Fun Friday - Fave action heroes

I had planned to focus on my favourite 80s television shows today but a friend demanded that I give the action heroes their due after last Friday’s countdown on movie heroines. And with pictures too, bosie. Fine by me, I said. That was until I actually started to jot down the names of my favourites. Trying to rank these distinctly individual characters almost took the fun out of the whole exercise!

Anyhoo, I ended up with five categories: a list my top 20 favourite action heroes (can you tell I like action movies?), three 'Honourable Mentions', the ‘Big 5’, the ‘Ones to watch’ category and the ‘Whatever happened to…’ category.

Each of these 20 action heroes has a large number of blockbusters under their belts and strong fan bases so they’re all equal in that respect. I just ranked them according to how much I liked their movies or television shows. No science here, trust me. Let’s roll.

Top 20 fave action heroes

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20) Chuck Norris – Before he was immortalised as Walker Texas Ranger, old Chuckie was quite the action hero in such films as Delta Force and Missing in Action. His tv show was a tad corny but still good fun.


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19) Sylvester Stallone. Sly obviously likes him some sequels. He made five Rocky movies and then did Rocky Balboa last year, and he did three Rambo movies and plans to do another one next year. Isn't he getting too old for this?


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18) Jean Claude van Damme. Mr. Universal Soldier himself was pretty hot stuff back in the day. Bad press and several flops have tarnished his action hero image but we'll always have hits such as Double Team and Street Fighter.


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17) Steven Seagal. Seagal was the king of bone breaking. I swore the sound effects guys on his movies were in the background breaking up macaroni sticks. Seagal made so many (fairly corny) movies he almost became a parody of himself, but if you want mindless fun give him a try. Check out Exit Wounds, Under Siege 1 & 2, Above the Law and Marked for Death.


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16) Mark Wahlberg. Though a relative newbie to the action genre, Marky Mark has thrown off his boy band days in a big way. Shooter, Four Brothers, Italian Job, Planet of the Apes, Three Kings...not a bad resumé.


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15) Orlando Bloom. It's almost an insult to call Orlando Bloom an action hero. His movies are mostly sweeping epics with him wielding a sword or shooting arrows, quite different from the big explosions and car chases we've come to expect from action movies. Hey, with Pirates of the Caribbean, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Kingdom of Heaven and Troy under his belt, we'll forgive him for not trying other types of action roles.


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14) Tyrese Gibson. Mr. Gibson has come a long way from that Coca Cola ad. His star is burning brightly right now, and boss man can sing too. Check him out in Flight of the Phoenix, Four Brothers, Waist Deep, the upcoming Transformers, and Annapolis, to name a few.


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13)‘James Bond’. I loved most of the James Bonds, especially Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan. I hear the current one Daniel Craig isn't too bad either; actually he seems to be more 'physical' than some of the previous Bonds. Good move.


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12) Tom Cruise. Now this guy is the quintessential action hero. With Top Gun, three Mission Impossible movies, Minority Report, The Last Samurai, War of the Worlds and Collateral to his credit, Tom Cruise doesn't have to prove nothin' to nobody. He's a fantastic actor too but always seems to fall short of getting that Best Actor Oscar. Maybe he should let his characters die and forget about happy endings...


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11) Mel Gibson. Before he became the producer of controversial movies such as The Passion of Christ and Apocalypto, Mel was an action man. I don't remember much about the Mad Max movies but I was a fan of the four Lethal Weapon movies, The Patriot, Braveheart, Ransom and Payback. Actually, Mel's movies were pretty violent. Was that a sign of his current troubles?


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10) Vin Diesel. Vin made guys feel good about having a bald head and made women feel good, period. A bit of a beef cake but his voice, oh boy, his voice. Like his movie The Fast and the Furious, he blew into the action arena and didn't disappoint his fans, for a while anyway. Pitch Black is still one of my favourite movies ever, though I didn't think much of the Chronicles of Riddick. As for XXX, well, just watch it for Vin. Step your game up, Vin, you've been missing in action too long!


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9) Wesley Snipes. Before he was making a habit of evading Uncle Sam, Snipes had a pretty good thing going as an action hero. Passenger 57 and the Blade Trilogy are just a few of his movies. Go do the right thing, Wes!


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8) Nicolas Cage. The Rock, Con Air, Face Off, Gone in 60 Seconds, National Treasure. If there was an action movie Hall of Fame Nic Cage would be in it. His career has been sliding a bit recently but we'll always have Face, Off.


