Caribbean Territory Research Articles

Characteristics and species composition of a small-scale shark fishery in Puerto Rico: Jurisdictional issues enable legal landings of prohibited and endangered species

Shark fishing is increasingly regulated in the Caribbean region. We present new information on the characteristics, landings, species composition, and size composition of the shark fishery of Puerto Rico, a U.S. Caribbean territory, and discuss current regulatory issues. Sharks are mainly landed in a small-scale targeted fishery operating in territory jurisdiction (coast to 17 km) that supplies local demand for inexpensive fish. There are at least 16 species caught: a small number of large Tiger (Galeocerdo cuvier) and Blacktip (Carcharhinus limbatus) sharks and many small but adult Sharpnose sharks (Rhizopriodon spp.) accounted for >80% of landed weight. The catch of Sharpnose sharks was significantly skewed to males. Juvenile Scalloped Hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna lewini) were the second-most caught species but accounted for a small proportion of the landed weight and value given their small size. Differences between territory and U.S. federal regulations (17 km-370 km jurisdiction) leads to legal territory landings of federally prohibited species, especially Scalloped Hammerhead sharks, which might undermine the conservation potential of federal regulations. Scalloped Hammerhead sharks are also listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) making ongoing catches more problematic from a legal perspective. Scalloped Hammerhead shark catch reduction could have minimal livelihood impacts because of their low value, which presents an opportunity for stakeholders to engage on catch reduction measures. This study provides new details on how and why different shark species are caught in Puerto Rico, which could facilitate better management that protects threatened species and maintains livelihoods for people.

Updated systematic inventory of the aquatic (limnic/ freshwater) Gastropoda & Bivalvia molluscs occurring in the territory of Venezuela, North sector of South America facing the Southeastern Caribbean

Introduction: Since 2014, the “Projeto AM” (Brazil) has carried out taxonomic, bioecological and conservation research on non-marine molluscs present in the Caribbean territory of Venezuela, including some reports involving limnic/ freshwater species (Agudo-Padrón 2020 b–c). To date, these aspects of the natural history of this geographic region, located in the Northern sector of South America, have been poorly studied. Objective: Substantial updating of this knowledge through an exhaustive review of the regional malacological literature of historical and recent nature available. Methodology: Between 2014 and the present, a sequential review of the species occasionally referred to in the regional literature was carried out, examined from the perspective of the current taxonomy in force. Results and conclusions: Verification and determination of one hundred and eleven (111) referred species (74 gastropods & 37 bivalves), taxonomically grouped into fourteen (14) families and thirty eight (38) genera.

Updated systematic inventory of the land/ terrestrial gastropod molluscs occurring in the territory of Venezuela, North sector of South America facing the Southeastern Caribbean

Introduction: Since 2014, the “Projeto AM” (Brazil) has carried out taxonomic, bioecological and conservation research on non-marine molluscs present in the Caribbean territory of Venezuela, with special emphasis on its terrestrial and arboreal forest species (Agudo-Padrón 2021, Agudo-Padrón & Vera-Caripe 2022, 2023). To date, these aspects of the natural history of this geographic region, located in the Northern sector of South America, have been poorly studied. Objective: Substantial updating of this knowledge through an exhaustive review of the regional malacological literature of historical and recent nature available. Methodology: Between 2014 and the present, a sequential review of the species occasionally referred to in the regional literature was carried out, examined from the perspective of the current taxonomy in force. Results and conclusions: Verification and determination of one hundred and forty-seven (147) referred species and subspecies, taxonomically grouped into thirty-three (33) families and seventy-six (76) genera.

#SuperLibrarian – the evolving role of librarians in technology spaces

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to discuss changes in the roles of librarians against the backdrop of emerging technologies.Design/methodology/approachThrough reflection on practice drawn from the author’s 30 years in librarianship, this paper explores the evolving role of librarians in the constantly developing technological environment and demonstrates how librarians can combine information resources, technology and research assistance in these constantly changing spaces. It also explores how technology enhances the role of the librarian, with specific reference to ChatGPT.FindingsThe author stressed the need for library courses for credit to allow for feedback, assessment and critical thinking. The need for continuing professional development for librarians was highlighted. Additionally, areas such as Scholarly Publishing, Metrics and Analytics, Academic Integrity and Intellectual Property were identified as areas of focus for the 21st century Librarian.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is limited to changes in roles as a result of emerging technologies which impact librarians. It is set in the Caribbean.Practical implicationsThis paper is relevant for librarians, regardless of their geographical location, who are also required to be fluid, keep on the cutting edge, adapt and adopt to deliver service in the face of constantly advancing technology.Originality/valueThis paper is a reflection on an original experience from a Caribbean territory. it also explores recent developments in technology, more specifically ChatGPT, and its impact on the roles of librarians. It provides contributions to the ongoing discourse on the evolving role of the librarian from a different perspective.

