IT’S THE Carnival season here in Trinidad — 27 days to Carnival Monday, in fact — though you’d hardly know that from reading or listening to CFR (okay, there was podcast #40 with 3canal, though we all confessed in that one that the Carnival spirit hadn’t yet grabbed us).

These past several years it’s taken me a while to get into the swing of things, or maybe it’s just that the parts of the festival I select in order to create my own personal version of the Carnival season don’t begin immediately after Christmas, as the commercial Carnival season does these days. Or maybe I’m just slow. It takes me ages, for instance, to get up to speed with the new music, and perhaps if commenting on music weren’t part of what I do for a living I wouldn’t care about getting up to speed at all.

If I were really arrogant I’d say that, somewhere along the way, Carnival lost me. But who I am, really, in the scheme of things carnivalesque? All-inclusive parties aren’t suffering because of my absence. They may not be my thing, but they’re a lot of other people’s thing, and there are worse business models. Every year, for instance, people willingly “donate” much-needed funds to my alma mater, because in Trinidad having a good time is a hot commodity, especially around Carnival time.

But while I can accept that things like festivals change and adapt according to needs (desires?) and circumstances, I can still be deeply disturbed by what those needs and circumstances represent.

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For a while back there I’d forgotten that I also have a photoblog. Posted today, however, and will try to be more diligent about doing so in the coming weeks.

I hope that by posting items such as the above and last week’s Evo Morales number from Google News, I’m not giving the impression that I spend all day trawling the web trying to catch online media outlets with their pants down.

I swear, these things come to me, and I do also have standards: it’s not just any old flub that’s going to make it into the pages of CFR. Had Evo Morales not been partial to tielessness and striped pullovers (a look I’m not at all against, by the way), the assertion by Google News that he was a woman would have been of little consequence.

And had the man in the photo above–who, for the record, is not, as the caption indicates, “A Caparo resident mak[ing] his way across the submerged bridge on Caparo Main Road”, but Jack Warner, FIFA Vice President and special advisor to the Trinidad & Tobago Football Association–not possessed an inordinate love of tickets for World Cup football matches (qualifiers included), the headline “How ‘The Caparo’ became a menace” would not have caught my eye. When, I wondered, did we start calling Jack Warner “The Caparo”? (And what a great Mafia sobriquet, by the way).

Here, however, is the actual article, which deals with the very serious issue of flooding on Trinidad’s central plain.

The Net for Journalists: A practical guide to the Internet for journalists in developing countries is now available both in hard copy and (downloadable) PDF format. The hard copy version includes a CD.

My good friend and Caribbean Beat colleague JT is on a roll today. Over at the Caribbean Beat Blog, he’s started a blog lexicon of sorts, complete with definitions. My favourites:

Bloggerise (v.tr.): to stun an opponent into silence by means of bloggery or bloggistry, with the purpose of diverting attention from the issue at hand

and

Blogspat (n., vulg.): violent disagreement between bloggers on issues of fact or opinion.

He’s requesting contributions and when I last checked had received a rather choice one from the ever-clever Sanjiva, who says: “I feel quite blogstipated at times”. A must-read.

President-elect of Chile (and South America’s “other” woman President) Michelle Bachelet has a blog. Its stated intention is to “communicate the strategic proposals of the government of Michelle Bachelet around Information and Communications technologies and to open up a space for public debate where everyone can share their views and opinions on the digital future of Chile.” The blog’s tag line is “cuatro años para digitalizar Chile” (”four years to a digital Chile”).

Which makes me wonder - do any members of the Trinidad & Tobago government keep a blog? (I’m pretty sure not). Does Patrick Manning, the country’s prime minister, even know what a blog is?

According to Trinidad & Tobago’s National ICT strategy, outlined in 2003, we’re supposed to be “knowledge-based” by 2008. . . .

- My mother informed me this evening that Brian Lara was a question on last night’s edition of Jeopardy!. Thankfully my friend J9 over at Francomenz has saved me the trouble of blogging about it.

- Our Caribbean colleague Guyana-Gyal has been nominated for a Bloggie Award in the “Best Latin American Weblog” category, so please cast your vote. For a little background on Guyana-Gyal, check out the interview I did with her a few weeks ago at Global Voices.
Unfortunately she’s competing against Cooking Diva, the blog of Melissa De Leòn Douglass, the woman behind those mouth-watering food blog roundups over at Global Voices. But sorry to have to say it, Melissa — best of luck, but this time CARICOM gets my vote!

- And had a funny e-mail the other day from Dev Anand Teelucksingh of the Trinidad & Tobago Computer Society. “Is it just a coincidence,” Dev wrote, “that that all of the photos and mention of persons involved with Global Voices on CFR are all using Macs? :-)?”
There I was hoping this was simply a prelude to Dev’s announcing that he’d decided to heed my appeal for a gift of a MacBook Pro, but alas, he was writing to tell me that the TTCS’s OSSWIN CD is now available for download.
On a related note, the TTCS has also just released their eighth podcast.