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7) Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson. I didn't know the Rock as a wrestler but he's been a welcome addition to the action arena. His small part in The Mummy 2 was corny but The Scorpion King, The Rundown and Walking Tall were great. Now, if he'd only stop that eyebrow thing...


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6) Harrison Ford. You've got to hand it to this guy. He's over 60, with classics such as the Star Wars and Indiana Jones trilogies, and Air Force One and Firewall behind him, and he still wants to make another Indiana Jones movie. Good luck on that one, Harry.


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5) Matt Damon. Six movies do not an action hero make but since three of those movies were The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Ultimatum and The Bourne Supremacy, you're forgiven, Matt.


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4) Keifer Sutherland. 24 on Fox. That's all I need to say.


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3) Bruce Willis. I loves me some Bruce. A comedian at heart, he can still throw down with the best of them in a gunfight. Even if he did a Die Hard 10, I'd still be watching. His other action credits include Armageddon, Last Boy Scout, Fifth Element, Sin City, Hostage, Tears of the Sun, Unbreakable and Hart’s War .


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2) Will Smith. My boy to the end. I'm so proud of how his career has moved from the rap scene to the movie screen. Funny as hell and a bad *ss when required, Will is the ultimate action hero. And he can do some serious acting too. My faves? Independence Day, Enemy of the State, I, Robot, Wild Wild West, Bad Boys 1 & 2, Men in Black 1 & 2, all of his movies really. Can't wait to see I am Legend in a few weeks!


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1) Arnold Schwarzenegger. The King of the action box office and now Governor of California terminates all opposition. I still believe he has a few action movies left in him. Till then, enjoy Predator, the Terminator trilogy, Last Action Hero, Eraser, True Lies, End of Days, The 6th Day, Running Man and Commando.

Other categories next week, si dieu veux. Have a great weekend!

House keeping

Hi folks. Just a few house keeping matters. First, I wanted to let you know that another contributor will be joining us shortly here at Cheese-on-Bread. His name is Dre and he will be blogging mostly about sports. Be sure to give him a warm welcome!

Second, I realise that some persons might find the commenting process tedious and are therefore not bothering to do so. For us bloggers comments are like our lifeblood, so please do. Don't sweat the whole googlemail address thing; once you have a hotmail account you can use that.

Third, persons wishing to email me can do so at jamdung97@yahoo.com. If you attended a local event and have digital photos and you want to share them with the rest of the world, send them along and I'll check them out. Don't worry, you'll get the credit, haha.

Tony Blair signs off

Sniff sniff. British Prime Minister Tony Blair resigned today after 10 years in office. His successor is his longtime political partner, sometime rival and the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, who promises "a new government with new priorities", whatever that means.

According to MSNBC, "power changed hands traditionally and quietly behind closed doors in Buckingham Palace as Blair first called on Queen Elizabeth II to submit his resignation, and Brown arrived soon after to be confirmed as the new prime minister".

Earlier, an emotional Blair received a warm send-off in the House of Commons — from his opponents as well as members of his own Labour party — after one final appearance at the weekly question time session.

“I wish everyone — friend or foe — well. And that is that. The end,” he said.

I'll miss Tony, even though I suspect we'll be seeing a lot of him here in Barbados. I still blame Bush for all this. He sucked Blair into his war drama and left him holding the bag. Now Tony is resigning - a black mark on his career - while Bush will simply leave office next year because he can't run again anyway.

It'll be interesting to see how Bush and Brown get on. Brown is known for being a stern fella, so it will be unlikely he'll be branded as Bush's "poodle" like Blair was.

And what's next for Blair? When he leaves office, he will return to the backbenches of the House of Commons as M.P. for Sedgefield in Northern England, though there's speculation that he'll resign his seat later this year to focus on creating an interfaith dialogue, which he sees as a key to reducing tensions around the world, and the challenges posed by climate change. A Web domain name—www.blairfoundation.org—has reportedly been registered on his behalf.

He will also be writing his memoirs, which are expected to earn him at least $8 million, and making speeches, which in the United States alone could earn him $4 million during his first year out of office.

Good luck, Tony. You were a good man doing a bad job. I'm sure I'll see you in John Moore's Bar in St. James real soon.

Rihanna at BET Awards

Rihanna was all over the red carpet at last night's BET Awards in Los Angeles. Her fitted strapless dress was quite a hit with many blogs and news sites. Rihanna also presented Jennifer Hudson with the Best Actress Award for her role in Dream Girls.
Very classy look, Rihanna, though I'm still mad at you...


