Latest posts by Nicholas Laughlin

Cuba: thinking about the film festival

Havana Times asks whether the Havana Film Festival has strayed from its original ideals — “Much has happened since its inception in 1978, since which time its revolutionary and emancipatory...

21 December 2011

Cuba: succession fears

The death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il and the succession of his son prompts Generation Y to think about the Cuban government's own succession plans. “The dauphin over there...

20 December 2011

Cuba: owing obsolete rubles

Cuba has a longstanding debt to Russia of 20 million Soviet rubles — a currency that no longer exists. Machetera asks: “how and when do you decide what a vanished...

20 December 2011

Jamaica: when poets join academia

UK-based Jamaican writer Kei Miller muses on the consequences of poets joining the academic world. “Poetry is certainly not known for its plain-spoken-ness and in fact is accused, just as...

20 December 2011

Barbados: prime minister's quandary

Barbados Underground offers an analysis of the “headache” created for Prime Minister Freundel Stuart by a now notorious leaked letter allegedly demonstrating his party's doubts about the PM's leadership. “Whatever...

20 December 2011

Jamaica: vote or not?

Idle Yout Speeks asks if he should bother to vote in Jamaica's upcoming general election. “I blame my reluctance … on a deep rooted fear that stemmed from the more...

19 December 2011

Cuba: Prix Carbet for Padura

Cuban writer Leonardo Padura has won the 2011 Prix Carbet de la Caraïbe, reports Repeating Islands. The prestigious prize for works of Caribbean literature in French, founded by the late...

19 December 2011

Barbados: remembering “Hitch”

Barbados-based B.C. Pires posts his reflections on the death of writer Christopher Hitchens: “for all his flaws … worth a few hundred pastors and priests to me, perhaps a few...

19 December 2011

Trinidad and Tobago: making zines

Trinidadian artist Rodell Warner posts images from a zine workshop for young artists which he organised in Johannesburg, South Africa, and explains that the experience made him think “of all...

19 December 2011

Barbados: debating “the letter”

Barbados Underground and Barbados Free Press comment on a controversial letter allegedly written to Prime Minister Freundel Stuart by members of his party, expressing a lack of confidence in his...

19 December 2011

Caribbean: the meaning of identity

Creative Commess hosts a blog symposium “about Caribbean people, about West Indian people, about our contemporary experiences … ranging through race & identity to culture, mental health to constructs of...

7 November 2011

Trinidad and Tobago: State of Emergency, Day 4

With a national state of emergency — declared by the government to combat rising crime — now in its fourth day, bloggers and other social media users in Trinidad and Tobago express doubts about the effects of the emergency measures and respond with humour to the inconvenience of a nighttime curfew.

25 August 2011

Trinidad and Tobago: Debating a State of Emergency

On Sunday 21 August, the government of Trinidad and Tobago declared a national state of emergency to deal with the violent crime that has afflicted the Caribbean nation in recent years. This legal move — which affects citizens' civil rights — triggered debate and concern among Trinidadians online.

22 August 2011

Jamaica: political satire thrives

“Political satire is alive and well in Jamaica,” writes Active Voice, pointing to the supposed Twitter account of the controversial gang leader and “president” of the Tivoli Gardens community Christopher...

4 March 2011