Signifyin' Guyana has gone dot com! Progress is a good thing! Bigger is better! The more the merrier! All true!
Well...
In the first of two moves, which will result in abandonment of this space, but hopefully not in abandonment of the spirit in which I approach blogging, writing, and calling it how I see it, I bring you my new website (Signifyin' Guyana).
From the "About" page:
This site covers a wide variety of topics concerning Guyana and other Caribbean countries, and whether the topic is politics, culture, literature, or law, the writing you see here will seek to question, shed new light, and / or provoke your thoughts about the region.
The articles are the contributions of various writers from the Caribbean and elsewhere, but the blog, Signifyin’ Woman, is the sole work of book lover / reviewer / critic Charmaine Valere (except, of course, where she indicates otherwise).
We hope you read, come back to read some more, comment, and then recommend to a friend. And if you’d like to contribute an article or suggest that we cover a particular topic, please let us know here.
This new Signifyin' Guyana will depend heavily on contributions from you, and those contributions will be paid work. So if you'd like to write for the site, pitch me an idea at signifyinguyana[at]gmail.com. Articles should be between 200 and 500 words, and should cover one or more of the topics displayed at the top of the site.
The site is a public one, and we expect readers / browsers from all parts of the world, but the angles we take on topics will be geared towards Caribbean readers and other likewise interested folks. The articles this week cover a variety of topics that we hope will set a sound precedence for what's to come.
--"Copyright and The Internet: A Creative Dilemma for Caribbean Artists," by Abiola Inniss.
...The Caribbean still rings through as dissonant on most Intellectual property issues since the levels of regulation and enforcement vary widely from country to country in the region. Important questions about copyright, the Caribbean, and the internet include some of the following... [More]
--"Blogs: An Old Approach to a New Idea," by Charmaine Valere.
...The Internet writer writes, edits, links, revises; the Internet reader (more often than not) gives it a quick skim through, nods or frowns, maybe tweets it or links to it, and moves on. And such is the nature of the contemporary Internet reading beast. I’m sure most bloggers understand that, and have devised ways to work with the short-attention-spanned, often casual reader, but some bloggers insist on frustrating themselves with old notions of reading and writing, which they have brought to the world of internet writing and reading. [More]
--"Guyana: A Case for CARICOM Failure," by Peter Sam.
Over the years there has been a falling away from the significance and spirit of CARICOM. This is not due to the political leadership alone; I think it is due more to suspicion by citizens against each other. [More]
Read, let us know what you think, and more importantly, send your contributions.
Thank you for reading and supporting the efforts here for as long or as short as you have!
[The second move will be announced soon. But for now I can tell you it will be a personal blog devoted to my special brand of picks and pans in the world of Caribbean books.]