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, 2011
Cuba: Rojas Detained
Cuban bloggers focus their attention on Luis Felipe Rojas, who was reportedly detained this past weekend, allegedly for blogging about the beating of three women.
Trinidad & Tobago: Gay Rights
gspottt thinks that “it’s impressive that the Ministry is interested in attitudes to homosexuality; and notable that the poll [about equal rights for homosexuals] was commissioned by the last government”, but maintains that “it’s a matter of how you ask the question.” Photos and video of Trinidad and Tobago's first...
Trinidad & Tobago: Hops Bread
Lifespan of a Chennette asks: “How do you like your Hops?”
Caribbean: Reflections on the Rapture
So the world was supposed to end this past Saturday - at least according to some religious sects. Caribbean bloggers write about how one man's delusion had an impact on the region and put a humourous spin on surviving the end of the world.
Cuba: More on “The Student”
More details on the death of Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia, from Without Evasion.
Cuba: Cultural Center Closed
Generation Y blogs about “the shock of the correctives” in the form of “the closure of the cultural center run by the painter Pedro Pablo Oliva”.
Barbados: Code of Ethics for Elected Officials
The irony of the acting Prime Minister “ha[ving] the audacity to lecture the Barbados news media on ethics and the purpose of journalism” in the absence of a “code of ethics for elected and appointed government officials” is not lost on Barbados Free Press.
Trinidad & Tobago: Race & Stereotyes
Anje Woodruffe writes at Outlish about how she was programmed to stereotype black men; CODE RED for Caribbean freedom! responds.
Cuba: Reforms vs. Reality
Laritza Diversent looks at some of the impending changes coming out of the Communist Party Congress, but says: “There is far too much optimism towards the announced changes made by the PCC. Freedom and permission are not synonymous.”
Bahamas: Help with Crime?
“Mr Dwayne Cartwright, an employee of the Department of Environmental Health has been murdered by senseless thugs that are running wild on our streets”: Jerome Pinder at Weblog Bahamas wonders if the country is at the stage of needing “outside assistance”.
Cuba: Musings on the Sixth Congress
Laritza's Laws blogs about “the trap of socialist democracy”, while Octavo Cerco says that “after the close of the Sixth Congress of the Communist Party…the only point on the official agenda that seems to be right on the mark is the repression of the alternative groups that have been growing...
Jamaica: A Lucky Poem
Litblogger Geoffrey Philp posts a poem by diaspora writer Shara McCallum.
Cuba: Pastor Speaks Out
Dissident Juan Wilfredo Soto García‘s pastor has a blog and is using it to “raise [his] voice for Juan Wilfredo.”
Cuba: Effects of a Beating
Crossing the Barbed Wire blogs about his efforts to make a film about “Alberto Lairo Castro, a young Holguin native who in 2007 was a victim of a ‘Double Nelson’ lock applied onto him by the National Revolutionary Police” and was left disabled as a result.
U.S.V.I.: “The Caribbean Writer”
A Nation or Nobody is enjoying his new copy of The Caribbean Writer: “The topics…rang[e] from the Virgin Islands’ place in the Caribbean community to concerns over the homicide rate in the territory…”
Puerto Rico: Opening the Flood Gates
Gil the Jenius is incredulous about the cause of his neighbourhood's most recent incident of flooding.
Cuba: “El Yuma”‘s Visit
Bloggers have their say about Ted Henken's visit to Cuba.
Guyana: Caribbean Law
Signifyin’ Guyana interviews regional legal expert Abiola Inniss about her new book and possible “solutions to some of the major issues which plague Caribbean law today.”
Cuba: The Capital's Chinatown
Iván's File Cabinet blogs about the evolution of Havana's Chinatown.
U.S.V.I., St. Vincent & the Grenadines: The Caribbean Through a Camera
A Nation or Nobody admires the work of Nadia Huggins, whom he describes as “one of the artists who is bringing an authentic Caribbean voice to digital photography.”
Cuba: Feelings Toward “Foreigners”
Yenisel Rodriguez, blogging at Havana Times, tells of an incident of xenophobia that made him “recall stories of the discrimination that Haitians suffer in the Dominican Republic.”