Photos: ybf.blogspot.com

Remember you saw it here first!

We don't like to boast here at Cheese-on-Bread, but I just want to demonstrate the ability of blogs to keep persons up-to-date quicker than more traditional routes.

I notice that the dailies here published Rihanna's recent comments about Bajans today; we dealt with that last week. We posted about Marion Jones' financial misfortunes yesterday, the dailies published it today. In March we told you about Barrington Irving, a Jamaican-born pilot who was attempting to be the youngest person to fly around the world solo; I only saw mention of it in the papers here on the weekend. More on that later, by the way.

So, having said all that, remember you saw the news here first!

Sam Alexis Woods

As promised, here are some pics of Tiger and Elin Woods' daughter Sam Alexis, who was born last week. It's too soon to say who she ressembles more, daddy or mommy. I love babies, but in the early days after their birth they do ressemble little old men a bit, don't you think?


Tiger, Elin, Sam and their dogs Taz and Yogi. They're very brave to have dogs so close to their baby.


Support the neck, Tiger!


Sleeping beauty


The doting daddy

Photos: Courtesy of www.tigerwoods.com

The BS&T saga: The re-colonisation of Barbados?

Now, I can't claim to know much about the inner workings of business in Barbados and the region, except what I've gleaned from news reports. I don't know a whole lot about the business of Neal & Massy Holdings of Trinidad, (except I enjoy their award-winning steelpan group) and I know even less about their rival, Ansa McAl.

What I do know is that both of them are competing for the Barbados-owned Barbados Shipping and Trading (BS&T) and it looks to be a long, hard fight. Neal and Massy is going the "friendly merger" route, promising better returns for shareholders and reassuring us all that there would be no loss of jobs. Ansa McAl however, is proposing what amounts to a straight up takeover, outdoing Neal & Massy's share offer of $5.51 and offering $7 per share. Ansa McAl is also preparing to put up half a billion dollars for the outstanding 75.3 million BS&T shares. Neal & Massy owns approximately 17 million of BS&T's shares.

How did BS&T find itself in this position? Some people say the company was run inefficiently, that it was myopic and made itself a "sitting duck". Who will shareholders choose, Ansa McAl or Neal and Massy? What's the difference, many Bajans might ask, since they're both Trini companies bidding to control yet another Barbadian company. What worries me is that if Ansa McAl wins, they will effectively control food importation and distribution in Barbados, since they already own Stokes and Bynoe and Brydens Distribution. Yeah, yeah it's all Caribbean, but within CARICOM we still have our individual sovereignty and ours seems to be disappearing bit by bit...

Let's do a tally here to see who owns or partially owns what in Barbados, shall we?

Neal and Massy
G4S Security Services Limited (holding 49%)
Barbados Shipping and Trading (holding over 20%)
Illuminat
T. Geddes Grant

Ansa McAl
Stokes and Bynoe
Consolidated Finance
McEnearney Quality Inc
Brydens Distribution
Brydens Insurance
A & R Tempro
Carmax


And what will these Trinidadian companies gain from owning/merging with BS&T?
The Autodome Inc.
Agro Chemicals Inc.
BCB Communications Inc.
Booth Steamship Co. (Barbados) Ltd.
BS&T International Development, LC
Cargo Handlers Ltd.
Dacosta Mannings Inc.
Knights Ltd.
Little Bristol Inc.
Magna (Jamaica) Ltd.
Magna Rewards (St. Lucia) Ltd.
Magna Rewards (Trinidad) Ltd.
Magna Rewards Caribbean Inc.
Magna Rewards Inc.
Peronne Manufacturing Co. Ltd.
Roberts Manufacturing Co. Ltd.
S.P. Musson Son & Co. Ltd.
SBI Distribution Inc.
Seawell Air Services Ltd.
Sunset Crest Holdings Inc.
Super Centre Ltd.
United Insurance Co. Ltd.
Warrens Motors Inc.
Warrens Realty Inc.
Wimcal Ltd.

The next few days should be very interesting. We better learn to like Catelli ketchup fast...

Photo: BS&T Chairman, Sir Allan Fields, plays pan.
Courtesy of www.caribzones.com

Farewell, El Verno

El Verno is laid to rest in Westbury Cemetery

I'm a little late with this but I can't let today go by without acknowledging the passing of master drummer, poet, songwriter and dancer Vern "El Verno del Congo" Best, BCH. El Verno was laid to rest last Saturday at the Westbury Cemetery.