English

This study sought to determine the epidemiology of COVID-19 in Trinidad and Tobago by the socio-demographic and clinical characterization and comparison of local and imported cases. There have been limited prior studies on COVID-19 in the Caribbean. As such, this paper attempts to discuss the patterns associated with COVID-19 patients in this Caribbean territory. A retrospective study of 113 patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection managed at Arima General Hospital and Couva Medical and Multi-Training Facility in Trinidad and Tobago from March 12th, 2020 to April 12th, 2020 was performed. Clinical data, epidemiological characteristics, demographics and clinical symptomology were recorded. Microsoft Excel and SPSS 22.0 were used for statistical analysis. Most patients were females (61.9%) while 38.0% were males. Most patients were between 45 to 64 years of age (43.4%) followed by those >65 years of age (28.8%). Cough was the most common presenting complaint (44.9%), followed by fever (37.1%). Most participants with a travel history were female (F: 61.9%; M: 38%). The occurrence of cough was high among both local cases (46.4%) and imported cases (47.6%). These patterns can inform clinicians and other healthcare workers on the unique findings associated with COVID-19 positive patients, especially those in the Caribbean region. Key words: COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, epidemiology, Trinidad and Tobago, Caribbean Region.

Reviewing Science Education in Trinidad and Tobago through the Lens of the COVID-19 Pandemic

This paper explores how the COVID-19 pandemic can act as a lens for educators and scholars to more clearly define some of the issues hampering effective science education in one Caribbean territory. The pandemic clearly revealed certain phenomena in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) including: the poor state of public scientific literacy; limited public understanding of the nature of science; an antagonistic dynamic with respect to public trust in science; and the lack of comprehensive remote/online pedagogical options for science. These issues have implications for the teaching and learning of science in T&T. In particular, science educators are encouraged to consider: a border crossing approach to teaching science; explicitly teaching the nature of science; adopting a science in context approach to science education; and working on developing digital pedagogies for teaching science that honour inquiry and concrete hands-on experience with phenomena. While the article is primarily about Trinidad and Tobago, it may be relevant to those interested in the development of small island states, including other Caribbean territories.

Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices on the Use of Botanical Medicines in a Rural Caribbean Territory.

The worldwide use of medicinal plant products has been steadily increasing over the past few decades, whereas the traditional knowledge and practices of these botanical medicines appears to be diminishing. Considering the need to conserve and document these traditions, the objective of this study was to understand the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of people who are familiar with botanical medicines, as well as any factors that may influence the perceptions and behaviours associated with the use of medicinal plants. A previously validated survey instrument assessing knowledge, attitudes, and practices on the use medicinal plants was randomly administered to residents of three rural Barbadian communities. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and cross tabulations (Chi-Square Test, Fisher’s Exact Test), with a confidence level of 95% and significance level of p < 0.05. One hundred and fifty-four participants completed the survey with a response rate of 96%. From participant responses we found that over 75% of the study population used botanical medicines. Key findings included a diverse repertoire of traditional knowledge on the use of medicinal plants, which included a total of 29 medicinal applications cited across 69 different plant species and 39 families. The most popular species among respondents (irrespective of use) were Pimenta racemosa (Mill.) J.W. Moore (FC = 30, RFC = 0.26), Momordica charantia L. (FC = 28, RFC = 0.24), Zingiber officinale Roscoe (FC = 22, RFC = 0.19) and Annona muricata L. (FC = 21, RFC = 0.18). The findings also show the persistence of medico-cultural concepts such as cleansing and cooling, and identified significant associations between the use of botanical medicines and related practices with demographic variables such as education (p = 0.05; Fisher’s Exact Test) and health insurance, χ2 (1, n = 152) = 4.645, p = 0.003. The findings of this study can be used in the identification and archiving of the medicinal plant practices in Barbados and the wider Caribbean, as well as for the larger purposes of biocultural exploration, preservation and further scientific assessment of botanical medicine practices.

