Stories about Barbados from June, 2006
Barbados: Enforcing environmental laws
Forget about the police and employ specialists to enforce environmental laws, suggests Barbados Free Press.
Barbados: Not just the Opposition
Barbados Free Press responds to the Barbados Labour Party's critique of the opposition party's behaviour in the House of Assembly with a call for greater overall transparency with regard to the activities of the House.
Barbados: Criticising the opposition
The Barbados Labour Party uses its blog to slam the opposition party for allegedly arriving late for sittings of the House of Assembly and being unprepared for debates.
Barbados: New drivers’ licences
Barbados Free Press is concerned that the integration of of fingerprinting technology into the new drivers’ licences the Barbados government has commissioned from a US company may have “far-reaching implications for human rights and freedoms.”
Barbados: The election will be wired
Citing a Wired article about Rupert Murdoch and Barbados’ status as one of the Caribbean territories with the highest internet penetration, Barbados Free Press predicts that “the internet, citizen journalism, online networking and the Barbados Free Press” will play a key role in the country's upcoming general election.
Caribbean: BLP role in CSME
The Barbados Labour Party blog gives its political leader — and Prime Minister of Barbados — Owen Arthur a pat on the back for the role he has played in the development of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME).
Haiti: Telecom Wars
Digicel billboard, Martinique. By blogger Greg at InternetRapide.com. Jamaica-based Caribbean telecom giant Digicel has a presence in over a dozen countries in the region. Digicel officially launched operations on the Haitian market in May to much resistance from local private telecoms Haitel and Comcel but bloggers and other web commentators...
Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados, Canada: Watching the game
Canada-based Barbadian blogger Jdid recounts the experience of watching the Trinidad & Tobago v. England World Cup match in a store in Toronto where everybody is transformed for the occasion into an “honorary Trini”.
Barbados: Enron was here
Barbados Free Press points out the fallaciousness of Prime Minister Owen Arthur's assertion that “Happily, we in the Caribbean have thus far been spared Enron-type experiences,” by reminding us that Enron used Barbadian and other Caribbean “offshore companies and banks to set up some 900 front companies to facilitate the...
Barbados: New anthropological study
Titlayo gives a new anthropological study of rural Barbados two thumbs up, remarking that “what I liked the most about the book is that it portrayed a Barbados I could recognise as the island I live on, not a Barbados as perceived by a couple of foreigners from a university...
Barbados: Muslims offer to bury bodies
Barbados Free Press links to a news story which states that Muslims in Barbados have offered to bury the bodies of the eleven as yet unidentified men which were found on a vessel drifting off the coast of Barbados, though not asking the question: “Suppose some of the bodies are...
Barbados: Revitalise the Landship
Barbados Free Press is all for the revitalisation of the Landship, Barbados's “navy that never goes to sea.”
Barbados: A little bit of editing
The Barbados Labour Party blog re-jigs a quote from Barbados Free Press to make it appear that the latter supports the BLP over the opposition. Barbados Free Press isn't having any of it.
Caribbean: Hurricane unpreparedness?
As hurricane season begins, Taran Rampersad worries that “the Caribbean in general can't handle a Category 3 hurricane. All everyone is discussing at this point is how fast one can recover”.
Guyana, Barbados: Happy birthday, Carter and Lamming
Geoffrey Philp sends birthday greetings to two major West Indian writers: the late Guyanese poet Martin Carter, and the Barbadian novelist George Lamming.
Haiti Rejoins CARICOM
Collectif Haiti de Provence points to an AFP article that announces (Fr)Haiti's official rejoining of Caricom. Haiti temporarily ceased being a member of the 15-country Caribbean body in 2004, after the fall of then President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. CARICOM invited President Preval to attend the organization's next summit in July in...
West Indies: Mockery not cricket
A West Indian sports commentator's mimicry of an Indian cricket fan's commentary in Hindi is “not cricket”, says Barbadian blogger Titilayo.
Barbados, China: Forgetting Tiananmen Square
Barbados Free Press speculates on why the Barbadian press might have forgotten to mention that June 4 was the 17th anniversary of the Tianamen Square massacre. Could it have had anything to do with the fact that the Vice Foreign Minister of China “was on the island for a visit”?
Barbados: Kamau Braithwaite wins poetry prize
On the occasion of Barbadian poet Edward Kamau Braithwaite's winning the Griffin Poetry Prize, Geoffrey Philp celebrates by “re-purposing” material from the Griffin Prize web site in a post on which the poet himself leaves the following comment: “My dear Master Blogger, Since yr fabulous b/day present to mwe in...
Global Voices, Caribbean Accents: report on Caribbean blogging roundtable
THE CARIBBEAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION (CSA), one of the major assemblies of scholars of the history, culture, and society of the Caribbean region, held its annual conference in Port of Spain, Trinidad, last week, with the theme “The Caribbean in the Age of Modernity: the Role of the Academy in Responding...
Barbados, Russia: Mail order brides
According to Barbados Free Press, a Russian “marriage introduction service” is arranging group tours of Barbados for “prospective Russian brides and North American men.” Adds BFP: “While Barbados is a beautiful and romantic island (as we all know), for North American men seeking Russian ladies, the allure of Barbados is...
