Caribbean Intelligence© writer Dania Bogle provides a first-hand account of life in Kingston after Hurricane Sandy.

 

Her tale includes talking about their own time bonding more closely with their families and her own first-hand experience of life with a young child when the power and water go.

 

Also, from New York, Trinidadian Kejan Haynes looks at how New Yorkers dealt with the complications blown in by Sandy.

 

Read more on our What’s the Buzz pages. There’s more on Sandy – the funny side – below.

 

 

 

 The regional football association, Concacaf, has introduced new financial reforms.

 

It has set up an audit and compliance committee which will confirm the accuracy of the association’s financial accounting.

 

The committee will be chaired by Leighton McKnight, a marketing partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Jamaica.

 

“This committee is comprised of individuals with the highest levels of integrity and competence, and they will help strengthen Concacaf’s future,” Concacaf President Jeffrey Webb said in an Association press release.

 

“As part of the new Concacaf’s commitment to inclusiveness, accountability and transparency, we have created a committee that will ensure we remain vigilant and committed to developing the game,” he added.

 

Leighton McKnight outlined the issues ahead for the regional football body.

 

“This critical organisation in our region has faced significant governance challenges in the past, but now has the opportunity to positively shape its future. I eagerly look forward to making my contribution as a part of the team, adding significant value to the rebuilding process,” he said.

 

The audit & compliance committee includes representatives from Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, the US and Trinidad and Tobago.

 

Meanwhile, Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz have become the latest to register issues with rising travel costs.

 

The president of Jamaica’s Football Federation (JFF), Capt Horace Burrell, told a Jamaica Observer newspaper debating session that it was unfair to have the players travelling long distances in economy class in discomfort and facing health risks.

 

“It’s important to note that it’s an embarrassment to have our players squeezed up in the back of an airplane, while their opponents travel in comfort and style,” he said.

 

“We can’t ask players after playing a hard game that they can’t even stretch out their legs.

 

“A lot of players are playing all over the world…in Europe and even as far away as Vietnam and I can tell you that for the final phase, we will be pulling out all the stops to ensure that they travel more comfortably.”

He said the JFF had been talking to American Airlines.

 

“We would be on our way if we could get our players from the UK and other parts of Europe flown in business class. But we are really not giving up.”
 

The Reggae Boyz’ plight comes at a time when a number of groups have been lobbying against air tax rises in the UK, which have added to the cost of travel to and from the Caribbean.

 

The Jamaica Observer said about 30 members of the Reggae Boyz squad were currently playing for European teams.

 

 

 The well-known Caribbean sense of humour was to be found in abundance in New York even as Hurricane Sandy did its worst to the Big Apple.

 

Stuck at home, many Caribbean and other people living in New York, some of whom have seen bigger hurricanes before, tweeted on the funny side of the storm.

 

Here are some of the ones checked out by Caribbean Intelligence’s What’s the Buzz:

 

“That CNN reporter on the corner since 3pm is still not going to win that Emmy!”

 

“I now realize how important I am to the organisation I work for. I go away for a couple weeks, and is like a hurricane hit the place.”

 

“Is it just me or does #Frankenstorm sound like a tropical drink you'd get on a Caribbean vacation?!?!”

 

One woman boasted she’d told her mother in Florida that her Jamaican origins, and facing bigger storms back home, meant she wasn’t afraid of a category one in New York.

 

Some were more serious in their comparison of the coverage given to Sandy in the Caribbean before it arrived in the States.

 

“#Sandy killed 67 people in the Caribbean last week. Somehow the 24/7 coverage missed that.”

 

 “Sandy killed 67 people in the Caribbean & left 200,000 homeless in Haiti yet all news is focused on NY. Because the poor don't count right?”

 

Britain’s Channel 4 TV reflected the full path of the hurricane in its reporting from the US, including a report on what it called “The other side of Sandy”.

 

 

 Trinidad-born Nobel Laureate VS Naipaul broke down in tears this week while talking about his novel A House for Mr Biswas at the Mumbai Literary Festival this week.

 

Asked by author Farrukh Dhondy about his 1961 book, based in Trinidad and about the life of his father, Naipaul, close to tears, told his audience in a choked voice, “I have told this story so many times, but it’s very moving.”

 

His wife Nadira, who was in the audience, asked his interviewer to skirt the question and move on to the next one.

 

Vidia Naipaul was at the festival to receive a lifetime achievement award.

 

But it was not just his first book which caused the novelist to get close to tears.

 

He talked about his travels, about India and even about his late cat.

 

Asked about more writing about India, he told his audience he could not write any more.

 

“I’ve written enough about India,” he said.

 

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