Stories about Aruba
Aruba: Royal no-show
In ArubaGirl's neck of the woods, the rumour that Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands is going to pay a visit to their church fills the pews on Sunday.
Aruba: Political tidbits
ArubaGirl brings us up to speed on the goings-on on the political scene in Aruba, whose citizens will now be allowed to vote in European parliamentary elections, and some of whose goverment ministers were strangely absent from the ceremony marking the opening of the new parliamentary year.
Aruba: Waiting for Ernesto
“It's hot. It's humid. There is no blessed, cooling wind,” writes Arubagirl as the tropical disturbance known as Ernesto passes through the area, creating some dramatic wave activity that she photographs.
ArubaGirl: Brain drain
ArubaGirl muses on the annual of exodus of students who leave Aruba to further their studies in the Netherlands and elsewhere: “I do wonder, however, how many of ‘Aruba’s future’ graduate? And of those who graduate, how many come back? And what do they come back to?“
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.
Aruba: Rumblings about indepdence
“Unless there is a drastic, drastic change in Aruba's economy and politics, we are simply not ready to go about it our own,” writes ArubaGirl, in a post prompted by a Bermudian blogger's musings on the subject of independence.
Aruba: Dia di San Juan
Roosters are no longer harmed when Aruba observes Dia di San Juan, notes ArubaGirl, who appreciates the fact that the festival “celebrates how two cultures merged and produced something new.”
Aruba: Blaming Dutch
ArubaGirl is baffled as to why the alleged difficulty of the Dutch language is being blamed for poor exam results among Aruba's school leavers.
Aruba: Viral image
ArubaGirl posts an image satirising the behaviour of Aruba's union leaders during the recent anti-government protests on the island. “The novel thing about it,” she says, “is that this has spread quickly through the internet. Aruba is finally reaching the 21st century.”
Caribbean: BLP role in CSME
The Barbados Labour Party blog gives its political leader — and Prime Minister of Barbados — Owen Arthur a pat on the back for the role he has played in the development of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME).
Haiti: Telecom Wars
Digicel billboard, Martinique. By blogger Greg at InternetRapide.com. Jamaica-based Caribbean telecom giant Digicel has a presence in over a dozen countries in the region. Digicel officially launched operations on the Haitian market in May to much resistance from local private telecoms Haitel and Comcel but bloggers and other web commentators...
Aruba: June 8 protest
ArubaGirl posts a report of sorts, in point form, on the June 8 anti-government protests in Aruba, with a link to photos of the event.
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”.
Aruba: Protesting inefficiently
Aruba's unions and political parties have been protesting the government's economic plan, but “since this is Aruba, not even our protests can be done efficiently,” says ArubaGirl.
Global Voices, Caribbean Accents: report on Caribbean blogging roundtable
THE CARIBBEAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION (CSA), one of the major assemblies of scholars of the history, culture, and society of the Caribbean region, held its annual conference in Port of Spain, Trinidad, last week, with the theme “The Caribbean in the Age of Modernity: the Role of the Academy in Responding...
Aruba: An allegory
At The Pan Collective, ArubaGirl writes a story about dwarves and elephants — or could she be talking about something else?
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...
Aruba: This week in politics
Aruba Girl summarises a busy week in Aruban politics: a member of parliament from the opposition AVP resigned, the justice minister said he would resign next year, and then the government announced that import duties on many goods would be doubled or tripled. “Now that … our national debt is...
