The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 9,400 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 3 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

The government of Trinidad and Tobago announced Tuesday the distribution of $9.7 million to regional Carnival committees with the aim of transforming the country’s famous bash into a year-round generator of tourism revenue, The Latin American Herald Tribune reports.

The National Carnival Commission has distributed the money to the regional committees with the hope that there could be at least one event per month, the minister of Arts and Multiculturalism, Lincoln Douglas, said in a statement.

“Moving from a festival to an industry is what we’re about. We’re putting all the processes in place. The production, the artistry, distribution, copyright and intellectual property rights, so that we can move from not only a festival but into an industry,” Douglas said.

The NCC’s chairperson, Lorraine Pouchet, told representatives of the regional committees that the $9.7 million in intended to “go some distance toward offsetting the costs you incur in making regional…

URGENT!!! Threats and harassment against the ejidatarios of San Sebastián Bachajón

URGENT!!!

December 30, 2014

We the adherents to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle from San Sebastián Bachajon, are resisting and protecting our territory

The officialist (government-supporting) ejidal commissioner of San Sebastián Bachajón, Alejandro Moreno Gómez, and his vigilance councillor, Samuel Díaz Guzmán, have threatened to displace us and to raise arrest warrants against us.

In an approach that was between the ejidatarios of the Sixth and delegates from the Chiapas state government to seek a dialogue between the ejidatarios of the Sixth and the ruling party, the government people demanded that we withdraw from the recovered land, so as to tell the ejidal commissioner and his people that dialogue was agreed.

This demand was accompanied by threats that if we did not leave the land we would be displaced and arrest warrants issued against us.

For…

A dear online friend posted things that made him smile on his blog today. I thought I would steal his idea (I hope you don’t mind, Benji), although I did claim to dislike “year-end lists.” This is just, really, noting for myself the things I enjoyed this year – which now has less than twelve hours to go in Jamaica. Family comes first but after that, no particular order.

•  My husband: Ridiculous jokes, discussing news stories, drinking coffee, watching re-runs of old sitcoms – and so much more
• Our son: Took his life by the scruff of its neck in 2014 and made it all work. So proud of him!
• Our first grandson: Who arrived in a very small bundle just four months ago and is already plump, smiling, round-eyed.  Welcome to the world, Marley Lewis!
• Another beautiful little boy: Our grand-nephew Theo arrived in early 2014 and is thriving…