Global Voices » Jamaica

Caribbean: Supporting Our Mothers

Janine Mendes-Franco — Tue, 15 May 2012 20:18:40 +0000

Mother's Day, celebrated this past weekend all across the Caribbean, was a hot topic of discussion with regional bloggers - or rather, mothers were. From posts of admiration and thanks to accounts of how women regularly defy oppression, it was a mixed bag, but one that mothers everywhere would have been happy to sample from…

To mark the occasion, TALLAWAH “rang up a few Jamaican celeb moms to get responses to the day’s most pressing query: Is having a child the best thing you’ve ever done?” The responses are worth a read.

Compatriot Nadine, Unscripted referred to her mother as “the epitome of self-sacrifice”:

We’ve had our share of ups and downs, and butted heads on some occasions. Yet, at the forefront of my mind, despite all that we’ve been through, I always remember everything she has given to us, simply because she cares.

She also took time to acknowledge “all the mothers, mothers-to-be, grandmothers and greats, the fathers who have a double role as mothers, and the mothers whose children grew in their hearts instead of their wombs”:

Wherever you are on this planet, I give thanks for you and your bright legacy. Know that you are blessed, honoured, loved.

Guyanese-born Tastes Like Home echoed her sentiments:

Thank you for loving me.
Thank you for caring about me.
Thank you for listening to my rants.
Thank you for supporting me.
Thank you for encouraging me.

Parenting is such a huge responsibility and I admire the grace with which you balance your life, work and everything else in-between. I join in the chorus of applause and salute you on this your very special day.

Over at My big, fat, Cuban family, the blogger's kids apparently logged in and shared some of the most meaningful things their mom has taught them over the years - from “[having] great adventures” to “[being] fearless.” Cuban bloggers were by far the most vocal about the sacrifices mothers - and women on the whole - have to make. Havana Times published an account of “a Cuban mother's drive”…

When you have a child who looks up at you in desperation and says: ‘Mommy, I’m hungry,' and you know full well that two salaries aren’t enough to satisfy that basic request…then you’ll know where my strength comes from.

…but balanced the perspective in another post that explains why motherhood is so rewarding:

Most of all there are the kisses, the kisses and hearing ‘I love you, mommy.' Those are the things that make me remember that being a mother is no sacrifice. Motherhood is simply a blessing.

So why aren't Cubans having more babies? This post offered some insight. Pedazos de la Isla uploaded a video tribute to Cuban women, explaining:

On Mother’s Day 2012, a number of Cuban mothers- most of them members of the Ladies in White- have been arrested and beaten by the Cuban political police, and yet they continue carrying out their activities and RESISTING against the repression.

These face harassment, acts of repudiation, beatings, and arrests for demanding the rights of an entire nation. Regardless, they still find time to protect and educate their children and families. They are examples of courage and inspiration.

Notes from the Cuban Exile Quarter reported on a march in honour of the memory of Laura Pollan:

Despite threats, harassment, and scores of women detained by State Security 68 Ladies in White following mass walked through Fifth Avenue in the west of Havana. They marched and chanted ‘Viva Laura Pollán!' and ‘Freedom for the political prisoners!'

The blogger (along with others) went on to describe several cases of women being detained and threatened, adding:

It is also important to remember that Cuban mothers are spending Mothers Day in prison for defending the human rights of the Cuban people.

Haiti Chery, meanwhile, spared a thought for Trayvon Martin's mom, explaining:

Sybrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Matin, released a public service announcement…timed for Mother’s Day this [past] weekend, asking viewers to ‘call the governor of your state' and encourage them to reconsider ‘Stand Your Ground' laws like the one cited by the man who killed her son.

Trinidadian diaspora bloggers also marked the occasion, albeit in different ways. Fashion blogger Afrobella gave a few suggestions for the best Mother's Day gifts (hint: stay away from the irons!) and wished “anyone who's motherly” a wonderful day:

Whether you’re a mother with your own kids, or you’ve adopted a family, or if you’re a loving sister or aunt or grandma who really plays a motherly role in the lives of little ones, I wish you a very happy Mother’s Day. Thank you for all you have done to shape a child’s life! It ALL counts. Thank you for being part of someone’s village. You’re more appreciated than you may know.

