Stories from Quick Reads and St. Eustatius
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 beauty and more,” with contributions from seven Caribbean bloggers.
Latin America, Caribbean: Increase in Food Prices
Bloggings by Boz writes: “The FAO reports that February 2011 was a yet a new high on food prices. This has led to several warnings from organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean including ECLAC [Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean] and the IICA [Inter-American Institute for Cooperation...
Puerto Rico: Gli Gli Sails Again
The Voice of the Taino People is excited about The Gli-Gli (or Carib Canoe) sailing expedition in celebration of the 10th anniversary of its first voyage to relink the indigenous Carib communities of the region.
Caribbean Women's Forum
Collectif Haiti de Provence points to a Radio Kiskeya news article stating (Fr): “The 2d Caribbean Women's Forum ended the evening of November 10th in Fort-de-France, Martinique with the participation of a Haitian delegation led by Feminine Condition Minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue … Delegations from various Caribbean countries (Guadeloupe, Dominica,...
Caribbean: Languages spoken here
Island Tips posts a list — by island — of the languages spoken in the Caribbean.
Caribbean: Colonial artifacts
Jeremy Taylor ponders the appropriate uses of colonial forms and artifacts in the Caribbean context.
Martinique: First Caribbean Social Forum
Le Blog de [Moi] is pleased (Fr) to learn that the first Caribbean Social Forum is happening in Martinique this week (July 5-9) but does not think its timing was particularly smart what with the World Cup's final taking place this weekend as well as an annual cultural fair in...
Caribbean: New series of news blogs
Online newsmagazine Caribbean360.com announces a series of blogs by writers and columnists.
Caribbean: Hurricane unpreparedness?
As hurricane season begins, Taran Rampersad worries that “the Caribbean in general can't handle a Category 3 hurricane. All everyone is discussing at this point is how fast one can recover”.
Haiti Rejoins CARICOM
Collectif Haiti de Provence points to an AFP article that announces (Fr)Haiti's official rejoining of Caricom. Haiti temporarily ceased being a member of the 15-country Caribbean body in 2004, after the fall of then President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. CARICOM invited President Preval to attend the organization's next summit in July in...
Caribbean: What blogging is for
“Blogging … challenges the elitism that pervades the Caribbean and is a great experiment in the democratization of data,” says Geoffrey Philp in a thoughtful essay on the potential role of blogging in the region. “Blogging provides the kind of freedom that is anathema to many gatekeepers who want to...
Caribbean: Hurricane outlook
Over at the West Indies Cricket blog, Ryan Naraine cites the NOAA’s 2006 Atlantic hurricane season outlook, which says there is “an 80% chance of an above-normal hurricane season, a 15% chance of a near-normal season, and only a 5% chance of a below-normal season.”
Caribbean: The meaning of “excellent service”
Jamaican Francis Wade at Chronicles from a Caribbean Cubicle thinks about customer service in the Caribbean. “There is not a single island I have visited in which there is a local company giving excellent service to local people.” He tries to understand why, and congratulates the Sandals resort chain for...
Caribbean: Regional Telecom Penetrates French DOMs
“For 155 million dollars, Denis O'Brien's Digicel Group just acquired Bouygues Telecom Caribbean, the second wireless network in the French Caribbean DOMs i.e. about 160,000 subscribers and 80 employees,” says (FR) Internetrapide.com. Digicel is now present in 20 Caribbean countries, explains the blogger.
Caribbean: Bureaucracy kills & biofuel
Taran Rampersad is starting a “death and injury counter” in response to the region's lack of action in the area of disaster preparedness. “My theory is that all the bureaucracy kills people in a way that could be seen as criminally negligent,” he says. And why isn't the Caribbean thinking...
Caribbean: Billionaires Investing in Local Telecoms
Last week Irish billionaire Dennis O'Brien announced his company Digicel was purchasing the Caribbean arm of Bouygues Telecom . This week Mexican billionnaire Carlos Slim announces he is purchasing three Caribbean and Latin-American subsidiaries of Verizon, an American telecom, writes (FR) InternetRapide.com. The Verizon subsidiaries to be purchased by Slim's...
A Seamless Caribbean Network?
InternetRapide.com, a blog dedicated to telecommunications in the Caribbean says (FR) Digicel, a cell phone company owned by Irishman Denis O'Brien that covers 60% of the Jamaican market, celebrates its fifth anniversary this week. The company has expanded to 14 other Caribbean countries since its inception in 2001 and plans...
Caribbean: Cruise ship cuts
One cruise line is planning to remove half its vessels from the Caribbean on account of high costs associated with hurricanes, says Mad Bull: “We are going to have to try to diversify into other areas, though I don’t know yet what they are. Our islands have a big challenge...
Caribbean: Hurricane forecast
Linda Thompkins reports on a recent meeting held to discuss the 2006 hurricane season and its implications for the Caribbean. The hurricane season begins officially on June 1.
Caribbean, US: US-Caricom meeting
Larry Smith discusses the recent US-Caricom meeting in the Bahamas in the context of both recent US foreign policy and Condolezza Rice's career. He quotes a Bahamian diplomat, who says: “The policies of the US are not producing the results that it desires, and therefore how should friends of the...
Caribbean: Books for birders
“It's many years now–I might even say decades–since I've considered myself a real birder, and I stopped keeping a lifelist ages ago, but birds continue to have a special fascination for me–their colours, their songs, the effortlessness of their flight,” writes Nicholas Laughlin in the prelude to his overview of...