Global Voices » Barbados

Barbados, Cuba: Prisoner's Rights

Janine Mendes-Franco — Fri, 18 May 2012 22:59:04 +0000

“Raul is clearly going to be a thorn in the flesh of any government in power unless passage can be found for him somewhere”: Barbados Free Press expresses concern for Cuban-born prisoner Raul Garcia's safety.

Barbados: Literary “Giants”

Matthew Hunte — Fri, 18 May 2012 22:05:43 +0000

For BC Pires, the highlight of the launch of the inaugural Bim Literary Festival wasn't the speeches or cultural presentations but the greeting of two “literary giants.”

Barbados: Racial Slurs for Winning Goal

Matthew Hunte — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:16:24 +0000

Joel Ward, an Afro-Canadian ice hockey player for the Washington Capitals, who is of Barbadian parentage, was subjected to racial slurs on Twitter after he scored the winning goal in overtime of the decisive seventh game against the defending champion Boston Bruins in the National Hockey League playoffs.

This Week in the Caribbean Blogosphere

Janine Mendes-Franco — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 18:40:43 +0000

It has been another interesting week in the Caribbean blogosphere, with netizens discussing everything from crime to elections…

Trinidad & Tobago

There was outrage in the blogosphere over the death of two-year-old Aliyah Johnson, a victim of child abuse. Guanaguanare was worried “that [it] will amount to nothing”:

The sort of callousness that did not recognise or respect her humanity/divinity is not something that was just one lifetime in the making. This sin is generational and it will also be generations before it is lifted…and only if we begin right away to work towards that future.

Government offices and officials can only do so much. We are the ones, however, who have actually heard the cries and have seen the bruises and other signs of abuse. We continue to be the silent witnesses in our neighbourhoods and maybe even in our own homes. We have to stop pretending that it will all go away…

In a follow-up post, the blogger linked to a video that could help “[address] the problem of child abuse and the wider problem of violence (and the connection between the two) in our country.”

The Eternal Pantomime added:

Remember Daniel Guerra? Remember he was picked up in a car a stone’s throw from his house, by a parlour, and days later his body was found in the Tarouba waterway system?

Remember the Prime Minister wrote a Letter to Daniel, that was really a letter promising to save all the children of Trinidad and Tobago promising that what happened to Daniel, Akiel, Sean Luke, Amy, Hope…would never happen again…

Well…crimes against children are on the rise, and the government has been quietly dismantling social work and welfare projects that can assist in these situations…So think about little Aaliyah now, who, according the forensic report was beaten to death… This is going to happen again and again partly because this society is very sick and partly because very few systems are properly enabled to deal with these issues…when last you hear about the trial against the two boys that killed Sean Luke? I done talk…

Bloggers in Trinidad and Tobago also focused on other issues this past week, including the Dangerous Dogs Act “as news of yet another innocent child being violently ripped and torn apart by yet another, dangerously-aggressive, unrestrained dog makes the rounds” and patients' rights, as cancer patients who were over-exposed to radiation at a national facility continue to seek justice.

The Bahamas

More north along the Caribbean archipelago, Bahamian netizens had elections on their mind. Blogworld, who recently posted her own voter's manifesto said:

So, in the parlance of the day: Papa has rung the bell.

I can talk the talk like any other Bahamian in 2012. Papa = the current prime minister, Hubert Ingraham. ‘The Bell' = the announcement of a date for the next general election. I know how to translate the statement.

I just don’t know what it means.

She went on to explain:

Some time ago, I wrote up my own manifesto (since the political parties vying for leadership of the country hadn’t seen fit to share any of their promises or policies for the next five years) as a voter, a participant in a process that is commonly called “democratic”. Since that time, others have joined me in making similar statements, and a few voices have called for our leaders and other politicians to have the balls to step out from behind their carefully crafted propaganda and open themselves up to discussions of issues with reasonable citizens.

But, disappointingly, and with one important exception (Branville McCartney of the DNA) they haven’t.

