· March, 2006

Stories about Cuba from March, 2006

Caribbean, US: US-Caricom meeting

  30 March 2006

Larry Smith discusses the recent US-Caricom meeting in the Bahamas in the context of both recent US foreign policy and Condolezza Rice's career. He quotes a Bahamian diplomat, who says: “The policies of the US are not producing the results that it desires, and therefore how should friends of the...

Cuba: Inner tube

  28 March 2006

Pac Mclaurin posts a lovely photo of a Cuban fisherman, his girlfriend, and the “pneumático” or inner tube which is his fishing vessel.

Caribbean: Books for birders

  28 March 2006

“It's many years now–I might even say decades–since I've considered myself a real birder, and I stopped keeping a lifelist ages ago, but birds continue to have a special fascination for me–their colours, their songs, the effortlessness of their flight,” writes Nicholas Laughlin in the prelude to his overview of...

Cuba: Castro's quirks?

  24 March 2006

Does Fidel Castro really incinerate his underwear? And exactly how partial is he to pata negra Serrano ham? Pondblog comments on a Miami Herald article in which a former aide to “El Lider Maximo” spills the beans on Castro's alleged personal habits and other matters.

Caribbean: Carifesta 2006

  23 March 2006

Jeremy Taylor at the Caribbean Beat Blog looks forward to seeing what the Caribbean arts festival Carifesta 2006 has in store. “I still remember the excitement of the very first Carifesta in Guyana, in 1972, when it seemed that the whole of Georgetown was taken over by musicians, poets, dancers,...

Cuba: World Baseball Classic

  21 March 2006

Blogging from Havana, Cuba, Ernesto commiserates with his homeland over their loss to Japan in the final of the World Baseball Classic, but also notes the silver lining: “two island nations rewriting a game invented in North America, and giving a lesson of courage and team work.”

Caribbean/Latin America: Two architectures

  21 March 2006

Jon at Posthegemony posts two architectural analyses: one on “an architecture designed to repel nomads”, also known as forts, and another on architecture designed to attract them, in this particular case, the Internationalist-style Caribe Hilton in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Cuba: The Bicitaxi

  20 March 2006

Zenia pays tribute (ES) to a great Cuban invention: the “bicitaxi”. “A ride in a bicitaxi can be very folkloric, as en route the passenger can get the latest news on black market prices, the quality of electrical goods. . . .”

Cuba: Blogger blogs blocked?

  17 March 2006

Ernesto, based in Havana, responds to a concern that Blogger blogs are being blocked in Cuba (ES), possibly by Google itself, by posting at his own Blogger blog. “Nevertheless this doesn't prove anything,” Ernesto writes, “since Google may have blocked some and not all Cuban blogs. I am not aware...

Caribbean: Women writers’ blog

  17 March 2006

Over at BlogHer, Karen Walrond announces her new project, The Pan Collective, “a community blog featuring the voices of wonderful women writers from the Caribbean”.

Cuba: Cricket – an antidote to baseball?

  7 March 2006

The Caribbean Beat weblog links to a Daily Telegraph article which discusses efforts to develop the game of cricket in Cuba. According to the article, this initiative is motivated in part by a desire to wean young people off the American game of baseball.

Caribbean: Indigenous languages

  7 March 2006

The CAC Review links to an excellent web site on indigenous languages of the Caribbean which features vocabulary lists, sound files and some grammar instruction. Among the languages represented are Arawak, Galibi, Taino, Karifuna, Garifuna and Warao.

Caribbean: Proverbs, anyone?

  6 March 2006

Fun and games over at the blog of Caribbean-born sci-fi writer Nalo Hopkinson, as she asks readers for suggestions of Caribbean proverbs.