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Social media has been a powerful instrument in creating positive change in the Caribbean. In many ways, it has allowed ordinary citizens to efficiently voice their disapproval of governmental policies that have been foisted onto the masses. However, before this technological innovation existed the inhabitants of the region had their own indigenous, creative media through which they could communicate their concerns, and so organize against systems of oppression. The purpose of this portfolio is to illustrate the evolution of the means of expression in the Caribbean, by which public discord can be communicated about (and to) repressive decision-makers in society.

Short Biographical Note
As the author of this portfolio is from Antigua, the above opening banner features the Kalinago name for Antigua at the forefront which is ‘Wadadli’, and infused into the background are various identifying ‘labels’ that are culturally associated with Antigua. You will also note that illuminating examples will be taken from both the author's home country and the country in which this author's UWI campus of study is situated (Trinidad).

(NB: Where ever the text is light-red, please click on it to be taken to a link further illustrating the idea being discussed).

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(18/07/17) - THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN CREATING POSITIVE CHANGE IN THE CARIBBEAN

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(18/07/17) - THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN CREATING POSITIVE CHANGE IN THE CARIBBEAN

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The influence that social media has had in making positive changes for marginalized groups has become a global phenomenon. We easily recognise this through the online community ‘Black Twitter’, which has been responsible for powerful and effective hashtags such as #OscarsSoWhite and #BlackLivesMatter. So potent was the latter hashtag, that it evolved into a multinational organizational movement (Guynn) which mainly advocates against unjustifiable killings of black people by the police.

Even in Trinidad & Tobago, social media has also played a critical role in drawing attention to controversial issues. Such is evident in the case of UWI lecturer, Rhoda Bharath, who has presented evidence alleging that substantial misspending has taken place by hands of the President of Trinidad & Tobago. Her compelling revelations via her Facebook account have since prompted a police investigation into the spending affairs of the high-ranking public official.

Nonetheless, the focus of this entry is on the TV production, Parts Unknown, which showcased Trinidad. This episode was leaked on Facebook, 5 days before it was scheduled to be broadcast on CNN (click here) and thus, it signifies the power of social media's online community. A segment featured the Sabga-Aboud family, a member of which asserted that the Syrian community is the most powerful group in Trinidad, and that the middle class merely exists in order to provide a security between the most and least privileged in society (i.e., the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’). Consequently, Trinidadians strongly expressed their disapproval through social media (and even a protest).

Considerable conceit can be derived and interpreted from the Sabga family’s comments. Not only do these sentiments exhibit a demeaning view of the middle and lower classes, but they also display ignorance of the role of white privilege in enabling the Syrian community’s rise to becoming the nation’s wealthiest ethnic group. Thus, as a result of the heavy criticism expressed, most notably via online media, Mario Sabga was promptly forced to issue a written apology.

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Sabga Aboud apologises for careless words on CNN's 'Parts Unknown' episode

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Click here to share this on Facebook: https://youtu.be/NvqF_3dkFPI Click here to Tweet this video:https://youtu.be/NvqF_3dkFPI Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/ahs.roop Twitter :https://twitter.com/DJRAnks45

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(11/07/17) - TRADITIONAL FORMS OF COMMUNICATIVE RESISTANCE

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(11/07/17) - TRADITIONAL FORMS OF COMMUNICATIVE RESISTANCE

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What do “slave gardens” and Calypso have in common? They were the mediums through which Caribbean people of West African descent could talk about resistance strategies amongst themselves and therefore disseminate messages that challenged dominant societal constructs.

The “slave gardens” (also known as “provision grounds”) were small plots of land on the estate offered to the enslaved by white planters as a means of encouraging their own self-subsistence ("Caribbean Civilisation Unit 4" 9). However, besides the obvious talking and socialising opportunities that these gardens certainly afforded the enslaved, they were, most importantly, crucial sites at which the enslaved could carry out resistance and revolt planning.

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Now, if we move to the post-emancipation era, Calypso has been widely regarded a powerful vehicle through which the poor can fearlessly criticize the highest authorities, by its combined virtues of wit, humour and satire.