Photoblogger chookooloonks meanwhile, confessed that:

I always feel just a tiny bit strange accepting gifts on Mother's Day…I don't ‘mother' so that I can get gifts once a year for my efforts. I mother for a lot of selfish reasons: because I wanted to be a mom. Because I get a hell of a lot out of my relationship with my kid. Because that's what I'm wired to do.

But you know what would be nice?

If we moms could use Mother's Day as a day of focus to help support each other. It seems to me so strange that an experience that is so universal — raising a child — can also at times feel so solitary. And, frankly, so guilt-ridden: we get messages daily, from the media, from corporate culture, from our communities and even from other mothers saying you're doing it wrong. Judgments on issues like how you should become a parent — ‘natural' or C-section or adoption or surrogacy. Whether you should work outside of your home. Or not. Or breastfeed. Or Not. Or how long you should breastfeed. Or what to feed you kid. Or how to dress your kid. Or what organizations you should get your kid involved in. Or when you should send your kid to school. Or where. Or homeschool. Or … or … or ….

AAAAUUUUGGH.

So this year, here's an idea: in addition to the moms in our families, let's take a moment out of our day to send a message to peers — moms who are neither our mothers nor our partners — and just say, ‘good job.' Send an email to someone (even someone you only know online) just to say, ‘You have great kids,' or ‘you're an inspiring parent,' or ‘your children are lucky to have you.' An unexpected note of encouragement letting a mother know to keep on keeping on.

The thumbnail image used in this post, “Mother, daughter”, is by Bread for the World, used under an Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0) Creative Commons license. Visit Bread for the World's flickr photostream.

Jamaica: Better to Give

Janine Mendes-Franco — Wed, 09 May 2012 14:29:58 +0000

“The Bobo Shanti youth are well spoken and have a serene gentleness about them…[they] are excellent ambassadors of Rastafari”: Jamaian litblogger Geoffrey Philp finds himself “drawn to how they greet each other and me with the words: ‘Blessed Love.'”

Jamaica: Housing Agency on Weak Foundation

Janine Mendes-Franco — Tue, 01 May 2012 20:28:35 +0000

Jamaica Woman Tongue says that if policy makers at the Housing Agency of Jamaica went to Sunday school, “they weren’t there the week the other children were learning…about wise and foolish builders”, adding that the organisation's “reckless policy of converting protected lands into house spots is a classic example of building on sand.”

Jamaica: Of Art & Literature

Janine Mendes-Franco — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 16:25:21 +0000

Nadine, Unscripted, notes that there are three Jamaican writers who have made the shortlists for the 2012 Commonwealth Book Prize and Commonwealth Short Story Prize, while ART:Jamaica blogs about an exciting new local space for art.

Jamaica: Literary Festival Founder Gets Guggenheim Fellowship

Janine Mendes-Franco — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:29:10 +0000

Nadine, Unscripted says that “kudos are in order for poet, author and co-founder of Calabash International Literary Festival Trust, Kwame Dawes, who has been awarded a 2012 Guggenheim Fellowship for Poetry, one of the most prestigious of its kind in the world.”

This Week in the Caribbean Blogosphere

Janine Mendes-Franco — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 00:07:54 +0000

In last week's summary of the regional blogosphere, a young comtemporary artist from Barbados made the observation that the region is “more than the beach and coconuts.” Here's a round-up of what Caribbean netizens were talking about this week, with not one mention of beaches or coconuts…

Jamaica
Jamaican bloggers were understandably excited about the launch of the Bob Marley movie yesterday, which also happened to be International Weed Day. Cucumber Juice, who already “saw the new documentary about Bob Marley as part of the 2012 DC International Film Festival”, wrote:

The documentary is worth every second of its 145 minutes. On its 4/20 opening day Marley will also stream on Facebook. All of the reviews that I have read – and there are many, from the New York Times to local papers in Silicon Valley, California – are enthusiastic about the film. I agree with the seemingly widespread sentiment that Marley is a well-needed portrait of Bob Marley the man, not the superstar, not the celebrity, not the prophet…just a man. It was something that his granddaughter Donisha Prendergast urged us to have in mind as we watched – think of Bob the man not Bob the celeb – but the caution wasn’t necessary even as I saw footage and heard the famous songs; I couldn’t help but think about him outside of the context of superstar, maybe even the first Third World superstar.

