Global Voices Online

Janine Mendes-Franco

Regional Editor, Caribbean

Stories

September 5th, 2008

Americas

“The media should ask tough questions; it keeps power honest. It is not the media’s fault if the answers to those questions are inadequate or embarrassing or rejected by the public”: Vexed Bermoothes suspects that Bermuda's new daily “is designed as a political tool rather than an independent news source.”

Americas

Politics.bm finds parallels between US and Bermudian politics.

September 4th, 2008

Americas

The Haitian Blogger refers to an article that ran in a mainstream Egyptian newspaper to make the point that “the human rights of Haitians are violated daily by the international community.”

Americas

While Cuban diaspora blogger Babalu is “still a bit in awe from Palin's speech last night”, Barbadian diaspora blogger Jdid says: “She tried to attack Obama on some trivial stuff that he's been attacked on before, she didn't break new ground and with her Tina Fey look and those weak punchlines was it just me or was anyone else expecting her to break into ‘Live from New York it's Saturday Night'”?

Americas

Vexed Bermoothes quotes the Organization of American States resolution - which recognises access to information as a fundamental human right - to make the point that “Bermuda has paid lip service to freedom of information for far too long.”

Americas

“Nothing seemed to say ‘made in Jamaica' as much as Bata”: Long Bench discovers the roots of the shoe brand that saw her through her school years and realises “there’s a little bit of us in what we consume.”

Americas

Jamaican litblogger Geoffrey Philp features Guyanese poet Cyril Dabydeen in his own words.

September 3rd, 2008

Haiti, Jamaica: Hurricane Update

Janine Mendes-Franco · 12:49 · Americas

lingua → pt · bn

As the Caribbean territories that were hit by Hurricane Gustav begin their clean-up efforts, new storms threaten to disrupt these islands once again.

Jamaica's YardFlex.com reports that Gustav actually split the Hope River Bridge and files a separate post detailing the relief efforts.

Haiti, however, is still reeling. Haiti Reborn says that between Gustav and Hanna, the island is battered:

Hurricane Gustav tore ashore at Jacmel on the southern peninsula of Haiti on August 26th. More than 12 inches of rain fell in a few hours on Haiti's denuded hillsides. More than 75 Haitians lost their lives and over 8000 their homes in mudslides and flash floods in the hours afterwards. The sad truth is that Haiti was still recovering from tropical storm Fay which soaked the island earlier in the month, killing 23.

Just today Hurricane Hanna glanced off the northern coast, bringing concentrated rain to the same region around Gonaive where three thousand died in the flooding of tropical storm Jeanne in September 2004. Preliminary indications are that severe flooding is beginning to take place again…

Pwoje Espwa thought that pictures would describe the situation better than words, but Theo still managed to say a few words himself:

The schools are filled with homeless families; downtown Les Cayes is flooded; at least three locals have drowned. This is sad but, from what I hear, it is much worse in Gonaives which Hurricane Jeanne slammed a few years ago. Keep the folks there in your prayers.

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