It allows ordinary people to openly lament on the prevailing state of affairs, as evidenced by Portrait of Trinidad where Mighty Sniper proclaims:

For when we moving
We all move as one body
No bickering between you and me
For our policy stand for racial equality

This also immediately warrants repaying a visit to King Austin’s classic Progress, where he insistently suggests:

I think no one can deny
That the price of progress is high
Really, really high!

Even very recently, Calypso has proven its ability to incite healthy national debate in Antigua, through this year’s song entitled Nastiness by Queen Ivena. The Prime Minister of this country has incessantly threatened to file a defamation suit against this accomplished calypsonian who, despite her brash style of delivery, is generally viewed as credible by the public. Here, we are served a reminder of how readily even today’s politicians would blatantly compromise a citizen’s rights to freedom of speech, simply in order to maintain a positive perception of themselves.

(Pictured below is both Queen Ivena and the Prime Minister of Antigua & Barbuda)

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(24/07/17) - WHOSE CITIZENSHIP?: A SHORT REFLECTION ON SMALL ISLAND CARIBBEAN IDENTITIES

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(24/07/17) - WHOSE CITIZENSHIP?: A SHORT REFLECTION ON SMALL ISLAND CARIBBEAN IDENTITIES

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(The learning artefacts in this entry have been found and widely circulated on social media)

Five Caribbean nations (Antigua & Barbuda, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, Grenada, Dominica) have institutionalized Citizen by Investment Programmes which offer citizenship in exchange for a substantial local investment, as a means of either raising government revenue or incentivizing development. The beneficiaries of citizenship gain ease of travel as a result of the visa-free travel that is a common characteristic of the Caribbean passport holder, to many countries around the world. However, this requires ourselves to ponder: do Citizenship by Investment Programmes represent an affront to individual small-island Caribbean identities?

Benedict Anderson defined the nation as “an imagined political community … imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each, lives the image of their communion” (6). How can we continue to have confidence in this image we hold of ourselves as citizens of a collective nation, especially if issues such as lack of transparency and due diligence are readily seen in approving applications for citizenship (by investment)?

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Last month, Canada put an end to visa-free travel for Antiguan & Barbudan passport holders as a result of the risks such programmes pose to their national security. Now Barbados and the Bahamas are the only remaining CARICOM countries whose citizens are permitted to travel to Canada visa-free.

The final learning artefact for this entry is a commercial bar code in the shape of the island of Antigua. It symbolizes the “selling of ourselves” concept which has been a prevailing feature of our Caribbean Civilisation for centuries. Citizenship by Investment programmes are a fundemental consequence of this dependency on developed countries that has become entrenched in our societies in order to ensure our survival.

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(25/07/17) - SELF-EVALUATION OF LEARNING

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(25/07/17) - SELF-EVALUATION OF LEARNING

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This course has played a pivotal role in helping me to understand my role as a citizen of our Caribbean Civilisation. It has, first and foremost, given me the tools to describe the region, not as a singular monolithic geographic space, but as a unique area of the world whose strength lies in its diversity and heterogeneity. It is only through examining and constantly revising the historical forces behind our societies and cultures that we are to able grapple with the complexities that define our region.

As a student of Actuarial Science, it is my hope that I can use the diverse skillset I acquire at the UWI to find creative ways to stimulate our economies through mathematical and statistical inquiry. I deeply believe that the objectivity that is inherent in quantitative study is particularly important in the 21st century if we are to effectively tackle the corrupt politics and economic dependency that plague our region. However, it has been through this very course that I have been able to link the contemporary issues, with which our generation has been confronted, to our colonial history.

Consequently, when this course asked us to carefully examine any story told about the Caribbean’s past we also had to take into consideration the perspective through which the story was told, namely those from Eurocentric sources. With this new understanding that “truth” is perspective-driven, I am now much more aware of the importance of questioning the motives of someone’s actions, particularly those that are supposedly intended to improve lives. Therefore, if I intend on effectively applying my UWI credential upon graduation, I must first have a solid understand of our historical situation before I lend my technical expertise to any developmental agenda.