The Bay of All Saints, Salvador da Bahia by Patricia Carmo

Inspired by a line from David Rudder’s “Bahia Girl” about the affinities between Trinidad and Brazil, I get on Skype with my friend Gillian Marcelle during her sojourn in the enchanting Bahian capital, Salvador, and learn a bit about the land of capoeira and Carnaval (and caipirinhas!).

Play this episode using this link:

Powered by Castpost

Or access CFR using any of these methods:
Download MP3 | RSS | Subscribe via iTunes | Subscribe via Odeo

Links:
Bahia Online | Flickr Bahia cluster

Music played in this show:
“Bahia Girl” by David Rudder from the CD No Restrictions | “Ilê que fala de amor” by Margareth Menezes from the CD Gente de Festa | “Maria Caipirinha” by Carlinhos Brown from the CD Candyall Beat | “Tarde em Itapua” by Quarteto em Cy from the CD Canta Brasil

Please consider supporting us by buying a CFR t-shirt, and if you’re an Amazon.com shopper, you can also support CFR by initating your purchases by clicking on any of the Amazon.com links on the site.

We’re always tickled as well when you check out Caribbean Free Photo, our photoblog, or put yourself on our Frappr map.

Just grabbed this off Google News, though they seem to have caught the error, as it had disappeared when I refreshed the page.

Somebody should have warned Evo Morales about those alpaca sweaters.

EPISODE 40 FINDS ME sounding like I’m just coming off a bout of ‘flu (which I am) and 3canal in a feisty mood as we discuss the football-inspired “Vibes It Up”, their second release for the Carnival season, talk about their upcoming variety show and ponder the champagne-and-caviar road down which Carnival seems to be travelling. Lots of raised voices and cross talk and few punches pulled.

Play this episode using this link:

Powered by Castpost

Or access CFR using any of these methods:
Download MP3 | RSS | Subscribe via iTunes | Subscribe via Odeo

Links:
3Canal’s web site | Download “web mixes” of “Rise” and “Vibes It Up”.

Please consider supporting us by buying a CFR t-shirt, and if you’re an Amazon.com shopper, you can also support CFR by initating your purchases by clicking on any of the Amazon.com links on the site.

We’re always tickled as well when you check out Caribbean Free Photo, our photoblog, or put yourself on our Frappr map.

THE GENTLEMEN pictured above are Boris Anthony, the brains behind the Global Voices web site, and Marvin Hall, the brains behind Halls of Learning, an organisation that teaches robotics and digital technology to young people in Jamaica. I had the pleasure of meeting these two fine fellows at the Global Voices Summit in London back in December. And this morning, I had the pleasure of reading on Marvin’s blog that the robotics team he took to the Northern California First LEGO League in San José, California, won the competition’s Judges’ Award. Here’s Marvin’s account of the moment:

The announcer begins to speak of award that was unanimous among the judges. One that they all got behind and said, “this the team should get it”. An award for the team that “came the furthest and overcame the most obstacles to be at this competition……Halls of Learning LEGO Yuh Mind from Kingston, Jamaica!”. It was our proudest moment yet.

In addition to being the lone Caribbean representatives at the event, the five members of Marvin’s team all come from the Jones Town area of inner-city Kingston.

So, big congratulations to Marvin Hall and the Halls of Learning LEGO Yuh Mind team!

THE SHARP CAT in the photo is Roger Roberts of the rapso band 3Canal (a.k.a CFR’s house band), who ran in the Walt Disney World Marathon — his first! — on Sunday 8 January, 2006. Roger completed the race in a more than respectable 4:25:08.

Those of you who’ll be in Trinidad in February can see more of Roger (along with Wendell and Stanton and Cecelia and the cut+clear crew and a cast of several) in The 3Canal Show at the Little Carib Theatre.

And pick up your “web mixes” of two of 3Canal’s Carnival 2006 releases here.

I recently started a group blog for a class in digital audio I’ve been leading up at the University of the West Indies (St. Augustine, Trinidad campus). The class is one of several modules in the Educational Technology diploma course, a new course offering at the UWI School of Education and Humanities.

Please feel free to check it out, leave comments, offer input etc, especially if you have ideas on or experience in the use of audio in education. I’m trying to prove to the class participants — who are all teachers — that a blog could be a useful tool in teaching and in developing a school curriculum. In fact, I think I’ve even promised that at least one of them will have the chance to go to Russia on a teaching exchange as a result, so please help me out!!