The late songwriter is perhaps best known for his folk hit "Welcome the Morning Sun". He was lovingly remembered by the Rastafarian, entertainment and the Ethiopian Orthodox communities.

"The will to live always overcame el Verno del Congo . . . . So when we welcome our morning sun, let us rejoice that a man of integrity, will, power and love touched us, and made a difference. We can all do that too," his daughter Onika Best said in her eulogy.

Rest in peace, El Verno.



Photo: Sunday Sun

Oba-discreet

Hope everyone had a good weekend. I see that our golden boy Obadele Thompson is back in the land, winning his 200m race last night at the Williams Industries National Track and Field Championships at the National Stadium.

You have to love Obadele, though, 'cause he sure knows how to keep a secret. When journalists here asked him about his marriage to Olympic sprinter Marion Jones, he just smiled and shook his head. Only the gold ring on his finger spoke volumes. Not a picture of the happy couple's wedding can be found online, and trust me, I checked.

Oba's a smart guy though. Why blab all his business for free, when Sports Illustrated or Newsweek or some such publication would be willing to pay mucho dinero for an exclusive? And don't forget, Olympics are due next year so athletes like Oba and Marion will be in focus.

Anyhoo, from what I can see, an exclusive mega-deal would be welcome right about now...

Good luck, Oba, Marion and your little ones.

Oh No They Didn't!!!

My, how quickly Friday comes when you have made a commitment to doing something every Friday. So though late, here is your Friday Fashion Fix. Let's get started with two international fashionistas.

Here is the inimitable Cindy Crawford. Now, this how a little black dress is supposed to look and be worn. Take note, ladies. It's not too short, not too tight. It's just plain classy! Her hair is beautiful, the bod is the bomb (even after kids) and the shoes! Slammin'. This is quite a hot look Mrs. Crawford has going on here.

Bravo!
Now here is a fashion fumble on a lady who is normally quite smashing. Maybe ...errrrr. Oh I don't know what happened but this is not looking so good at all.
Where did she find this two-toned number…Woolworth? (No offense) It's cut like a big block—totally unflattering—and features a black diamond pattern that should only be worn by people hoping to disguise love handles and big hips. Mybe she's hiding some weight gain. I don't know but this is not the Demi that we love to hate on. Send this housecoat back to the plus-size rack, ASAP!

Now, let's bring it back home. Boy, never a dull fashion moment on the party scene in these parts.
This youngster has committed the biggest style sin. A lady never takes off her shoes. Actually a real lady never buys uncomfortable shoes to start with so, MISTAKE!!
Secondly, the shorts are way too short. Keep something hidden, nuh ladies. Damn! And then just to make matters worse she put on the plastic bracelets. Good grief!


Now............... ahmmmmmmm...
What can i say about this. I'm just plain speechless. What in hell are you thinking, girlfriend? Spandex is no one's friend, especially when you're on the bigger side.


I will never understand what goes through a person's thought process starting from the purchase point to actually walking into a public place dressed like this! This is just wrong!!!!! WRONG!!!! Your butt cracks' showing, man!
Would it have hurt to wear the actually nice top with a black pants or skirt? Sheesh.


Now this lady is matching quite nicely. I swear I need to start a school. Time and place is just as important as what you wear. This outfit would have come off much nicer if perhaps it was worn to a beach party or Soca on the Hill, even East Coast.
What is your hat shading you from? The moonlight?

Dreadlocs

Fun Friday - Fave movie heroines

Another Friday, another countdown. This time, I thought I'd focus on my favourite movie action heroines. Although they're not as visible or plentiful as the action heroes (can you remember when Sly Stallone, Steven Seagal, Jean Claude van Damme and Arnold Schwarzenegger brought out big budget movies every summer?)there have still been quite a few memorable action heroines over the years. Here are 10 of my faves, this time with pics!


10) Violet - Ultraviolet. Milla Jovovich has this crazy-cool, kick-butt character type down pat (also see her in Resident Evil and The Fifth Element). Violet's an outcast, the last of a special breed of fighting machines and she's mad at the world. The movie sucked but fast forward to watch Violet in action.


9) Aeon - Aeon Flux. Charlize Theron is known more for being an Oscar winner than an action hero, and she took a big chance with this part. The movie was so-so, but Aeon's futuristic assassin ways will win you over.


8) The Bride/Black Mamba - Kill Bill. I had nuff respect for Uma Thurman after watching this movie. She was able to deliver a lot of potentially corny dialogue with such panache, all the while wielding a sword and dressed in a yellow tracksuit. You don't see that every day. If you're afraid of blood, don't watch Kill Bill, though.