I still believe as I did during and immediately after the film that every Jamaican must watch this film. And I still say that without any hesitation, reservation, or hyperbole. Why? Because Bob Marley is an important historical figure and he is Jamaica’s own. Even though he has touched millions – maybe he belongs to them too – he’s Jamaica’s own first. It is simply important to know our history, and this documentary is a good place to start.

Jamaica Woman Tongue, meanwhile, took issue with the “complete mockery of the national flag” that took place during a political swearing-in ceremony:

This juvenile act proves that we have sunk to a new low in national politics. Even the flag is no longer safe in the mindless colour war between orange and green fanatics.

The distasteful anti-green flag is forcing us to take a fresh look at the meaning of this national symbol. We can no longer assume that as a society we all accept the grand idea that national pride is wrapped up in what is really just a piece of cloth. It seems as it we are quite prepared to cut up the cloth to suit our rather limited political agendas.

The Bahamas
Politics were also top of mind with Bahamian bloggers this week, as the country's general elections draw closer. New blogs have been adding depth and dimension to the online debate: in response to one of its posts, Blogworld wrote:

I tend to fall into its camp with regard to the ways in which we view ourselves, our fundamental conservatism and fear of confrontation, our need of “brain-un-washing”. I particularly agree with the idea that 2012 and possibly years to come ‘may see the continuation of the unfinished revolution of the 1960/70s.' I’m not sure I share all of its cynicism, and while I am as unimpressed with the “achievements” of the past five years as the author is, I have not been convinced that a return to a PLP administration will be the magic bullet that solves all our problems.

Her compatriot, Rick Lowe, blogging at Weblog Bahamas, thought that it was time for him “to hit the off button” when it comes to election propaganda, while Political Bahamas Blog republished a mainstream media opinion piece which suggested that:

It is imperative to state that a leader will be judged by and for successive generations based on his/her ability to, among other things, manage the economy in a manner that balances economic prudence, socio-economic expectations and infrastructural development.

Haiti
Haitian bloggers were talking about the magnitude of the country's cholera epidemic. Dady Chery noted that
“Haitian health officials have approved a medical trial of the oral cholera vaccine Shanchol on poor women and children”, saying:

This trial is being presented as a vaccination campaign and will curiously be administered in two of Port-au-Prince’s slums by researchers from Gheskio (Center for Haitian Studies of Kaposi Syndrome and Opportunistic Infections) a group closely associated with Partners in Health (PIH) that studies AIDS and enjoys generous funding from USAID…

To avoid possible abuse it is essential that, in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, the medical trial be monitored by a panel of impartial observers.

We can help the Haitian poor by giving them correct information and the choice to make appropriate decisions for themselves and their children. If poor women and children get coerced into becoming the guinea pigs for western pharmaceuticals, Haiti will add yet another sordid story to its long list of abuses.

Cuba
Diaspora bloggers were looking at numbers this week - Uncommon Sense republished statistics from “the opposition Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation”, stating that there have been “almost 2,400 political arrests in first 3 months of 2012.” Notes from the Cuban Exile Quarter took a longer view of what he called “the rising body count in Cuba.”

Pedazos de la Isla posted a recap of “another violent weekend in Cuba”, while Laritza Diversent blogged about the plight of “Sonia Garro Alfonso, a member of the Ladies in White and the Afro-Cuban Independent Foundation”, who was recently arrested. Crossing the Barbed Wire focused on another Lady in White, Yakelin Garcia Jaenz, whose husband is in prison:

She has been beaten and harassed by paramilitary Rapid Response Brigades and has been arrested arbitrarily for various hours, despite the fact that she is the mother of two small children.

Translating Cuba posted an article dealing with the case of El Ñaño, the imprisoned Rastafarian priest, while Havana-based Iván García was focused on the fact that Cubans are too busy “in search of their daily food” to notice “the flowers of the flamboyant on Havana’s Santa Catalina Avenue already [beginning] to change color”:

Increasingly, many Havana families find it difficult to put a decent meal on the table…The issue of food is a national headache. It takes about 90% of the money that a family receives. And so everyone may not always eat decently.

