· March, 2006

Stories about Jamaica from March, 2006

The blogosphere responds to Jamaica's first woman Prime Minister

  31 March 2006

On March 30, Jamaica's first (and the anglophone Caribbean's second the anglophone Caribbean's third, after Dominica's Eugenia Charles and Bermuda's Jennifer Smith) female Prime Minister was sworn into office. Portia Simpson-Miller is a long-standing member of Jamaica's ruling People's National Party (PNP) who won the party's internal vote to elect...

Caribbean, US: US-Caricom meeting

  30 March 2006

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...

  29 March 2006

Mikaila makes her debut at the pan collective with a bit of commentary on the inaguration of Jamaica's first female Prime Minister, the Honorable Portia Simpson, which takes place on Thursday 30 March, and her two cents’ on the Commonwealth Games.

Caribbean: Books for birders

  28 March 2006

“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...

Jamaica: High school sports teams at war

  28 March 2006

From Leon Robinson, a rather dispassionate discourse on the “war” being waged between rival Kingston high school teams in the “Champs”, the VMBS/ISSA Boys & Girls Athletic Championships. “We even have “territories”, places where rival schools are not welcome, at least not in frequency or numbers. . . . We...

Caribbean: Carifesta 2006

  23 March 2006

Jeremy Taylor at the Caribbean Beat Blog looks forward to seeing what the Caribbean arts festival Carifesta 2006 has in store. “I still remember the excitement of the very first Carifesta in Guyana, in 1972, when it seemed that the whole of Georgetown was taken over by musicians, poets, dancers,...

Jamaica, Guyana: Walter Rodney

  23 March 2006

Jebratt and Geoffrey Philp remember slain Guyanese teacher, writer and political activist Walter Rodney, on the day of his birthday.

Jamaica: Male sexual harrassment

  22 March 2006

ClaudeMills.com tackles the subject of the sexual harrassment of men in Jamaica in an article which quotes business consultants, a psychologist and at least one potential victim who says, “I know what it is like for a woman to shower unwanted attention, but I don’t think a Jamaican man would...

Jamaica: Carnival

  22 March 2006

Stunner previews the Jamaica Carnival celebrations, which has many people attending “soca-robics” sessions to get in shape.

Jamaica: Commonwealth Games

  22 March 2006

Leon wonders why the 18th Commonwealth Games aren't getting more media attention. “Is it because the mighty U.S is not involved, since the Commonwealth games only include former territories of Britain? (But wait, America is a former territory of Britain!).”

  20 March 2006

Francis Wade writes a thoughtful post on Jamaica's “greatest export” — the country's “creative class”.

Caribbean: Women writers’ blog

  17 March 2006

Over at BlogHer, Karen Walrond announces her new project, The Pan Collective, “a community blog featuring the voices of wonderful women writers from the Caribbean”.

Commonwealth Games

  15 March 2006

Regan liveblogs the Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Games, which took place last night in Melbourne, Australia.

Barbados: The problem with Jamaica

  14 March 2006

Barbados Free Press expresses “a concern that many Bajans have with CARICOM – although we might share common origins and history with our Caribbean neighbours, there are some cultural manifestations that we would just as soon not import to Barbados.” The “cultural manifestation”, in this case, is Jamaica's crime problem.

Jamaica: Possibility

  13 March 2006

Francis Wade — and, it would seem, several of his compatriots — senses a “whiff of possibility” in the recent changes in the Jamaican political status quo, notably the ascension of a woman to the position of Prime Minister. “Out of nowhere, it seems, our murders have dropped by 20%...