7) Cleopatra Jones - Cleopatra Jones. The late Tamara Dobson portrayed a Government special agent soul sister with more artillery than James Bond. In fact, some persons referred to her as the first female James Bond. A pity the movie's stuck in the era known as 'Blaxploitation'. I see a remake in its future.


6) Foxy Brown - Foxy Brown. Pam Grier, the original 'bad mama jama', starred. Need I say more?


5) Sarah Connor - Terminator 1 & 2. I still can't explain the premise of this movie to anyone without getting confused. Basically, Sarah will give birth to the man who'll save the world from destruction (note the biblical reference) so the same man comes from the future to...impregnate her? I give up. Just watch the movie. Linda Hamilton's biceps will astound you.


4) Lara Croft - Lara Croft: Tombraider 1 & 2. I love me some Angelina Jolie. She can play any role, from a bisexual junkie in Gia to a blonde, dread-locked car thief in Gone in Sixty Seconds. She breathed life into the video game character of Lara Croft and made it her own. The house, the cars, the bikes, the gadgets all up her cool factor.


3) Selene - Underworld 1 & 2. In my mind, Kate Beckinsale was just that chick from Pearl Harbour until she starred in the Underworld movies. Her vampire assassin character was classy (must have been the British accent) but could kick butt in a flash. Lycans, beware.


2) Trinity - Matrix Trilogy. Carrie-Ann Moss was a slick, tough as nails escapee from the Matrix with a penchant for black leather, but she still had a tender place in her heart for Neo. I'm not sure what roles she's done since the Matrix movies, but she'll always live on as Trinity. She'll make you want to take the red pill.


1) Lt. Ellen Ripley - Alien, Aliens trilogy. Words cannot begin to describe Sigourney Weaver's portrayal of the Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley. One of the greatest movie heroines of all time, this tough as nails bad*ss stares down space aliens and lives to tell the tale. Well, uhm, yeah, sorta. Anyhoo, in 2003, the character Ripley was selected by the American Film Institute as the #8 greatest hero in American cinema history, and Sigourney Weaver even received an Oscar nomination for the first Aliens movie. It's not every day that gun-toting, alien-stomping roles get nominated for Oscars. She was that good.


Special mention:
Xena - Xena: Warrior Princess. Although the Xena movie is still in the works and this character is primarily television-based, Lucy Lawless' Xena is so larger than life that I couldn't do a countdown of my fave action heroines and not mention her.

Next Friday, si dieu veux: my fave 80's television shows!

Photos: www.monstersandcritics.com, www.scifipedia.com, www.search.com, www.google.com and other sites too numerous to mention. You know who you are! My gratitude to all.

Rihanna's feelings are hurt

Oh dear. Rihanna's pretty teed off with us Bajans right now. According to excerpts from a recent interview she did with Entertainment Weekly magazine (courtesy of one of my fave blogs Just Jared.com) Rihanna's upset because of the criticism she's received from her countrymates since striking it big on the international stage. Based on her comments, it appears as though the criticism is centered mostly on her wardrobe, or lack thereof if you've seen the Umbrella video.

Well, if you've been reading this blog over the past few months you'll know I've had my piece to say on Rihanna's wardrobe choices. To refresh your memory, see here and here. Her wardrobe has ranged from elegant to stripper-like, the latter especially when she's performing. I give her props when she's doing it up right, but I gotta call her out when I see her walking around half-naked too. I'm interested in the girl's health, 'cause once a draught hits her the wrong way all the honey and lime in the world ain't gonna help her sing properly...

Anyhoo, here's what she had to say in the interview:

What’s it like when you go back to visit Barbados these days? Do you still have a lot of friends there? Are people mostly happy for you or do you get hated on a lot?
A lot of them hate me, but a lot of them love me. I don’t really let the ones that hate me stop me from doing what I wanna do. They always have something to say about what I’m wearing, what I’m not wearing, like in the ”Umbrella” video. If I wear a swimsuit to the beach, it’s a problem, they put it on the front of the newspaper and call into programs. It really annoys me when people that I try to represent and I try to put them on the map as much as I can — you know, I didn’t have to put Tridents in my videos.

Put what in your videos? Trident, which is the symbol of the flag. I didn’t have to talk about them. I didn’t have to even mention that I’m from Barbados. But I do and people kind of take it for granted. They hate me. They talk s— about me all the time. But I’m like, ”Whatever. I’m still doing this cause I love to do it and you’re not going to stop me.”

