Author: Janine Mendes-Franco

Vexed Bermoothes says that Bermuda's most recent budget “seeks to live on debt and on increased taxes on both businesses and workers…but beyond that, something else stinks.”

“I'm sure not one civic leader, not one business leader, not one religious leader, will give IWD a thought, much less a word. Bahamian women will be silent too”: Still, Womanish Words holds out hope “that we'll hear the voices of some good writers…speaking up with me in celebration and support of the global women's movement on March 8.”

Repeating Islands reports on the celebration of Holi in Trinidad and Tobago.

“Do people wine in a trance brought about by alcohol or are they gyrating on strings manipulated by the whims and fancies of deejays ‘pre-lured' with blue notes?” Underground Trini Artiste has a few questions about the process of selecting the Road March.

From St. Lucia, Caribbean Book Blog profiles “a new online community designed for fans of West Indian literature [which] aims to leverage Caribbean commonality across the power of the internet to…strengthen bonds between readers, writers, publishers and book clubs in the Caribbean and its Diaspora.”

Signifyin' Guyana considers the pros and cons of a code of ethics for bloggers.

Repeating Islands and Dying in Haiti both cite a UN report which suggests that Haiti “needs the world’s support in bolstering its defense against the spread of AIDS in the wake of last month’s catastrophic earthquake.”

“The quality of our political rulers has now joined in unholy matrimony with the sheer recklessness of their anointed deal-makers to put our economy into an entirely new and perilous place”: Trinidadian Afra Raymond examines the issue of the CLICO bailout and “the mystery of the missing money”.

Water (or the lack of it!) is on the tips of Caribbean bloggers' tongues.

Cuban bloggers continue to discuss the recent death of Cuban political prisoner and hunger striker Orlando Zapato Tamayo.

“What is clear is the changing climatic conditions affecting the world, the Caribbean included”: On the heels of two major earthquakes in the region, Barbados Underground wonders “what can we do to mitigate the damage to property and threat to life and limb” as another hurricane season approaches.

Vexed Bermoothes and The Devil Island maintain that the “term limiting out” of a particular journalist “is a bad and self-defeating move: he’s the best known business journalist associated with Bermuda, and his coverage of Bermuda’s international sector has contributed significantly to the island’s reputation and growth.”

News Dominica.com reports on the country's water woes and its impact on the island's agriculture industry, here and here.

“Kamla Persad-Bissessar will take her seat today in the Red House in Port-of-Spain as Trinidad & Tobago’s first female Oppostion Leader”: Islandista and Trinidad and Tobago News Blog weigh in.

Teachers are on strike in an effort to secure a pay raise: Belizean reports.

Cuban diaspora blogger Uncommon Sense says that “Orlando Zapata Tamayo's fight for liberty is not over, as reports…are that other Cuban freedom fighters are taking his place on the front lines of the struggle.”

“To me J’ouvert is the purest form of Trinidad ‘mas there is, right up there with ole ‘mas and the long, oft drawn out pre-soca calypso from the tents”: Gilberte's Poetry and Rants shares her 2010 J'ouvert experience.

gspottt has its eyes on developments in Guyana regarding the filing of “a constitutional challenge to a law criminalising ‘crossdressing’ in that country’s high court.”

“One of the things that has stuck out for most of us as we look on at the struggle in Haiti after the quake is that people have to go so long without food, water, basic amenities”: From Barbados, Sun, Rain Or… blogs about “what can we do to make ourselves less reliant on the things we take for granted and able to survive if we suffer a major disaster.”

Bermudian bloggers discuss the issue of Southlands, which involves the government's plans to develop a green site.