Global Voices

English

The world is talking, are you listening?

Active Voice analyses yesterday's general election in Jamaica, explaining how Prime Minister Andrew Holness and the Jamaica Labour Party — who looked, a month ago, set to be returned to office — lost in a landslide to Portia Simpson-Miller and the People's National Party. “Let’s see if the PNP having gained such a huge nod from the electorate will now put its mouth where its money is and really strike a blow for equal rights for all.”

When Passion.Fruit sets out to rescue a trapped pigeon, a random encounter with a passing grandmother teaches her a lesson about strength, patience, and wisdom. “She cooed and comforted — nothing weak about her…. An accustomed unbinder of trapped limbs.”

As Girl with a Purpose reports, the governing Jamaica Labour Party was defeated in yesterday's general election, and People's National Party head Portia Simpson-Miller is Jamaica's new prime minister — “a leader whose educational background is not as brilliant as her competitors,” observes Abeni from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, “but one who has that something which draws people.”

Barbados Underground asks: how can the island solve its perennial traffic problem? “Barbados is 166 square miles and at some point commonsense will have to take root. The number of vehicles on our roads cannot be allowed to go unregulated for much longer.”

“Travel around coastland Guyana and you will see it too,” writes Imran Khan: “burglar bars, grillwork, heavily armed company security forces, reinforced doors, guard huts, watchmen, security lights, CCTV cameras.” He muses on the relationship between crime, underdevelopment, and political leadership.

The British government is reviewing its relationship with its overseas territories, writes Catch a Fire, and inviting Bermudans to share their perspectives. “I think we need a new Constitutional Convention to modernise and reform our relationship with the UK … and I would like each Overseas Territory to have a representative (an MP) in Westminster.”

Montague Kobbe profiles Achy Obejas, a Cuban-American writer who “constantly challenging her readers to (re)think their positions in relation to the most basic principles that govern our attitudes towards each other.”

Where are the more than 500 children reported missing in Jamaica this year, asks Petchary — and why are more people not paying attention to “a serious issue which, at the best of times, is brushed aside as if it is nothing of great importance”? “How many are alone, hopeless, despairing, struggling? We don’t know.”