Frequent high-risk HPV co-infections excluding types 16 or 18 in cervical neoplasia in Guadeloupe

BackgroundCervical cancer is the fourth cancer worldwide. The Human Papilloma Virus is responsible for 99% of the cases but the distribution of its genotypes varies among populations. We aimed to identify HPV genotypes distribution in women with grade 2/3 cervical intraepithelial dysplasia or invasive cervical cancer in Guadeloupe, a French Caribbean territory with a population mainly of African descent.MethodsWe used paraffin-embedded tumors for viral DNA extraction from women diagnosed between 2014 and 2016 and identified by the population-based cancer registry. The HPV Genotyping was performed with the InnoLIPA HPV Genotyping Extra kit®.ResultsOverall, 213 samples out of the 321 eligible records were analyzed. The HPV status was positive for 94% of the cases. The five most common oncogenic HPV genotypes were HPV31 (47%), HPV33 (38%), HPV16 (32%), HPV44 (31%) and HPV26 (28%). HPV18 was found in only in 5% of the cases. Among the studied cases, 94% had multiple infections. More than 60% of single infections were HPV16-related, accounting for 35% of HPV16 infections.ConclusionsThese results show a different distribution of oncogenic HPVs in Guadeloupe with “31 > 33 > 16” and a high frequency of multiple infections. Despite a lower coverage, the nine-valent vaccine is nevertheless adequate.

Afterlives of Anticolonial Dissent: Performances of Public Memory within and against the United States of América

ABSTRACT Examining how Puerto Rican nationalist icon Lolita Lebrón is celebrated through artistic performances of public memory, this essay investigates how social movement rhetorical histories are used to propel contemporary sovereignty struggles in Puerto Rico. In it, I argue that situating the afterlives of Lebrón’s anticolonial dissent requires that scholars and activists pay specific attention to the unique interlocking systems of oppression and privilege distinctive to the Caribbean territory, influenced by centuries of colonialism. Describing “la trinchera cultural” – or “the cultural trenches” – as the battleground for the urgency of sovereignty for Puerto Ricans, I describe how Las Lolitas, the group responsible for Lebrón’s centennial celebration, engaged in performances of public memory that took place in spaces that would showcase a Puerto Rican nationalist rhetorical repertoire. This repertoire emphasizes networks of solidarity, feminist concerns, and revolutionary spirit across time, highlighting resistance to past colonial transgressions to aid in present/future struggles over Puerto Rican self-determination.

Afterlives of Anticolonial Dissent: Performances of Public Memory within and against the United States of América

ABSTRACT Examining how Puerto Rican nationalist icon Lolita Lebrón is celebrated through artistic performances of public memory, this essay investigates how social movement rhetorical histories are used to propel contemporary sovereignty struggles in Puerto Rico. In it, I argue that situating the afterlives of Lebrón’s anticolonial dissent requires that scholars and activists pay specific attention to the unique interlocking systems of oppression and privilege distinctive to the Caribbean territory, influenced by centuries of colonialism. Describing “la trinchera cultural” – or “the cultural trenches” – as the battleground for the urgency of sovereignty for Puerto Ricans, I describe how Las Lolitas, the group responsible for Lebrón’s centennial celebration, engaged in performances of public memory that took place in spaces that would showcase a Puerto Rican nationalist rhetorical repertoire. This repertoire emphasizes networks of solidarity, feminist concerns, and revolutionary spirit across time, highlighting resistance to past colonial transgressions to aid in present/future struggles over Puerto Rican self-determination.

Women’s Struggles Against Extractivism in Latin America and the Caribbean

Abstract Since Cynthia Enloe asked, ‘Where are the women?’ in 1989, studies about the place of women in International Relations have increased. However, most of the analyses since then have focused on the participation of women in international organisations, events and institutional spaces, making invisible other practices and places occupied by black or indigenous women from the South. This article aims to highlight the role of women at the international level, analysing their performance in disputes over the meanings of development in Latin America and the Caribbean, based on struggles against extractivism. In addition to denouncing the impacts of this development model, these struggles seek to construct alternatives that, although they could be essentially local, have been multiplied and articulated throughout the Latin American and the Caribbean territory, as part of a broader resistance to the dominant extractivism in the region. These struggles will be mapped using a database of 259 conflicts around mining activities, developed by the Research Group on International Relations and Global South (GRISUL).