And this, to my mind, does not bode well for our future.

So my question is this. Given the passion and energy being expended in tearing down the other parties, or the other leaders—in dismissing reasonable questions and observations as ‘FNM' or ‘PLP' or even ‘DNA'—each of these being intended as insult, what happens the day after elections, when one party has won and the other(s) has/ve not? How do we work on building a nation of Bahamians?

So as we stare down the home stretch, as we slide into these last three weeks before Bahamians go to the polls and cast our votes, I would like at least one day to be dedicated to having the people who are contesting the elections to tell us what their vision is for this nation. Where do we go from here? How do we find our place in the twenty-first century?

Weblog Bahamas‘ Rick Lowe, meanwhile, hoped that “the level of discussion will be raised for the campaigns”:

If this is what we will get from the opposition it certainly seems to narrow the choice. It also makes me wonder why we must refer to some M.P.s as honourable.

Cuba

Cuban diaspora bloggers acknowledged the passing of Miami-based Catholic Bishop Agustin Roman. Notes from the Cuban Exile Quarter said:

Cubans have lost the physical presence of one of the great leaders of the Cuban exile community who passed away yesterday night at the age of 83 but his spirit and his writings live on. Monsignor Agustín Román wrote and spoke about the challenges facing the Cuban people and…offered a profound analysis of the state of the Cuban dissident movement that remains extremely relevant.

Pedazos de la Isla said of a speech the late Bishop made “about the importance of the internal Cuban opposition, dissidence, or Resistance”:

As he explains in this heartfelt piece, no matter what you call those brave Cubans inside the island, they all fight for justice. And justice is what Roman also represented in his 84 years of life. Although he is now physically gone, he will always spiritually guide not just Cuban exiles, but all Cubans, into freedom. His example was one worth emulating- a true man of God, a true Catholic, and a true Cuban. He was not afraid to tell the world that his brothers and sisters were in need of freedom, he was not afraid to say that he was an exile, and he was not afraid to explain why he was exiled (he was sent out of the country at gunpoint by the Cuban regime). Agustin Roman did not live off of hate or bitterness, and yet, he was clear in explaining that fighting peacefully was not a sign of weakness, but instead a sign of great strength and courage.

babalu shared details about the funeral arrangements:

This afternoon, Father Agustin Roman will be laid to rest. At noon today, a funeral procession will leave La Ermita de la Caridad and make several stops throughout Miami.

Diaspora bloggers also expressed concern about the safety of the man who was arrested before the start of a Papal Mass in Santiago de Cuba for shouting “Down with communism!” and published a translation of an interview with the man's mother.

On island, bloggers were talking about the trial of El Ñaño, an imprisoned Rastafarian priest. (This post gives some background on the case). Even before yesterday's trial, bloggers were tweeting about his innocence; they also live-tweeted the court proceedings, ending with the following update:

The trail has ended but the judgment may be delayed for months.

Other Territories

Jamaica: Abeng News Magazine kept its readers au courant with the latest developments in the Trayvon Martin case.

Puerto Rico: Gil the Jenius likened the country's increasing violence to a cancer.

St. Vincent & the Grenadines: And Still I Rise marked the thirty third anniversary of the La Soufriere eruption.

Barbados: Contemporary artist Sheena Rose commented on the stereotypical image many people have of the Caribbean:

The more I travel, the more I realize that people do not know the Caribbean. I get the feeling that they thinking we live at the beach all day, have the steel pan playing and drinking coconuts all day, living in a paradise. Yes to me, my home is my paradise but it have more than the beach and coconuts.

The thumbnail image used in this post, “VOTE”, is by PropagandaTimes, used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) Creative Commons license. Visit PropagandaTimes' flickr photostream.

