the tragic anniversary of the Tivoli incursion and the lives that were lost there, Jamaican bloggers are uniting to draw attention to the scourge of extra-judicial killings in Jamaica and a police force seemingly out of control and beyond restraint. Active Voice is gearing up to comment on...
‘Not Just About Writers': Talking with NGC Bocas Lit Fest Founder
Global Voices interviews the founder and director of Trinidad & Tobago's NGC Bocas Lit Fest, the indefatigable Marina Salandy-Brown, about how her germ of an idea has now evolved into the biggest literary festival in the Anglophone Caribbean.
Caribbean: Can CARIBCAN Happen?
Blogger Kevin Edmonds examines the impending Canada-CARICOM Free Trade Agreement.
Haiti: The “White Savior Industrial Complex”
kiskeácity links to a letter which “echoes many of the issues Haitians face with the White Savior Industrial Complex…and its army of 3,000 NGOs, 12,000 UN troops, innumerable speakers for Haiti, appropriators of Haiti's ancestral religion, culture and music and other so-called ‘allies’ who silence Haitians for a profit while...
Bahamas: Too Free on Facebook?
Facebook is free for all, but it doesn’t mean that we are liberated to slander others with impunity – or to make vile threats…without consequences. POLITICAL BAHAMAS BLOG discusses “potentially criminal Facebook behavior.”
A Push for Political Ethics in Trinidad & Tobago
However you want to define it – principles, a moral code, character – ethics boils down to doing the right thing. With Trinidad and Tobago falling to the number 80 ranking in Transparency International‘s 2012 Corruption Perceptions Index, a few local bloggers have been discussing the issue of integrity.
Trinidad & Tobago: Smoking Ad Loophole
I don’t think this cigarette newspaper ad was necessary and it was in very poor taste. aka_lol takes issue with a cigarette advertisement, which apparently found loopholes around the prohibitions applied to such advertising under the Tobacco Control Act.
Trinidad & Tobago: Gem of a Garden
My Chutney Garden is our guide through Trinidad's Royal Botanic Gardens.
St. Vincent & the Grenadines: Environmental Entrepreneur
In an era where youth…are seen as being dissolute it is truly heart warming to recognise the drive and talent of this young man. Abeni salutes Kamara Jerome, a 20-year-old Vincentian entrepreneur, who won the Best Environmental Award in the Caribbean Innovation Challenge.
Trinidad & Tobago: Warner's Future History
Like all urban legends, Jack will linger on minds of both the mindful and mindless. Tongue firmly in cheek, aka_lol predicts Jack Warner's legacy.
Bermuda: Bag Tax or Bad Tax?
Local charities are lobbying the Bermudian Government to institute a bag tax to encourage people to shop with reusable bags and reduce waste – but Vexed Bermoothes insists that “it’s nice to think that you can tax people into living or acting better; it rarely works out that way.”