Alrighty then. You go on with your bad self, Rih Rih. Acting all snippy and stuff. Thanks for putting us on the map, hear?

Photo: http://justjared.buzznet.com

'Grenada 13' - Give us free!

My most vivid recollection of the assassination of Grenadian Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and several members of his Cabinet, and the subsequent invasian by US troops, was seeing a helicopter land at the Enmore field next to the QEH, bringing in wounded persons from Grenada. At the time, I was a first-form student at St. Michael's and was more transfixed by the sight of the helicopter than listening to the news out of Grenada.

At that young age the full impact of the bloody coup didn't resonate with me as much as it shoud have, but over the years I've come to recognise the magnitude of that fateful day. The thought that the members of a party, in this case the New Jewel Movement, could line up their Prime Minister and members of his Cabinet against a wall and shoot them down was inconceivable. Whatever their reasons. To this day Bishop's body has never been found and rumours abound about what happened to his remains.

The political drama that unfolded after the executions - CARICOM Heads hurriedly meeting and US troops invading Grenada - was a sorry chapter in that country's history. When the dust settled, Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard, his wife Phyllis, commander of the Grenadian Armed Forces, Hudson Austin and several other politicians and soldiers were sentenced to life in prison for at least 11 murders.

It's impossible to talk about the "intervention" without mentioning that 1983 was the height of the Cold War between the US, its allies and the Soviet Union. Bishop was a socialist and the US feared that Grenada would become a jump-off point for any Soviet activity in the region. Many innocent Grenadians were killed in the military action and the trial of Coard and company was widely described by Amnesty Interanational and other organisations as a 'kangaroo court'.

And now we come to the present. The infamous 'Grenada 17' are now down to 13. Phyllis Coard was released in 2000 on grounds of ill health and former soldiers Andy Mitchell, Cosmos Richardson and Vincent Joseph were released after serving 20 years. The remaining prisoners are 24 years older, some are sick and they all want out of prison. Hudson Austin is currently in hospital in Grenada and Bernard Coard urgently requires surgery to prevent him from going blind. Their legal representatives say they are no longer threats to society; they have been "spiritually transformed" in prison and have assisted in the rehabilitation of several other prisoners.

Although only God can be their judge, a panel of their peers found them guilty. The events of 1983 held Grenada up to international ridicule, and nearly devastated its chances of socio-economic survival. I'm sure the 'Grenada 13' regret their part in that sad episode, but like every other prisoner on the planet, you do the crime, you have to do the time. Should they be released? I feel not, but I'll still ask God to have mercy on them all.

Photo: www.caribbean360.com

Show me the money

Well, our CARICOM Heads of Government are currently in Washington meeting with the big kahuna himself, President George W. Bush, for a conference on the Caribbean. These meetings always amuse me, because the USA has its own agenda, we have ours and sometimes never the 'twain shall meet.

What may be different this time around? Well, for starters, four Caribbean nationals are accused of attempting to blow up JFK Airport. If that doesn't get the US' attention nothing will! Then there's still that pesky drug trafficking problem that won't go away. I'm sure the region's leaders are still annoyed that Bush passed through on a Latin American tour earlier this year and didn't bother to swing by any of the Caribbean states.

Barbados' Prime Minister Owen Arthur, forever the devil's advocate, made a not too subtle remark yesterday that Cuba, China and Venezuela were shouldering the burden when it came to supporting the region financially, and even though we all like to make fun of Bush's intelligence, not even he's so dense that he could miss the implications of that statement. From my layman's point of view, the US always wants to tell the region what to do - about drug trafficking, terrorism, the environment, etc. - but is tight-fisted when it's time to fund programmes. Bring the money and come, Uncle Sam!

Click here to read more about the Conference on the Caribbean.

Photo courtesy of the White House

Baby girl for Tiger

Congrats to honorary Bajans (haha) Tiger Woods and his wife Elin Nordegren, who welcomed daughter Sam Alexis yesterday morning. The couple was married at Sandy Lane Resort in Barbados on October 5, 2005.

The couple's first child was born less than 24 hours after Woods finished second in the U.S. Open on Sunday.

Woods wrote on his website: "Both Elin and Sam are doing well and resting peacefully. We want to thank our doctors and the hospital staff for all their dedicated and hard work. This is truly a special time in our lives and we look forward to introducing Sam to our family and friends over the next few weeks. We thank everyone for their well wishes and continued respect of our privacy."

This is great news for Tiger, who lost his father and mentor Earl Woods early last year.

Click here to check out Tiger's website. Baby pics coming soon!