Stories about Martinique from April, 2006
Martinique: Tourists Turned Off
Bien Vu worries (FR) that Martinique is turning tourists off. Some have complained to him, he says, about: “a poor welcome, bad company, not feeling safe during their vacations and to top it all off, women being the subject of obscene insults.”
Martinique: Gas Ration In Case of Strike
Bien Vu laments (FR) rumors of an imminent gas station strike and hopes a new twenty Euro per person ration is not in vain. “You don't want to be driving a 4X4 right now” he says.
Martinique: Do Not Piss Here
Bien Vu finds a “Do not piss here” bilingual french/creole sign near the Tourism Bureau in downtown Fort-de-France and concludes “In Martinique, we spell things out.”
Martinique/Gwada: Palm Tree Shaped Antennas
Technophile InternetRapide.com praises (FR) the aesthetic value of Morocco's palm tree-shaped antennas.
Martinique: Parental Rant
Bien Vu wonders (FR) why his/her teen-aged son is being taught History in French class. “Martinique doesn't do anything like anyone else [in the French school system],” says the blogger “unless this is our very own national curriculum.”
French Antilles: Banana Drama
InternetRapide.com points (FR) to recent efforts to promote Martinique and Guadeloupe bananas, including a commercial and website featuring athletes from the two islands. The blogger cites increased competition from American corporations and international regulations limiting French government subsidies as threats. Caribbean Free Radio gave the commercial a thumbs up.
Caribbean: Bureaucracy kills & biofuel
Taran Rampersad is starting a “death and injury counter” in response to the region's lack of action in the area of disaster preparedness. “My theory is that all the bureaucracy kills people in a way that could be seen as criminally negligent,” he says. And why isn't the Caribbean thinking...
Caribbean: Billionaires Investing in Local Telecoms
Last week Irish billionaire Dennis O'Brien announced his company Digicel was purchasing the Caribbean arm of Bouygues Telecom . This week Mexican billionnaire Carlos Slim announces he is purchasing three Caribbean and Latin-American subsidiaries of Verizon, an American telecom, writes (FR) InternetRapide.com. The Verizon subsidiaries to be purchased by Slim's...
Caribbean: French creole language
At the Pan Collective, Francine offers an brief treatise on the French creole language.
A Seamless Caribbean Network?
InternetRapide.com, a blog dedicated to telecommunications in the Caribbean says (FR) Digicel, a cell phone company owned by Irishman Denis O'Brien that covers 60% of the Jamaican market, celebrates its fifth anniversary this week. The company has expanded to 14 other Caribbean countries since its inception in 2001 and plans...
French Antilles: Questions about Identity and Unemployment
Questioning Identity in the Diaspora Tino Land, written by a Martiniquan blogger living in Paris, highlights the tensions that sometimes exist between Africans and French Caribbeans, criticizing French Antillians who reject their African roots and Africans who say that Antillians are “sell-outs” to Western culture: J'emmerde tout les ANTILLAIS qui...
Caribbean: Cruise ship cuts
One cruise line is planning to remove half its vessels from the Caribbean on account of high costs associated with hurricanes, says Mad Bull: “We are going to have to try to diversify into other areas, though I don’t know yet what they are. Our islands have a big challenge...
Caribbean: Hurricane forecast
Linda Thompkins reports on a recent meeting held to discuss the 2006 hurricane season and its implications for the Caribbean. The hurricane season begins officially on June 1.