As the new Global Voices Regional Editor for the Caribbean, I’ve been able to recruit a handful of volunteer authors who will now share the responsibilty — praise Jah! — of writing articles for our weekly Friday slot.

It is my great pleasure to present to you the first of these pieces, a characteristically ambitious attempt to begin charting the history of Caribbean blogging, by Nicholas Laughlin. The whole thing’s a bit ironic since Nicholas is my editor at Caribbean Beat, and so far he’s been far more respectful of deadlines than I normally am. But time may tell — he’s only been on the job a week.

UPDATE [11:39pm]: Be sure to keep an eye on the comment thread for this post, as there have already been several suggestions for additions to the annals.

Those farse Trinis over at the Caribbean Beat Blog want to know what you would include on a list of the Seven Wonders of the Caribbean - how about if you go over there and help them satisfy their curiosity.

This is my computer desktop, photographed only minutes ago. Beginning to wonder whether I might have ADD. . . .

Nothing a gift of a new MacBook Pro wouldn’t cure, however.

As I write, desperate measures are being resorted to by Oso, my (now) fellow Global Voices Regional Editor, in response to the division of what he (hopes we’ll believe he’s being ironic when) he calls “my vast empire”. Yes, my friends, the so-called “Americas”, over which Oso has been lording himself since the beginning of the Global Voices enterprise like a freckled Fitzcarraldo, is about to be divided into . . . well, that is the question.

Caribbean and Latin America? Caribbean, North America, Central American and Latin America? Caramerica and Latibbean? Whatever the final decision, the point is that I, as the freshly appointed Global Voices Caribbean Editor, get part of it, and Oso is clearly viewing the situation in the manner of any dictator on the eve of his deposition - i.e. with an extremely jaundiced eye. As a result, he has begun trying his level best to destroy my reputation, by means of such despicable methods as false impersonation and accusations of lobbyist-hiring (Nicholas volunteered, I swear! Nicholas’s blog now accepts comments, by the way) - all couched, mind you, in tones of humour and irony.

To begin with, I do not thumb-wrestle. And if I were to engage in such a pastime, I would certainly keep my elbows on the table. Secondly, I never said I could beat Oso at tennis! Here, in fact, is how that whole tennis confusion thingy came about:

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It’s all over the Jamaican news that Jamaican jerk pork and chicken have been included in a list of “50 things to eat before you die” compiled by chef Ainsley Harriot for a BBC television special.

Also making the grade were kangaroo, Moretown bay bugs, reindeer and durian. Here’s the complete list, with explanations.

Of course we’re not the only country in the world where customer service is non-existent, but it’s still nice to be reminded - this one also happens to be hilarious.

I like Giorgio Armani. He strikes me as one of those lovely, quirky, self-centered genius-voluptuaries, and he does make a hell of a garment: as a friend of mine likes to say, you could probably wear an Armani suit turned inside-out. And today I learned that he’s now practically a neighbour!

According to Caribbean Net News, Armani has bought a home in Antigua, which is just up the road from here (well, a few hundred miles or so). The article features a photo of the Armani villa, which is tasteful and understated like an Armani garment, with bougainvillea cascading over a terrace and exterior walls done up in terracotta tones. In fact, one wonders if Armani might not have had the paint matched to a swatch of his own skin, which, as we see in the second photo (in which he appears alongside Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Minister, Harold Lovell) is also terracotta-coloured.

Armani, who spoke to Caribbean Net News through a translator and sipped Dom Perignon during the interview, made the usual vapid comments about the wonderfulness of Antigua (what does one say, after all, when one has thrown down a few mil on a villa on somebody else’s turf?). But he also seems to have discerned certain aspects of the island that were news to me. Referring to one of the more culturally homogeneous of the Caribbean islands, Armani says he is

“very intrigued at the diversity of cultures present on the island and the ease and flexibility with which the peoples co-exist”

The article does go on to say, however, that he observes these cultures “each day during his regular jogs on the outskirts of his property,” so perhaps it’s simply that Armani’s neighbourhood is more cosmopolitan than other parts of the island. And I hope the Tourism Minister was carrying a notebook, because Armani also offered these bits of advice:

“ensure that all developers respect your islands’ resources”

and

“They shouldn’t build too close to the shoreline and they should not build too many high rise buildings”

The best line in the piece, however, comes as a result of what appears to be a delicious piece of mis-translation:

Mr. Armani related much of what he likes about Antigua and Barbuda, a place which he stated abounds in “Beauty isolated!”

Beauty isolated! I’m no Italian expert, but I suspect this might be a direct translation of something like “bellezza isolata”, which does literally mean “beauty isolated”, but which might more accurately be translated as something like “beauty in the form of an island”, or “beauty embodied by an island”. But of course I could be wrong. Any Italian speakers out there?