Trinidad and Tobago
Globewriter blogged about a group whose mission is to “empower youth to deal with difficulties regarding sexual orientation and gender identity/expression”:

Sitting in that first meeting held at a conference table at the University of the West Indies I looked at the young faces and listened to them emphatically stating that young people being driven to despair because they were lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered or questioning was not acceptable and I can’t really describe how proud I felt and how full of hope for the future.

His post gave details about “a project that will be a first for T&T – a Day of Silence which will be observed on Friday”:

This might seem like a small act to achieve a very big change – and it is – but it is a start and it will mark a major turning point in the fight for LGBTQ kids to be given the dignity and respect that they deserve as equal human beings. This is also being done in a country in the English speaking Caribbean – not normally viewed as an especially tolerant environment for such vulnerable kids. In practice T&T is nowhere as unwelcoming as say Jamaica but there are still discriminatory (though rarely enforced) rules on the books and LGBT people face discrimination on a daily basis simply because of who they are.

In support of the cause, his blog was silent until midnight on April 20.

Other Trinidadian bloggers were focused on the arrest of Ian Alleyne, controversial host of a popular television show, “Crime Watch.” The Eternal Pantomine said:

The People’s Police Commissioner Ian Alleyne has been arrested and it was all done on national television!

I get confused…under which act? Dangerous Dogs? Mental Health? Both?

Bear in mind that Ian come like a saviour/messiah figure to many members of the society who feel they can’t get justice from the police and judicial services here…if nothing else shows you how decrepit a society we have become, Ian Alleyne’s rise from pastor’s son, to obscure television host….to Trinidad’s Batman is a metre gauge that we shouldn’t ignore.

Mere minutes after Alleyne’s arrest the meme generators was on fire and youtube was under pressure. There is a part of me that even wondering if the entire arrest was staged given how over the top this entire thing has been. Raids for rape tapes and now raids to arrest…. If there is a show today….it will be EPIC.

Kudos to TV6 who has successfully removed itself from culpability by insisting that Alleyne responsible for his own show…that way the station never have to get any flack for the filth aired on the programme while getting all the viewership, advertising and ratings.

In a follow-up post, she repeated her point about the television station's culpability and raised questions about Alleyne's track record:

Since Ian doesn’t own a television station, or broadcast rights…nor in fact pressed play on the tape button, doesn’t the TV station have some culpability in this matter? Didn’t the station allow the tape to be aired not once but TWICE…showing the face of a minor engaged questionable circumstances.

All yuh see why I asking if is the Mental Health Act or Dangerous Dogs Act? Because somebody in tv6 has to be liable too…because is the station broadcast the thing.

Another issue I have is this…ppl keep calling Ian the poor people’s champion and alleging he has done so much for this country…how many of Alleyne’s arrests have resulted in solid convictions? Because a crime is only solved when there is a conviction…so, how many solid convictions has Alleyne’s show really resulted in?

Could it be people have faith in Ian because he does put on a good (pappy) show

The thumbnail image used in this post, “Bob Marley”, is by murdelta, used under an Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) Creative Commons license. Visit murdelta's flickr photostream.

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.

Topics of Interest in the Caribbean Blogosphere

Janine Mendes-Franco — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 20:07:41 +0000

The Caribbean blogosphere has been talking about an array of different issues over the last week or so. Here's a look at some of them…

Jamaica

Concerns about the quality of education in the country were top of the list as Jamaica Woman Tongue wondered whether The Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) was a Ponzi scheme of sorts:

LET’S FACE It. The [test] isn’t just about measuring the academic accomplishments of primary school students. The test is a clear sign of the failure of our educational system to make adequate provisions for all children to access high-quality secondary education.

In a culture of scarce benefits and educational spoils, it’s not just the academically fit who survive. There are other factors that determine performance. In the war for places in ‘good’ schools, the wealthy usually beat the poor.

Ponzi schemes sell the illusion that everyone can get rich by ‘investing’ in a dubious enterprise. In the case of the GSAT, the Ministry of Education is selling the illusion that all students who achieve can get into ‘good’ secondary schools. The people who get in on the Ponzi scheme early in the game do get back their money. But those at the very bottom of the predatory feeding chain don’t stand a chance. Poor people’s children at the lowest levels of the GSAT pyramid have a very hard time collecting any benefits and spoils from the system. Most of them leave school barely literate and completely unprepared for the job market.