Grenada, Barbados: The Fallout over Journalist's Firing

Matthew Hunte — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 14:27:59 +0000

As another regional journalist pays the price for standing by his story, bloggers are wondering about the state of press freedom in the Caribbean. Rawle Titus -veteran journalist and president of the Media Workers Association of Grenada since 2008- was dismissed from his post as editor of the Grenada Advocate after he refused to retract or apologize for a front-page story in the March 9th edition of the newspaper headlined “Prime Minister Makes Fresh Moves.” (The Grenada Advocate is owned and published by the Advocate Publishers (2000) Inc, based in Fontabelle, St. Michael, Barbados.)

According to the story, leader of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and Prime Minister of Grenada, Tillman Thomas, held a caucus where candidates for the upcoming elections were selected, without informing senior members of the now fractious party. Government press secretary (and former journalist) Richard Simon wrote to the management in Barbados twice, seeking a retraction for what were deemed to be inaccuracies. After the 2nd letter, Titus was dismissed by General Manager Sandra Clarke, effective March 30th, 2012.

According to the MWAG, the Advocate was pressured into firing Titus and added:

We have growing concerns about increasing incidents that will suggest that those guarantees are coming under attack. This latest incident follows a series of other developments we have been monitoring in the past.

Titus and Richard Simon each made an appearance on Day Break Grenada, a morning program aired on the Grenada Broadcasting Network (GBN), to express their side of the story.

On Sunday, April 1st, Titus, Simon and Information Minister Glen Noel were interviewed on the current affairs radio program “Sundays With George Grant” (starting at the 84:00 minute mark.)

On Monday, April 2nd, Titus’ staged a one-man protest in front of the Office of the Prime Minister at the Botanical Gardens, St. Georges. The text and video of Titus' full statement were posted on the blog of Nicole Best, the General Secretary of the Association of Caribbean Media Workers (which also released a statement). After reading the statement, Titus explained some of his on the concerns raised and answered some questions.

Hamlet Mark, a friend of both Titus and Richard Simon, shared some thoughts on his own blog :

It is one thing for anyone to point out inaccuracies, which any responsible journalist must correct if it is found beyond doubt to be such.

But since when do you demand ‘an apology and retraction' in two letters about some perceived ‘inaccuracy', without it being seen as undue pressure when it comes from an office as powerful as the Prime Minister’s?

And when the reporter says he is satisfied with his information – after cross checking it again – you still insist on an apology – to the point where he had to standup not just for his dignity but his manhood – so that a frightened Barbadian team – unschooled in Grenadian political realities – got cold feet and sent a man home they concede that they never had to question his professionalism before.

If the letters from the Prime Minister’s office were not meant to be used as undue pressure – why the demand for an ‘apology' – if you said it was just some inaccuracies?

And if the reporter decided to stand by his story, isn't the normal thing in that circumstance to release your version of events – and let the public decide?

On March 27th, The Government of Grenada released a statement denying responsibility for Titus’ firing:

Neither the Prime Minister nor his office, sought directly or indirectly, the termination of Mr. Titus, and is unaware of the reason or reasons for his termination by the newspaper’s management. The Grenada government has never, over the past three years, attempted to pressure or intimidate any business or media house to ‘tow the government’s line' or to influence the dismissal of any journalist, as previous administrations have done.

Hamlet Mark offered some comments on the statement from the Prime Minister’s office:

It was a timely and useful assurance, and everyone should take the administration at its word, without ever letting their guards down.

While the statement went on to give the assurance, it tainted it with – well – at least one inaccuracy; that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) never asked for ‘an apology nor retraction.'
Having seen the e-mail sent to ‘Advocate’; and having determined it is authentic; then the claim in the press release that it did not happen is bogus.

A colleague of mine calls it a blatant lie. But I’ll be kind. It is just an innocent inaccuracy.
While as Prime Minister, the buck will always have to stop with Tillman Thomas, I have this sneaky feeling that his soldiers let him down on this issue.

Whatever you may think about the man – and having seen him operate up close and personal through the years – I believe that he genuinely believes in the issue of freedom of the media, almost to a fault.

