Global Voices » US Virgin Islands

Caribbean: Thank You, Dr. King

Janine Mendes-Franco — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:20:20 +0000

Today, the United States marks Martin Luther King Jr. Day - a floating holiday which celebrates the birthday of the late civil right leader. The occasion resonates with Caribbean bloggers, both at home and throughout the diaspora and a few of them share their thoughts…

Jamaican litblogger Geoffrey Philp, who lives in Miami, Florida, acknowledges the impact that Dr. King's “Letter from Birmingham Jail” has had on his life, noting that his latest book “include[s] a few of the lessons that [he] had learned from reading and teaching Dr. King's letter to [his] undergraduate students at Miami Dade College”. He calls Dr. King's letter “one of the great moral texts of the twentieth century, [which] should be required reading in the training of young minds.”

Cuban diaspora blogger Michael Pancier put his tribute into “a little photo and video montage”, made from images he took during a visit to The King Center in Atlanta, Georgia. His compatriot, Notes from the Cuban Exile Quarter, also acknowledges the importance of the day:

The critiques against Martin Luther King Jr. and nonviolence are of importance today because around the world in Egypt, Tunisia, Burma, Cuba and elsewhere movements have emerged that are inspired by Martin Luther King Jr.'s example of nonviolent struggle. In the United States elements within the Occupy Wall Street movement have embraced Martin Luther King Jr. and are organizing acts of remembrance on his birthday.

In the U.S. Virgin Islands, Live De Life uploads a video of Will Kimbrough performing the “Ballad of Martin Luther King”, saying:

Figured this was appropriate for the holiday.

Finally, Afrobella posts a heartfelt “thank you” to Dr. King…”for everything”:

Dr. King was assassinated 44 years ago, and in the sands of time it is easy to forget that Dr. King was a real person. A man with a beautiful wife and family. A man who became the public face of a movement. A man who tirelessly worked, marched, got arrested, spoke eloquently on the topics of peace, love, and justice — and ultimately gave his life to the cause of racial equality.

Thank you, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Without you, who knows where we would be today.

The thumbnail image used in this post, “Martin Luther King, Jr. Portrait”, is by ctankcycles, used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) Creative Commons license. Visit ctankcycles' flickr photostream.

U.S.V.I.: Water Woes Cause Anger

Janine Mendes-Franco — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 19:38:58 +0000

“It’s gotten graphic there – waste that’s piling up in toilets that cannot be flushed; people crawling around in cisterns trying to retrieve a bucket of water to meet a small part of their needs. And this is 2012″: No See Um blogs about the untenable water rationing situation in St. Thomas.

U.S.Virgin Islands: High Electricity Rates

Janine Mendes-Franco — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:14:58 +0000

News of St. John reports that “the high cost of electricity on [the island] generated a protest demonstration in Cruz Bay.”

U.S. Virgin Islands: Shaken Up

Janine Mendes-Franco — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 19:29:04 +0000

“After several near-misses by tropical storms, the island has now escaped trouble from new earthquakes”: News of St. John has the details.

U.S. Virgin Islands: Where's the Improvement?

Janine Mendes-Franco — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 18:00:57 +0000

News of St. John says it just “doesn't seem right…that budget allocations to the St. John Capital Improvement Fund never seem to be earmarked to help improve St. John's streets, parking lots, curbs, sidewalks…and this year apparently will be no different.”

U.S. Virgin Islands: Here Comes the Sun Again

Janine Mendes-Franco — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 19:22:00 +0000

“That was one large storm but it didn't really live up to the forecasts thank goodness”: live de life is glad to see the back of Tropical Storm Maria, saying: “Finally the rain has stopped and we're seeing the sun again!”

U.S. Virgin Islands: Tropical Storm Maria Loses Strength

Janine Mendes-Franco — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 14:03:23 +0000

U.S. Virgin Islands bloggers report that Tropical Storm Maria, the center of which was projected to pass over St. John early Sunday morning, thankfully lost momentum.

U.S. Virgin Islands: Expecting Tropical Storm Maria

Janine Mendes-Franco — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 12:12:05 +0000

News of St. John says that the center of Tropical Storm Maria is expected to pass over the island at 2 p.m. today, adding: “The Governor has declared a State of Emergency and ordered a curfew from 7 p.m. Saturday to 5 a.m. Sunday and ordered Emergency Shelters to be opened.”

U.S. Virgin Islands: Storm Warning

Janine Mendes-Franco — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 22:05:29 +0000

The region has its eye on another tropical storm; News of St. John reports.

U.S. Virgin Islands: Possible Storm

Janine Mendes-Franco — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 18:46:20 +0000

As the National Hurricane Center predicts that another tropical storm could pass over the Virgin Islands this weekend, News of St. John says: “It's that time of year.”

U.S.V.I.: The Power of Film

Janine Mendes-Franco — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 15:57:21 +0000

“Is there any artistic medium that raises more ugly questions of representation and power than film?” In the context of this, A Nation or Nobody blogs about film and neo-colonialism.

U.S.V.I.: Saying “No” to Plastic Bags

Janine Mendes-Franco — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 16:49:08 +0000

“Plastic bags too often find their way into the waters of the island and end up wrapped around coral reefs”, says News of St. John, which is why “members of the St. John Rotary are planning to talk with the island's largest grocery stores” about replacing them with a more eco-friendly alternative.

U.S.V.I., Trinidad & Tobago: Best on Self-Knowledge

Janine Mendes-Franco — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 15:44:26 +0000

A Nation or Nobody refers to a speech by the late Trinidadian intellectual Lloyd Best, noting that his “most important message is…that locally-based forms of knowledge are what all people should be striving to develop. Just because the majority of the Caribbean’s people trace their lineage to somewhere else, doesn’t mean political and academic institutions don't need to be homegrown.”

U.S.V.I.: Potential Storm

Janine Mendes-Franco — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 14:34:38 +0000

“The first disturbance of the [2011 hurricane] season…could possibly threaten the Virgin Islands: U.S.V.I. bloggers are carefully monitoring developments.

U.S.V.I., St. Kitts: On Belonging

Janine Mendes-Franco — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 13:25:48 +0000

A Nation or Nobody “wonder[s] about the place of writers like Phillips within the Caribbean literary community, and what they might be able to tell us about belonging and diaspora.”