Cuba

Bloggers were still talking about the human rights situation on the island following the recent papal visit. As diaspora bloggers marveled at the sheer number of arrests (760 reported for the month of March), Iván García, who lives in Havana, wrote:

Today, Cuba is among the five countries with the highest prison population in the world. The future is a bad word. There are so many prostitutes it’s scary. And psychotropic drugs are as common among adolescents as drinking rum.

Benedict could not spend ten minutes taking a picture with the Ladies in White, who for nine years, since April 2003, have been attending Mass every Sunday in the Church of Santa Rita. Or five minutes to give a rosary to a representation of the opponents who have professed Catholicism their whole lives. But in his busy schedule he had half an hour with Fidel Castro. Perhaps, as Juan Juan Almeida wrote, the meeting between the Pope and the ex-leader, also served to give the last rites to the one responsible for the endless nightmare of the Cuban people.

The Archbishop should pressure the government to engage with the opposition. Sit down and negotiate inescapable rights such as freedom of expression and association, which allow independent groups in society, whether or not they are protesters. Jaime Ortega should have more tact in dealing with dissent. While in Cuba, by tradition, the Catholic hierarchy has always rubbed shoulders with the power, the Cardinal could rethink their strategies. Keeping the smiley face just for those in power, the Church of Christ will lose more members. Cubans continue to baptize their children at home and keep the images of the Sacred Heart and Our Lady of Charity. But prefer to bet on other religions. This is what is happening.

Cuban bloggers also covered the case of Jeovany Jimenez, who went on hunger strike demanding his right to return to his practice as a physician. Generation Y provided a bit of background:

He had been expelled from his profession in 2006 when he protested a miserable wage increase for public health personnel. Along with the administrative action applied to him, he was also expelled from the Communist Party in which he was active. In late 2010 and in the absence of any institutional response to his complaints, he opened the blog Citizen Zero on the Cuban Voices platform.

After sending the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) a score of letters over these last five years, the proscribed Dr. Jiménez resorted to a desperate strategy, to stop ingesting food until reinstated in his position. From March 5, he refused to eat and saw only two options: abandoning his strike without achieving his goals, or ending up in a coffin. The most unlikely scenario was his legal reinstatement as a doctor, given the stubbornness of our institutions when it comes time to rectify an injustice. And yet, the miracle happened.

This protest didn’t have a political slant, it was work, relying on the magnificent tool of the Internet to give it visibility, along with the microphones of journalists from foreign radio and television stations who shed light on such a disproportionate administrative punishment. But the final touch was his own body. That body that he was sworn to care for in others and that he put at risk in himself to return to the right to heal.

Of interest too was a conference held by the Cuba-American businessman and politician, Carlos Saladrigas. Without Evasion noted that:

Representatives from official sectors — such as academics, university professors, political scientists, etc. — as well as numerous representatives of independent civil society generally labeled as dissidents or opponents, shared the space and the microphone without our attacking or assaulting each other, and without dismissing or offending each other, evidence that a context of respectful debate is only possible in spaces not controlled by the government.

There was everything, from condemnations of U.S. government policy, to nostalgia for what was the revolutionary project, and there were also references to the families who emigrated…Perhaps that is why it was so refreshing to hear other proposals, such as that made by friend and colleague Reinaldo Escobar to demand the decriminalization of differences of opinion; or the contribution by the young man who put on the table, among other questions, the urgent need for all Cubans to have access to the Internet and to end government’s prohibitions on the free circulation of information and ideas on the Island.

Iván García, who also attended the event, concluded that:

Carlos Saladrigas sees it all very clearly. Too clearly. I noticed that he did not question the hundreds of detentions of dissidents for the visit of the German Pope, or the spontaneous blow to someone who shouted ‘Down with communism' in the Plaza Antonio Maceo in Santiago de Cuba. Nobody else asked, either.

Finally, at Translating Cuba, Wendy Iriepa and Ignacio Estrada made the point that:

The right not to be subjected to cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or penalties should be addressed in several ways in the context of HIV in Cuba, for example in the treatment of prisoners who are sick.

Trinidad & Tobago

Of the country's new oil discovery, aka_lol said, tongue firmly in cheek:

Now that some oil was found after many years of not being found, the population can stop burning tires to fix roads…The showing off of the latest oil find with numerous ads in the press and on radio can be seen as a way to boost the local economy with misplaced confidence and without cement.

