links for 2008-04-25

• Inspirational PDF Magazines
  list of exceptional design magazines
  (tags: pdf graphics design resources lists magazines)
• Power, Seduction and War
  personal blog of Robert Green. The guy who wrote 48 laws of power
  (tags: 48laws theory power robert_green)
• The 48 Laws of Power - a review of Robert Greene’s book
  Interview with Robert Green. Author of 48 laws of Power
  (tags: 48_laws_of_power authors interviews robert_green)
• The 48 Laws of Power
  synopsis of the 48 laws of power as posited by Robert Green
  (tags: lists rules advice politics philosophy)
• Trinidad and Tobago: Financial System Stability Assessment, including Reports on the Observance of Standards and Codes on the following topics, Banking Supervision, and Payment Systems
  the title says it all
  (tags: trinidad caribbean development finance)
• Trinidad and Tobago Economy 2004 - Flags, Maps, Economy, Geography, Climate, Natural Resources, Current Issues, International Agreements, Population, Social Statistics, Political System
  Trinidad and Tobago, the leading Caribbean producer of oil and gas, has earned a reputation as an excellent investment site for international businesses. Tourism is a growing sector, although not proportionately as important as in many other Caribbean isl
  (tags: trinidad finance reveiws projections development CARICOM)
• The Financial Gleaner
  Linda Hutchinson-Jafar - Business Writer Trinidad and Tobago’s plan to transform its capital city, Port-of-Spain, into an international financial centre (IFC) will skirt the traditional offshore banking model, government officials say. Instead, the focus
  (tags: trinidad reports business development finance banking CARICOM)
• Food | The silent tsunami | Economist.com
  Economist’s editorial team weighing in on the current en vogue world isse - food scarcity
  (tags: development poverty capitalism food hunger)

links for 2008-04-24

• Standards E-Learning Course: Challenges and Opportunities for Developing Country Agro-Food Trade
  This on-line learning program intends to increase the awareness and dialogue among policy makers, regulatory agencies, NGOs, private companies and other stakeholders pertaining to the challenges and opportunities, costs and benefits, and strategies and in
  (tags: ict4d training development agriculture)
• TT’s central bank warns of higher inflation
  Trinidad and Tobago’s central bank governor Ewart Williams has warned the country to brace for higher inflation because of demand pressures, rapid credit rate expansion, volatile world food prices and poor performance of domestic agriculture.
  (tags: caribbean trinidad inflation markets)

Logo Design FAIL

via: The Register

links for 2008-04-23

• Jamaica Gleaner News - Teens click with IT - Tuesday | April 22, 2008
  Through the work of the non-profit organisation, Children First, and one of the world’s leaders in technology, Microsoft, these inner-city youths - many of whom said they were either expelled from school or were voluntary dropouts - are now fast on their
  (tags: ict4d ict4d_jamaica childrens_first community_initiatives)

links for 2008-04-22

• Jamaica Gleaner News - Tech De Bus II a good move, says Holness - Monday | April 21, 2008
  second bus in initiative to have them used as mobile computer laboratories. I’m more interested in finding out about the logistics behind it all though. How do they plan to have the buses operate: a school per day or multiple schools per day?
  (tags: ict4d tek_de_bus andrew_holness education)
• Desmond Dekker eulogy in NYTimes
  Desmond Dekker eulogy in NYTimes. rip 2006
  (tags: jamaican_musicians desmond_dekker reggae roots history)
• Chelsea White all grown up… daaaaaamn
  Cheslea white, the young girl who sang ‘no one in the world’ is all grown up now.
  Daaaaaamn
  (tags: chelsea_white music jamaican_musicians musicians)
• hunger plages haiti and the world - Steve Lendman
  Steves analysis of the dynamics behind food prices on the world market.
  (tags: opinion food prices economy 2008)
• Bio-Foolishness - WSJ.com
  U.S. and EU promotion of biofuels represent a trifecta of bad regulation: arbitrary production targets to juice demand, subsidies that encourage inefficient use of crops as fuel rather than food, and tariffs that stifle foreign competition. If only Third
  (tags: environment economics food opinion)
• Carl Moor e - bloggers aren’t journalists… bitches
  a frank assessment from a non-blogger on why the concept of citizen journalism is utter crap. I agree two million percent
  (tags: citizen_journalism blogging debates www old_vs_new)
• USAID: Democracy and Governance Statistics for Latin America and the Caribbean
  collected statististics (social, political and economic) for Latin America and the Caribbean database from the USAID. It comes with an interface for generating customised reports
  (tags: usaid databases statistics caribbean latin_america)

links for 2008-04-20

• ICT4D - Connecting People for a Better World
  ONline book looking practically at the body of research surrounding the emerging theme of ICT4D.
  (tags: ICT development research ict4d perspectives)
• Ministry of Finance, Trinidad and Tobago
  why I want to move to Trinidad
  (tags: trinidad prospects economy caribbean video)
• zSHARE - dj_green_lantern-we_need_barack_feat._mavado_and_barack_obama.mp3
  Mavado dub for DJ Green Lantern. We need Barack
  (tags: 08 elections campaign_music barack_obama obama mavado movado dancehall culture_clash)

Cash Plus

The Automatic - Monster

Mavado Last Night

VP put up the video for Mavado’s “Last Night” track on youtube.

Most interesting moment is 1 minute and 3 seconds (1:03) into the video: the artist and his crew are posing in the vicinity of an orange garbage skip with the word PNP sprayed on it. The same skip is in plain view at least 4 more times in the video.

The question is whether or not it its inclusion was deliberate.

To my memory, no other video has been shot with party symbols shown in such a positive light. I say positive because in hip-hop and dancehall videos, the ‘me and my crew’ pose is something of a signifier. The stand isn’t merely literal but symbolic as well. Its usually done in the artists home town or community with the artists crew in tow, menacing scowls and all, as if to say “this is our place, this is where we stand and this is who we are.”

The shot could have been a bit tighter in editing terms. It could have easily been swung a bit further to the right and still frame the artists for the 3 seconds the particular shot was shown.

I wonder.

Video available for download here. (via VP Records blog)

Technorati Tags: dancehall,mavado,movado,video,vprecords,politics

And it happened in those days

That our young hero decided to shy away from the challenge of the pen tool no longer. He had waited long enough.

He stared it in the face… unflinching.

It was time.

 

 

Technorati Tags: design,learning,challenges,overcoming

Know Your government

I know I can’t be the only one who was tired of guessing who is responsible for what in our government. Therefore I’m sharing this document that I just came across that lists the specific responsibilities (the document refers to them as ’subject areas’) assigned to each government ministry.

Just another lesson (for me) in getting to really understand the Jamaican political structure beyond mere hearsay. Often, I feel like this is the kind of knowledge I lack when I want to make serious headway in terms of 1)understanding and also in 2) offering a nuanced and objective critique of the actions of the goverment of the day.

GOJ Subject Assignment for 2007 (.pdf, 345 KB)

Bruce Golding. PM of Jamaica and also the minister responsible for subjects from ICENS to the JDF to… well… the… Vineyard Town Golden Age Home. Go figure

For posterity and in the event that the pdf linked above is moved, I’ve copied the contents of the pdf after the jump