Colorectal Cancer Knowledge and Awareness Among University Students in a Caribbean Territory: a Cross-sectional Study.

The burden of colorectal cancer (CRC) has been on the rise globally over the last decade. Several studies point to the fact that there is a lack of knowledge and awareness for CRC which may be attributed to the increase in the burden over time. Therefore, we aimed to assess the level and predictors for knowledge of CRC and its risk factors. This study was a cross-sectional study conducted on the student population of the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, Trinidad. We assessed CRC knowledge using scales examining their level of knowledge for CRC and its risk factors. Lifestyle behaviors (smoking, physical activity, dietary behaviors, and alcohol consumption) and perceived risk for developing CRC were also collected using a standard survey. Predictors for CRC knowledge were assessed using forward stepwise linear and logistic regression models. The overall CRC knowledge was 54.740% ± 19.721%. Poor knowledge levels were seen among 36.23% while satisfactory/good knowledge was seen among 63.77%. Predictors of poor CRC knowledge were males (OR = 1.559; p = 0.003), frequent/excessive alcoholic drinkers (OR = 1.924; p = 0.029), and low physical activity (OR = 1.331; p = 0.042). Predictors of satisfactory/good CRC knowledge were those with higher scores for the prudent dietary pattern (OR = 0.893; p = 0.016), and compared with those who reported no risk, participants reporting low risk had an increased likelihood of obtaining good CRC knowledge scores (OR = 0.526; p = < 0.001) and high risk (0.310; p = < 0.001). The level of awareness/knowledge on CRC and its risk factors is low. Improvement of CRC awareness and healthy lifestyle campaigns among young adults is needed for the Caribbean region.

Conceptualising a policy framework for the implementation of medical marijuana in the Caribbean territory of Barbados

Unlike the recent global trend of a decline in the prohibition of the use of Cannabis sativa for recreational and medical uses, Barbados and other small island states in the Caribbean have maintained their prohibitive legislation and policies on the use of the herb. A negative social construct of the use of cannabis and its effects in the consciousness of many in the Caribbean have contributed to the maintenance of the prohibitive policies towards the use of the herb. This article highlights the negative societal construct of the herb and its impact on the youth as two critical factors limiting the implementation of medical marijuana laws. It conceptualises a possible policy framework that would address this issue by enabling a phased implementation of the use of medicinal products from marijuana in the management of selected conditions from an evidence-based vantage point. Barbados would need to evaluate the mechanisms under current prohibitive legislation and create amendments to allow for an incremental approach on the use of the plant or products thereof for medicinal purposes in light of societal concerns. The policy framework should result in discreet enforceable mechanisms to facilitate and monitor the importation and development of efficacious and safe medicinal products for prescribing to authorised patients throughout the island’s healthcare system.

El espiriticidio de Óscar López Rivera: símbolo de resistencia para la movilización social noviolenta en Puerto Rico

The following article serves as a summary of a Master’s Degree thesis whose main purpose was to introduce Oscar Lopez Rivera as a prominent figure of the contemporary Peace Culture studies; in turn, this will take the claims for Lopez Rivera’s release to every corner of the world, starting with the spanish community. Following a walk through the colonial History of the island of Puerto Rico and the life of Lopez Rivera as a fierce defensor of the cause for the Caribbean territory’s independence, an analysis of the discourse will present the political prisoner as a symbol of resistance for the nonviolent movement in the Island. The vindication of Oscar Lopez Rivera will be demonstrated through the analysis of newspaper articles, letters written by the social activists, as well as an autobiographical text titled Between torture and resistance . We will observe how the fight for Oscar Lopez’s liberation has helped unite Puerto Rican community under one cause, putting aside political and religious ideologies. At the beginning of this year (2017), before ending his term in office, president Barack Obama commuted the 70 years sentence of this national hero who will be sitting next to the sea once more, after 36 years in prison. Oscar Lopez Rivera’s official release on May 20th will validate the struggle of a people that has resisted the North American empire.

