The topic of my column is like a double seller situation. Actual writing is best done in the early morning or evening. I have to think and prepare the ingredients from before. There is a range of passionately prepared topics that I intend to explore in the coming weeks, but every now and then, a topic comes in and crosses the line and takes first priority as it is eating doubles in place rather than removing. All week I had planned this topic and thought and planned the beginning and the end. Then, between yesterday and this morning, a new thread was thrown, dry, but I have no choice but to explore it a bit, especially since it has left me with more questions than answers.
Maybe it was already simmering after I wrote about Emancipation last week. In that article, I had to reflect on what was to me some of the essence and beauty of Trinidad. But during the last few weeks I was jealous and jealous. First there was the 2022 World Athletics Championships and then there was the Commonwealth Games which are currently going on. Jamaica is more than twice our size in terms of land mass and population.
I know they have a strong youth program, strong coaching and a public that is very supportive of their athleticism, so I don’t expect us to match them in that area. But there is simply no comparison, not even a five to one ratio in terms of sporting success.
In the medal count for the Commonwealth Games so far, the smaller countries are ahead of us. Jamaica is certainly far ahead. Thank God for Nicholas Paul (I want to be related) who was able to achieve three medals (a gold, a silver, a bronze) and on Saturday we had Jareem Richards with a gold and yesterday we won the 400m relay with gold. At the 2022 Summer Olympics held in 2021, Jamaica received nine medals, the Bahamas received two, Grenada one, Trinidad zero. At the recently concluded 2022 World Athletics Championships, Jamaica received ten medals, the Bahamas one, Barbados one and Trinidad zero.
I think in the past we’ve had a stronger medal count of sporting representation at these international events, but from a sporting point of view we’ve become less of a competitive force over the last five to ten years. The question for me is, apart from carnivals, socas, casseroles, wine and lime, what are we really good at? If one checks Google, it seems that we are best known for our carnival and Diwali celebrations, known for our steels and limbo, known for calypso, soca, chutney and parang. Our beaches are quite good especially those in Tobago.
We have some eco-tourism not well advertised. With the mix of cultures and ethnicities, we probably have some of the best food in the world, especially in terms of diversity. Our theater and artistic culture is no longer strong. We are super friendly and welcoming people who love to live. But is it? Carnival, soca, calypso, casseroles, Diwali and food?
And if we are so strong with Carnival, what is the justification for the Tobago House of Assembly to spend almost $300,000 to send a ten-member team to Grenada to learn from their carnivals with a plan to twin with them to Tobago’s October Carnival. Are we more like a fading gigolo? We thought we had the goods, but maybe we’d lost our mojo.
There is a sense that we have become distracted from our quarrels and focused more on our divisions. The disparity between the two political parties, the disparity between the lower, middle and upper classes, the popular families who are the VIPs compared to Beematie from Blanchisseuse Barrackpore and Bacolet.
The reality of inequality with the isolation of the titled Syrian one percent and the rest of the population. Gender inequality. Age inequality. Generational inequality. Racial inequality. In addition, crime and our reactive rather than sustained response to crime is a major distraction. With porous borders, an influx of illegal weapons, a disregard for life, and the ease of shooting and killing to get a cell phone or $100, it’s harder to focus on growth and power when one is trying to focus solely on survival.
Is our lack of patriotism also a factor? Other Caribbean countries have assumed that as a nation, although they have fewer resources, they are more united, more focused and more patriotic than we in Trinidad and Tobago. With our divisions and distractions, it has let us lose ground. With the upcoming diamond jubilee 60 years of Independence where we will have a month-long celebration, perhaps it is time for us to reflect not only on who we are as a nation, but where we want to go and who and what we want to be. Send your comments to the editor so we can explore this a bit. There are areas we may want to develop, but we need to lay the foundations and have a plan. No more laps. I want more. Do we want to be a pretty boy, a true Congolese bongo terror or just a fading gigolo?
Dr Joanne F Paul is a lecturer,
pediatric emergency specialist and member of the TEL institute
