Stories about Jamaica from August, 2008
Bermuda, Trinidad & Tobago: Reviving the Federation?
Vexed Bermoothes weighs in on the call by Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister for regional territories to move towards economic and political integration: “My advice to Bermuda: stay out of it. As a community, we treasure our cultural and family links to the Caribbean. But there’s little benefit to us...
Jamaica, Haiti: Gustav Gets Closer
YardFlex.com reports on the damage that Hurricane Gustav has wreaked in Haiti, even as the storm heads for the North Coast of Jamaica.
Jamaica: Athletic Subversion
“Jamaica's garrison politics found its way onto the Olympics stage in two performances – once in a scintillating display of athletic grace and vigor, and once in a celebratory performance of the “gully creepa”: Abeng News Magazine explains.
Jamaica: Gustav etc.
As Jamaican Annie Paul waits for Hurricane Gustav “to huff and puff and blow our house down”, she blogs about everything from Usain Bolt-inspired dance moves to Michelle Obama: “(She) was impressive, wasn't she? Neither pale, nor male–i can identify with that…”
Barbados: To Sign or Not To Sign
“The buzz issue in the Caribbean media in recent weeks is whether the CARIFORUM members will sign-on to the CARIFORUM/EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA)”: Barbados Underground examines a few of the issues.
Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica: People Power
“The pictures of the Jamaican track teams facilities haunt me. But what they prove, perhaps is that all the high tech this, that and the other can’t take the place of the sheer power of the human spirit”: Trinidadian blogger Attillah Springer wonders “if we have what it takes to...
Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica, Cuba: Olympic Medals
Caribbean Beat Blog congratulates Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago on their gold and silver medals in the Men's 4 x 100 Relay, while Child of the Revolution thinks that “Fidel Castro won’t be happy” with the Cuban Olympic medal count.
Jamaica: Patwa Power
Annie Paul gives a rundown of Jamaica's outstanding Olympic achievements, making the point that “the phenomenal performance of the Jamaican athletes is also due to the cultural self-confidence they feel…this is not a confidence manufactured by the abjectly self-conscious, respectability-seeking, hymn-singing English-speaking middle classes but one bred out of the...
Jamaica: Campbell-Brown Wins Gold
“The U.S. team will return home without a gold medal in the individual sprint events for the first time since they boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics”: YardFlex.com congratulates Jamaican sprinter Veronica Campbell-Brown on her “impressive gold in the women’s 200 meters.”
Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana: Winning Ways
“I feel that a lot of people misinterpreted Bolt's gestures, for innocent or malicious reasons. There may be more than one level of culture clash at work–race and class, being obvious, but also the aspirations and motivation of the modern athlete”: Living in Barbados takes no issue with Usain Bolt's...
Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica: Olympic Inspiration
The Caribbean Librarian is inspired by the Olympic performances of the Jamaican sprinters: “What have we learnt? When faced with innumerable problems (our economies, lack of infrastructure, lack of resources etc.), we CAN ACHIEVE!!”
Jamaica: “Lightning” Strikes Twice at Beijing Olympics
Jamaica's Usain Bolt continued his phenomenal run at the Beijing Olympics with a record-breaking win in the men's 200m Wednesday and Caribbean bloggers are celebrating just as much as he is!
Jamaica: Bolt Wins 200m
Jamaica's Abeng News Magazine is thrilled to report that lightning does indeed strike twice as Usain Bolt cops the Gold – and sets a new World Record – in the 200m event.
Barbados, Jamaica, China: Mistaken Identity
A case of mistaken identity in China courtesy a newspaper that could not distinguish between images of Usain Bolt and Dwain Chambers – Barbadian blogger Jdid is not taking the mix-up lightly: “No distinct similarities except skin color you mean. The really sad thing about it is you know almost...
Jamaica: Woman Power!
Jamaica has done it again! If there was any doubt after Usain Bolt's 100m Gold Medal that this Caribbean nation is a powerhouse of Track and Field, the female Jamaican sprinters made sure to underscore the point by placing first (Shelly-Ann Fraser) second (Kerron Stewart) and...second (Sherone Simpson) in the final of the Women's 100m in Beijing.
Jamaica: One Gold; Two Silvers
Abeng News Magazine is thrilled to report that “Jamaican women sprinters set a new record placing one, two, two in the 100 meters at the Olympics in Beijing, on the birthday of the island's first national hero, Marcus Garvey.”
Caribbean: Lightning Bolt Strikes Beijing
This post is going to be as long as Jamaican Usain Bolt's sprint to 100m-dash Olympic glory was short and ever-so sweet - because Caribbean bloggers still have not come down from the high that Bolt's amazing win has created.
Jamaica, Canada: Caribana
Jamaica's Abeng News Magazine posts images from “the biggest street fête in North America”, Toronto's Caribana.
Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago: Stating the Facts
A freelance writer pens an Emancipation Day article for The Jamaica Observer that suggests “slavery was good for the black man”, prompting The Modest Goddess to point out “the staggering amount of evidence that contradicts (his) writing.”
Jamaica: Racism in Sport
Following the controversy about an ad in which the Spanish Olympic basketball team is shown forcibly slanting their eyes, Can a Jamaican take Cali? is convinced that Spain “has made a sport of racism!”, while Babalu wonders whether it is simply a case of “the Spanish have their own brand...
Jamaica: Decriminalizing Homosexuality
From Jamaica, YardFlex.com reports on “a proposed legislation…recommending the decriminalization of homosexuality and commercial sex workers” in order to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS.