Panama Fever: Colombian Fears of Secession on San Andrés and Providencia Islands, 1903–1913

In this essay, I explore the impact of Panamanian secession and lost canal rights on Colombian domestic affairs. In particular, I focus on Bogota officials’ efforts to assert greater control over the nation’s only insular Caribbean territory: the archipelago of San Andres and Providencia. These islands are located less than one hundred miles away from the Canal Zone and their populations have a long history with coastal Panama. Through an examination of official correspondence, newspaper publications, travel accounts, and published memoirs; I put forth a two-part argument. First, I contend that the loss of Panama and rights to the canal forced central authorities in Bogota to reengage generally with their frontier populations—and more specifically, with the English-speaking Afro-Caribbean populations of San Andres and Providencia. Second, the historically loose commercial, cultural, and even kinship ties to mainland Colombia weakened central and local functionaries’ claims of territorial sovereignty to these islands, which in turn forced functionaries to compare island agitation, mobilization, and demands for political autonomy with the earlier efforts of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Panamanians.

Assessing the potential of Caribbean phytomedicinals

AbstractOver the past four decades, there has not been any significant organised research into the therapeutic efficacy and/or potential toxicity of purportedly medicinal Caribbean botanicals. Books published during the period and dealing with such plants were essentially compendia of ethnopharmacological information regarding uses, containing occasional crude modes of preparation of treatments and sparse data on chemical constituents. More recent publications have tended to consider the evidence‐based legitimacy of a modest number of pharmacologically active plants. Currently, two of the most prominent organisations in this area are TRAMIL (the Program of Applied Research to Popular Medicine in the Caribbean) and the Caribbean Herbal Medicine Research Institute (CaHMRI). While TRAMIL's expressed main aim is to stimulate research that has the potential to educate physicians, pharmacologists, health personnel, and health programmes, its core research activity has been the conduct of ethnopharmacological disease‐based surveys on the traditional medicinal uses of plants by the people in the Caribbean territories; TRAMIL is not involved in the conduct of clinical trials. A major objective of CaHMRI at the University of Trinidad and Tobago is claimed to be the provision of sound scientific information about medicinal plants and herbal remedies. However, CaHMRI's declared mission is the identification of local medicinal plants and isolation of their characteristic bioactive constituents, although an Internet posting states that it plans to test herbal medicinal extracts for their safety and efficacy through clinical trials. However, so far CaHMRI has not reported on any such activities. Cuba appears to be the only Caribbean territory to have made significant progress in advancing the status of herbal medicines from the folkloric domain. As part of its national natural and traditional medicine system, herbal medicine products are being manufactured by the State in pharmaceutical production laboratories.

GUIANA FRANCESA, UM TERRITÓRIO EUROPEU E CARIBENHO NO CAMINHO DA SUL-AMERICANIZAÇÃO?

French Guiana, a french territory in South America, was marginalized for a long time by his South American neighbours because of its situation considered "colonial", and due to its links and its history appears more a Caribbean territory. But, for a long time already object of intense migratory streams from Brazil and more and more Peru, it becomes now attractive as front door of the European Union for South American countries which more than France perceived this situation of interface, symbolized by the construction of a bridge on the border of Guyana and Brazil, and signature of bilateral agreements. However, political situation, socioeconomic distances, protectionist logics and mentalities slow down another better insertion of the French department in its geographical environment, which also knows a process of integration which could leave Guyana aside. Key-Words: French Guiana, Brazil, South America, international migration; remoteness, regional integration.

Culture, nation and social cohesion: a scrutiny of revolutionary Cuba

During the 1960s era and beyond, official Cuban cultural thinking sought to address, among many other issues, the colonial legacy of cultural partition and cultural subjugation. It is advanced in this article that the revolution sought to achieve its objectives by endorsing, amongst other measures, the concept of ‘transculturation’, a theoretical position earlier brought to prominence by Fernando Ortiz, Cuba's leading anthropologist at the time. The article endeavours to show that, though Cubans have come to display a remarkable devotion to their immediate cultural heritage, they likewise acknowledge and champion the inter-connectedness that exists between their culture, the broader Caribbean territory, as well as the arts universally. The article inspects Cuban cultural spokespersons’ perceptions of their cultural realities, including their discernment of broader political contexts-such as colonialism, racism, slave practices, economic exploitation, cultural and social oppression, and the resultant human struggle -which ultimately inform and shape the nation's cultural ethos. This broad outlook, it will be seen, similarly sustains the formation and growth of a cohesive and unified nation. In sum, it is contended that Cuban national culture policy is structured upon a uniquely progressive, all-encompassing and, above all, independent theoretical framework, rather distinct from the cultural policies of the prevailing socialist models of the time.