He is a man of considerable faults, but some admirable strengths as well – and I firmly believe on that issue – this is one of his strengths.

Richard will have to correct me, if it’s an “inaccuracy” (and unless someone in the PMO is trying to set me up too), that the whole hullabaloo about the Advocate report was not an idea of the PM.

Reporters Without Borders released a statement calling for Titus to be reinstated and also made reference to the liquidation of the Grenada Today Weekly, which was forced to shutdown after the owners were unable to pay damages to former Grenadian Prime Minister Keith Mitchell after he successfully sued them.

The thumbnail image used in this post, “The Freedom of Speech”, is by Caveman Chuck Coker, used under an Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-ND 2.0) Creative Commons license. Visit Caveman Chuck Coker's flickr photostream.

This Week in the Caribbean Blogosphere

Janine Mendes-Franco — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 22:53:33 +0000

Again this week, the regional blogosphere was dominated by talk of Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Cuba. With reports of repression at an all-time high, Cuban bloggers were dismayed by the outcome of the trip.

Cuba

Uncommon Sense, who is part of the Cuban diaspora, thought the papal visit was summed up by a photograph of the pontiff meeting Fidel Castro, which he republished on his blog, saying:

I read a transcript of Pope Benedict XVI's homily in Havana today, hoping to find something to convince me that His Holiness and the church he leads are on the right side of history, and on the right side in the struggle for freedom, in Cuba.

Unfortunately, there was little there to make me forget the message, intended and otherwise, in this photograph…

The photograph also offended others. In a guest post at babalu, Asombra said:

I’m sorry, but this grotesque travesty is deeply offensive, and if the Vatican cannot understand that, then it understands nothing, and nothing can be expected from it. Alas, I cannot believe this is a case of cluelessness.

This is a choice made by this pope to put Nero or Caligula before his victims, before the persecuted and the oppressed, before the millions that have suffered and lost so much at his filthy, bloody, evil hands—the same hands taken warmly in his own by Benedict. This has nothing to do with ministering to the marginalized, the outcast, the stigmatized and the socially undesirable. This is smiling at, catering to and fraternizing with the devil. If there was no way to avoid this abomination, Benedict should not have visited Cuba.

When Uncommon Sense posted a video of members of the crowd at the Papal Mass in Havana “[crying] out for ‘Libertad', he was firm in his opinion that:

The faithful have the final word.

The fact that the Pope was said to have discussed the issue of the country's dissidents with President Raul Castro was hardly salve to the wound of many bloggers - especially in light of reports like this one from Capitol Hill Cubans:

Just prior to this evening's Mass in Santiago de Cuba by Pope Benedict XVI, a courageous young Cuban screamed ‘freedom' and ‘down with Communism.'

He was immediately detained by Castro's secret police and brutally beaten.

The blog also posted its view on the ability of the Pope to effect change in a post titled “Pope Speaks, Regime Answers”:

Pope Benedict XVI said today after praying at the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity:

‘I have prayed to the Virgin for the needs of those who suffer, of those who are deprived of freedom, those who are separated from their loved ones or who are undergoing times of difficulty.'

And the Castro regime answered, through the Vice President of the Council of State, Manuel Murillo:

‘In Cuba, there will not be political reform.'

Any questions?

There were other items of note in the Caribbean blogosphere this week, though…

Jamaica

Girl With a Purpose had her finger on the pulse of the country's local government elections, regularly posting updates and then final results: The governing People's National Party enjoyed a comfortable win, winning 147 of 228 divisions.

Jamaica Woman Tongue, meanwhile, dealt with the issue of language (”proper” versus “corrupted”) and cultural heritage in these two interesting posts.

Curacao

Over in Curacao, TRIUNFO DI SABLIKA took issue with what he called the disrespect being shown to Liberty Battle Park:

The organizational forces have done a good job at not maintaining the Lucha pa Libertat park.

Maybe after 14 years they will receive an ancestral enlightenment to plant 4/5 trees for the visitors. Or just maybe they would shine up the statue every 4 months, lick up the benches with paint. Put trashcans, clean up once a week?