The new oil discoveries are being seen by both analysts and optimists as the tip of the iceberg of more oil discoveries that will help propel an idea-starved government back into the old ways of the country and in power.

Finally, still on the topic of the Cheryl Miller fiasco, The Eternal Pantomime quipped:

I get up this morning to read that Miller will be getting private tests done to find out if the drugs she has been given have harmed her in any way; and that Khan has called a Council of the Ministerial Suspects. If you ask me, that meeting isn’t going to be about finding out who is at the bottom of this, because something tells me Khan already knows, and has known since Holy Thursday. This meeting may well be to strategise on how to cover their asses, and find a way to placate a very angry public.

I’m glad that Cheryl’s colleagues and indeed many other citizens did make a fuss about this, and voiced their displeasure and kept questioning the authorities. At the bottom of it, this has…everything to do with how we as citizens are treated by people in positions of power.

Too often in matters like this the state authorities does wine on us…and wine hard too. I am hoping, that given the details of this case, and Cheryl Miller’s battery of lawyers that she ain't just get to wine back on the state, I want she tremble it and raise a leg too…because they damn well deserve it!

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

One Day on Earth: Worldwide Collaborative Music Video Released

Juliana Rincón Parra — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 19:21:58 +0000

A new music video has been released in preparation for the worldwide screening of the Global Collaborative film One Day on Earth, which will take place in locations all around the planet on Earth Day (22 April, 2012). The video features musicians, poets and dancers captured on film all during the same 24 hour period in 10 October, 2010, artfully recut and remixed by Cut Chemist.

The collaborative film One Day on Earth was filmed all on the same day, October 10, 2010, with more than 3,000 hours of footage sent in from all corners of the world, showcasing the amazing diversity, conflict, tragedy, and triumph that occurs in one day. The Global Screening will take place on Earth Day (April 22, 2012) in every country of the world, with the assistance of World Heritage Sites and the United Nations.

The music video includes footage from India, Papua New Guinea, Benin, Burkina Faso, USA, China, North Korea, Mongolia, Kenya, Afghanistan, Jamaica, Spain, Taiwan and many other locations.

You can read more about the upcoming screening on our previous post One Day on Earth: Global Screening of Worldwide Collaborative Film and you can sign up for a screening in your city or town on the One Day on Earth site.

Jamaica, U.S.A.: Asking for Justice in Martin Killing

Janine Mendes-Franco — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 14:26:59 +0000

Of the “Wild Wild West” killing of Trayvon Martin, Abeng News Magazine says: “When stories like these emerge from the streets of cities in the Middle East and other countries in the developing world, Western political leaders and ‘rights' agencies lambast the nations as lawless and prepare to depose their despotic leaders.”

Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago: Remembering Wayne Brown

Matthew Hunte — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 20:21:39 +0000

“Writers are easily thought of as selfish people. But the writers I know—and Wayne Brown in particular—practice what I find to be a particularly beautiful form of generosity: a commitment to telling the truth”: Rachel Kadish reflects on her friendship and correspondence with the late Trinidadian writer Wayne Brown.

Jamaica: Counting Crayons

Janine Mendes-Franco — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 23:21:39 +0000

“Yes, the crime rate and garrison communities are atrocious. Yes, the decline in public morality is a cause for concern. But there are bright spots that shine beyond Jamaica's geographical boundaries”: Diaspora blogger Geoffrey Philp highlights one of them.

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.

Jamaica: Hoodie is No Excuse

Janine Mendes-Franco — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:01:10 +0000

“An excited man kills someone for the flimsiest of causes. And someone asks us to believe it’s due to clothing choices!”: Diaspora blogger Grasshopper Eyes The Potomac comments on the Trayvon Martin case.

This Week in the Caribbean Blogosphere

Janine Mendes-Franco — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 01:00:25 +0000

Activity in the Caribbean blogosphere this week has been predominantly coming from Cuba and its diaspora, as the country prepares for the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI amidst frustration about the human rights situation on the island and dissatisfaction over the pontiff declining to meet members of the Cuban opposition during his stay.