Ongoing Diaspora: The Case of the French Caribbean

The unusual status of the French overseas departments in today «post-colonial world» provides an interesting domain of investigation from which analyzing the concept of diaspora. If diaspora refers to dispersal to several locations, to a collective mythology of a homeland and to an idealization of the return clearly the French Caribbean was initially an African diaspora. But did it stop being a diaspora once the Caribbean territory became the homeland? If diaspora can be regarded as a state of mind that imply not so much the idealization of the return but a commitment to the homeland along with a form of solidarity and a shared culture French Caribbeans relocated in Europe and elsewhere certainly qualify as part of the Caribbean diaspora. But between these two perspectives there is room for a more complex scheme: a diaspora that changed over time -occupying the Caribbean territory as its own, adopting a French political membership, generating a new diaspora- and yet remained partly the initial diaspora demonstrating that instead of stopping to be one type of diaspora to become another it can transform itself.

Creole Language in the Poetry of Derek Walcott

The perception of Walcott as a poet primarily in dialogue with the European tradition encourages an assumption that he writes in metropolitan standard English. Yet instances of Caribbean creole in his poetry are significant, and more frequent than they may appear at first glance. To investigate Derek Walcott's use of creole language in his poems, and the implications of that use, we should begin by taking note of how the language of poetry written in a creole cultural setting differs from spoken language. The process of creolization occurs at all levels of culture, and although its effects are large scale and highly visible, its actual operations are often very localized and unconscious. To a considerable extent, creolization is a matter of individuals making routine adjustments to a multicultural setting. The process moves forward through small appropriations and accommodations: one cook borrows ingredients from another, one dancer learns someone else's steps, a speaker modifies his language so his listener will understand more easily.1 Consider a very simple example. Two people are conversing, and they happen to pronounce a key term differently. By the end of the conversation, it is likely (but not inevitable) that they will both be pronouncing the term the same way. Furthermore, the shared pronunciation will usually be that used by one of the two speakers, not some intermediate compromise. Why? Sometimes the explanation seems easy—we might expect that an employee would always yield to the pronunciation of his boss. But the analysis of such situations is not always so simple, because the issues that come into play are subtle, including relative status, perceived status, individual self-confidence, and linguistic assurance. And what happens when the same people converse again on the same topic? Do they tacitly accept the "winning" pronunciation from the first conversation, or does the unacknowledged contest begin again? On a microscopic scale, those are the dynamics of creolization. As that example suggests, the development of language in multicultural settings provides some of the best-documented and most readily analyzed evidence for the dynamics of creolization. The Caribbean region constitutes perhaps the world's most extensive and most varied site of creolization as a result of the very different histories of [enslavement and] colonization that unfolded on each of those islands. The inhabitants have come from Africa, Asia, and Europe. As a consequence, many metropolitan languages are spoken. In addition, the region presents a uniquely rich assortment of creole languages. These languages have historical affinities with different European languages (French, English, Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese), they [End Page 29] have developed along different lines, and they stand in quite different relations to the languages of the [enslavers and] colonizers still spoken in the area.2 For instance, in Haiti it has been customary to regard metropolitan French and Haitian creole as separate, even opposed, languages. One speaks either one or the other. To combine them in a single utterance would be regarded as bizarre. This is the case even though the creole naturally includes many elements of French; in fact, the official orthography for Haitian creole programmatically works to make written creole look less like French, reinforcing the sense of opposition between the two languages. For example, the Haitian creole expression meaning "for me" is written pou mwe so that visually the relationship to the metropolitan equivalent pour moi is obscured; to the ears of most Francophones, the aural affinity is much more apparent. Jamaica, on the other hand, offers a fine example of what linguists call a "creole continuum." The creole that developed in Jamaica is more African in lexicon and syntax, and therefore less comprehensible to most speakers of English, than that of any other Anglophone Caribbean territory. But it is acceptable and indeed customary for Jamaican speakers to move very freely along this continuum, often in a single utterance combining elements from standard English and Jamaican creole, and not necessarily always combining them in the same way when saying more or less the...