Issue 116 (July/August 2012)

As the crowds begin to descend on London for the 2012 Olympics, Kito Johnson finds out how the Caribbean has helped to make London the great city that it is • Kwame Laurence looks at the Caribbean athletes heading for the London Olympic Games, and weighs their chances of success • Kwame Laurence lists potential medallists from the Caribbean • Both Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago achieved their independence from Britain in August 1962. Looking back over 50 years of Caribbean presence at the Olympics, Kwame Laurence weighs their chances of celebrating golden anniversaries with gold • After the Olympics come the Paralympics. The Caribbean competes there too, as Kwame Laurence explains • Trinidad sprinter Richard “Torpedo” Thompson tells his story to Kwame Laurence • Photos from Trinidad & Tobago and Jamaica Independence celebrations, 1962 • Debbie Jacob visits the 2012 Angostura Aromatic Bitters Global Cocktail Challenge and inspects some irresistible creations • Traditional yoga is becoming steadily more popular in the Caribbean. So are new forms of yoga which the Caribbean has developed for itself. Denise Chin reports • Cuba has drenched the world with its music. But what has it soaked up in return? Jamaica is only 90 miles from Cuba’s south coast: could rumours of an underground reggae scene in Cuba possibly be true? David Katz finds out • A short story by Anthony Milne • Franka Philip on how to manage a dinner party without turning a great occasion into an evening of hell • Garry Steckles is impressed by the latest addition to the Bob Marley dynasty – the great man’s grand-daughter • James Ferguson recalls the day fifty years ago when Jamaica cut its colonial ties with Britain and became independent • According to Nazma Muller in Kingston, it really is the grass