Global Voices Online

“Brooklyn sometimes feels like it is part of the Caribbean,” writes Caribbean Beat Blog, reporting on an upcoming exhibition of contemporary Caribbean art at the Brooklyn Museum.

Guadeloupe Attitude writes (Fr): “Mrs. Deborah Jones, Governor of the British island of Montserrat, ordered yesterday the evacuation of the volcano's North West zone. About 50 households are involved. La Soufriere Hills began erupting about a week ago. Monday, smoke columns over 7 kilometers high seeped out of it and the volcano spat out numerous volcanic rocks, an imminent danger to neighbors. We … in Guadeloupe hold our Montserrat brothers affectionately in our thoughts.”

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, Saint-Lucia, Haiti, Jamaica, Antigua, Martinique) had a two-day exchange around the theme ‘Women and Decision-making'.”

“. . . it's interesting how these festivals have echoed, in a small way, the evolution of their original model in Trinidad, as a vehicle of solidarity, an assertion of identity, a gesture of defiance in a hostile environment,” says Jeremy Taylor, writing about the Carnivals “exported” by the Caribbean to the likes of London and New York.

Island Tips posts a list — by island — of the languages spoken in the Caribbean.

Jeremy Taylor ponders the appropriate uses of colonial forms and artifacts in the Caribbean context.

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 Fort-de-France.

Online newsmagazine Caribbean360.com announces a series of blogs by writers and columnists.

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).