Put some historical info placards for tourists and indigenous folks unfamiliar with the 1795 revolt. You know what I mean. Show respect. Honor. Make us feel you serious about your cultural consciousness business.

Trinidad & Tobago

In the twin island republic this week, the two political bloggers who questioned whether the political entity “Congress of the People” was still relevant continued their examination of the issues, here and here.

Barbados

Barbados Free Press, meanwhile, continued lobbying for the cause of illegally held Cuban prisoner Raul Garcia:

43 days ago, Raul Garcia discontinued his ‘fast unto death’ on the word of Barbados Prime Minister Freundel Stuart that he would be moved from his illegal imprisonment at H.M. Dodds Prison to a non-punitive facility. Garcia, naive fool that he is, took the bait and remains at Dodds… having lost his credibility and media interest. Worldwide interest in his case went to zero overnight. Only little old BFP keeps Mr. Garcia close to our hearts.

Listen folks: Raul Garcia has been held illegally according to Barbados’ own laws for over two years.
Is there not a shred of decency, of justice, left in our justice system, in our Parliament?
Apparently not.

Finally, the case of Trayvon Martin continued to move regional bloggers from Haiti, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. Trinidadian diaspora fashion and beauty blogger Afrobella expressed her sadness by saying:

Every time I sit and try to write about Trayvon Martin, the words get stuck inside me. I have started and stopped this blog post so many times over the last week. It’s been so hard to know what to say because this case makes me feel so hopeless and so sad, and so afraid for the future of this country. I hate the comments I’m seeing online. I’m hating the slant of some of the coverage I’ve been reading. I hate that people are finding ways to say that Trayvon’s sartorial choices made him a deserving victim.

It’s all so heavy and ugly and upsetting. Not the kind of thing I like to write about on a blog that’s about beauty and positivity. So I will end this post with my hopes, regarding the outcome of this ongoing situation.

I hope that the murder of Trayvon Martin doesn’t lead to any additional violence.

I hope there is some form of justice and I hope it doesn’t take forever. The wheels of justice are already turning too slowly here.

The thumbnail image used in this post is by Ammar Abd Rabbo, used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) Creative Commons license. Visit Ammar Abd Rabbo's flickr photostream.

Barbados: Could Bus Accident have been Prevented?

Janine Mendes-Franco — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 17:50:00 +0000

“Why are we so cynical and critical when it comes to mass-casualty bus accidents? We’ve learned to be because there are never any satisfactory answers as to cause or remedial actions taken afterwards”: Barbados Free Press blogs about the country's latest road accident.

Barbados: Chattel House Garden

Janine Mendes-Franco — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 21:20:57 +0000

my rustic bajan garden discovers “a gem of a garden” belonging to the owner of a Barbadian chattel house.

Barbados: Media Ownership

Matthew Hunte — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:17:15 +0000

Veteran Caribbean journalist Julius Gittens touches on issues of media ownership and calls for reflections on the adequacy of the existing structures and for ideas to spawn new ones…he is also sceptical of the notion that technology has reduced the need for conventional journalism: “Already in the Caribbean…so-called social media have made traditional media obsolete…the citizen as personal curator has no further need for curated information provided by the journalist.”

Barbados: The Internet & Global Dialogue

Janine Mendes-Franco — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 22:08:54 +0000

All a Roo's says of the Kony campaign: “It has pushed the world into a global dialogue about an international issue. Tell me that's not cool?”

Barbados: Leap Day

Janine Mendes-Franco — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 23:32:54 +0000

B.C. Pires “couldn’t let the leap day go unobserved”.

Barbados: CLICO Conflict of Interest

Janine Mendes-Franco — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 22:12:49 +0000

Barbados Underground has it “from a usual reliable BU source” that the CLICO scandal is about to take a new twist.