Cuba
Today, Notes from the Cuban Exile Quarter reported that:

Two days after the Wall Street Journal published his essay on the Pope's upcoming visit to Cuba, Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet is paid a visit today at his home in Havana. Elsa Morejon tweeting at 11:50am March 22, 2012 from Cuba: ‘Police are in my house; bring summons for Oscar.'

There have also been other reports of arrests ahead of the Pope's visit on Monday: Pedazos de la Isla gave accounts of two instances, here and here.

Other bloggers continued to denounce the Archbishop of Havana's decision to have church protesters forcibly removed. Lilianne Ruíz, blogging at Translating Cuba, argued that:

People have the right to peaceful protest to demand change. That which puts the situation in crisis is the Cuban government which does not want to be removed from its desperately sad power. And the Church is behaving more like a politician than as an institution protective of human rights. Because it seems that Cuba is condemned by the national — not universal — spirit: abuse, cowardice, boorishness.

babalu, meanwhile, focused on collecting last-minute signatures for the One Cuba petition to Pope Benedict XVI. In contrast, The Cuban Triangle thought that:

In a sense, the church is serving one function of a political opposition by pressing the government to form policies that serve the public good, and to keep its promises. But the church is anything but a political organization, and its public policy voice derives from what it conceives as its mission to look out not only for Cubans’ spiritual needs, but for their general welfare. As an editorial in a church publication put it, ideologies “should be at the service of the Cuban people, not the other way around.”

This role comes with its share of controversy. The church’s good offices were essential to the release of 130 political prisoners serving long sentences – reducing the number of prisoners of conscience recognized by Amnesty International to zero – but when all but twelve accepted an offer to leave for Spain with their families, the church was accused of weakening the political opposition and accommodating a form of government antithetical to Christianity.

This argument will not be resolved…Benedict is not likely to ‘open a new chapter in the history of Cuba,' as Lech Walesa predicted dramatically last week. His embrace will be a vote of confidence in Cardinal Ortega and the Cuban church, and as the Vatican’s head of state he will applaud improved church-state relations in Havana. But he will leave it to the Cubans to make their own history.

The rest of the region, meanwhile, has been blogging about other issues. A common point of focus for diaspora bloggers from Jamaica was the killing of unarmed Florida teen Trayvon Martin - a case that has reignited the issue of race relations in the United States. Geoffrey Philp, who lives in Florida himself, said:

As a father, I have tried to protect as best as I could from the evils of racism.

Sometimes, I know they thought that I was overdoing it. Maybe I did.

But now the killing of Trayvon Martin has brought racism home. Trayvon went to the same school as my children. Trayvon Martin could have been one of my children. Trayvon was killed and his only ‘crime' was being black in America.

My heart goes out to Trayvon's parents. And there is nothing more that I can say. I can only grieve.

Philp's compatriot, Cucumber Juice, added:

That race (overwhelmingly) seems to be a factor in how Mr. Zimmerman perceived, classified, and treated Trayvon Martin makes this situation so much worse for me, a black Jamaican woman living in the United States.

I think that, generally, the outrage and protest epitomizes a need for justice as well as a frustration with the racism that still exists in the U.S. of A.

As a woman imagining and longing for the day when I have children and little by little preparing to send them out into to the world it angers me. And it scares me. Every time I hear this child’s mother on the radio the grief in her voice shakes me to the core. The grief etched on his father’s face is…indescribable.

As a human being it is appalling and completely unacceptable. There’s no excuse or justification. There is no comfort that can be offered to this boy’s family to ease the grief and loss that they must be feeling. Yet I won’t and can’t dismiss what I feel…as I can’t and won’t forget that as much as this is about racism, injustice, and the need for justice. Laws like this, situations like this, unaccountability for murders like this cannot be right.

Trinidad and Tobago's Bocas Lit Fest Blog was understandably focused on its hosting of the upcoming literary festival, while further north of the Caribbean archipelago, in Haiti, Haiti Grassroots Watch examined the apparent corruption surrounding the construction of more than 200 emergency shelters in the mountains above Léogâne, epicenter of the 2010 earthquake.

The thumbnail image used in this post, “POPE BENEDICT XVI in Portugal”, is by Catholic Church (England and Wales), used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) Creative Commons license. Visit Catholic Church (England and Wales)'s flickr photostream.