Barbados: A Woman's Worth

Janine Mendes-Franco — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 20:16:56 +0000

Free Logic is concerned about the tweets from “little girls and ignorant women extolling their love for Chris Brown, in spite of his ‘misdeeds'”, saying: “It made me feel sick inside. That there are women out there who think so little of themselves. For the record, no man will ever beat me. Or my daughters. Because I will instill a sense of self-worth in them. As my mother did in me.”

Barbados: Blogging Types

Janine Mendes-Franco — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:51:14 +0000

Barbados Underground says that “there are basically five types of bloggers, the political blogger, the philosophical blogger, the religious blogger, the light hearted blogger and the blogger extraordinaire.”

Caribbean: We'll Always Love You, Whitney

Janine Mendes-Franco — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:22:08 +0000

Following the untimely death of singer Whitney Houston, a handful of Caribbean bloggers are talking about her talent, her music and her legacy.

From Trinidad and Tobago, The Liming House posts a video of the singer performing “I Look to You” and says:

Goodbye, Whitney. Because your voice, even when ravaged, could still reduce me to tears.

Barbados Free Press expresses similar sentiments.

Blogging from Jamaica, one of the things that most strikes Active Voice is that many of the international mainstream media “[seem] to have one clip of Whitney singing/performing”, to which one of her Twitter followers responded:

You know they don’t keep black folk in stock.

The post continues:

I couldn’t understand why for a couple of hours CNN kept showing the same footage of Whitney in a grey dress singing on stage, while NBC seemed to have slightly more diverse clips to accompany the sparse details of her death yesterday. @106harlem’s terse response is shocking but true. Within a few minutes @diverseworld chimed in saying @anniepaul @106harlem … If this is about the footage. I agree. Finally BBC moved from the Bodyguard…

Plain Talk begins his post with a line from “The Greatest Love of All”, but soon voices his concern that the cult of celebrity may be sending the wrong message to regional societies:

The truth of the matter is that the deepest needs of a human being cannot be medicated away; human beings, people, need love, acceptance, intimacy and a feeling of belonging as much as air, water and food to develop, regardless of how unfashionable and contradictory that statement may sound…

Our society is now at the cusp of a complete breakdown because we bought the lie wholesale and sprung for all of the attachments as well. The modern day man-made dilemma of depression that is caused either by the abandonment or outright abuse of our children when they are at their most vulnerable can only be turned around through deep self examination and acceptance in a healthy loving environment and by a life of purpose and of service to others.

We need teachers who love children, who chose the profession out of the desire to mould and develop healthy young minds in a world of immense possibilities and dreams. We need to put back the structures of a healthy society into place, that encourages family life rather than its destruction; that rebuilds our nation into a place where it is safe and beautiful to be a child, and where it is healthy and possible to grow up and become an adult. We need to love each other, take care of each other, and to treasure and grow our communities into spaces of human development and care once again, so as to have somewhere to retreat to when times get dark and we need the trust and support only loved ones can give.

Finally, over in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Abeni writes:

When the phone rang last it was to report two deaths. One was yet another female homicide and the other the death of mega star Whitney Houston. Both were devastating for various reasons. The blood of females continue to drench the soil and it makes me scared,helpless and angry at the same time.

Ms Whitney was an icon, She was gorgeous,regal and had the most amazing voice ever. It seemed like everything she touched turned to gold. From being the first black woman to grace the over of Seventeen magazine, to an endless succession of hits,to lighting up the screen she had the fans eating out of her hands. As a 90's teen her music was a constant in my life.

Many would prefer to reduce her life to her struggles with drug addiction as if it were the single defining factor. I can't and I won't because I believe we or most of us have our demons. We however, have the luxury of not having them played out on the public stage. In the end she was a human as human as all of us.

Rest in peace sweet girl and thanks for sharing your talent with us.

The thumbnail image used in this post, “Whitney Houston - Concert in Central Park / Good Morning America - Manhattan NYC”, is by asterix611, used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) CC license. Visit asterix611's flickr photostream.