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In the short video the novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding. From her own writing as a child containing only blue-eyed children playing in snow though she had never seen snow herself and even we as Caribbean people don’t experience snow, she thought that because she read books about characters which were foreign she was convinced that books by that very nature had to have foreigners in and had to be about things that she herself could not have identify. She therefore changed her perspective   and started writing about things she knew about and experienced.

Many Caribbean people like Adichie tend be curious about the European culture and tend to follow it, not knowing that is never a single story about any one place, so we always need not to read different versions of the same single story. Also, I learnt that we shouldn’t judge people just on what we’ve heard about them because sometimes they cannot control situations they’re in and most times are born into it like much of the poverty withing the Caribbean , we need to appreciate the value of completely knowing a person and where they come from. Also, we should stop subconsciously profiling people based on race or ethnicity and religion, even though  we can still see the fight being present to this day in Caribbean societies. In the video we can see the concept of Media usually only giving us one impression of a country (ex. Africa or the Caribbean = poverty; America/Europe = wealthy, white families). That is the consequence of the single story about a person, place, or issue. A single story also robs people of self-respect and does not highlights how different people are.  By engaging with all the stories of a person, place, or issue, the trap of a single story can be avoided.The video also thought me that "Whatever you put your heart to no matter where you came from , if you work hard enough, you can do it and you can reach places ," "You owe a certain amount of positivity to other human beings and don't forget to try to help others along the way" .Everyone is different but everyone has a purpose.

The Song lyrics below tells us how to be yourself and not try to be anything you're not

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Nico & Vinz - Am I Wrong [Official Music Video]

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With recent debates about child marriage in the Caribbean Approximately 29% of girls in the Caribbean were married before their 18th birthday, consequential in what representatives from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) feel is a human rights violation that needs to be urgently addressed by regional leaders. There are various reasons to why child marriages are illegal the girls are not ready emotionally, mentally and physically for sex and even bare children.

Conferring to the Caribbean Civilization course child marriage has been a tradition of the past and so has and impact today. This tradition is highly dominant with the Hindu, Orisha and Islam religion.

Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana were highlighted as countries where most adolescent marriages are prominent. I believe that it should be illegal for grown men to be wanting sexual encounters with girls under the age of 18 with or without consent. Family alongside education plays and important role in preventing these marriages because development starts at the household and furthers at school according to the course. Therefore, family and education play an important role when it comes to child marriage.

The video below shows the debate in the senate about child marriage.

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Debate On Child Marriage Opens In Senate, AG Reveals Over 160 Girls Impregnated In 2016

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Attorney General Faris Al Rawi revealed that over 160 girls between the ages 12 and 16 were impregnated in this country last year.

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"We are Girls, Not Brides": the anthem to end child marriage

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In February 2016, the Girls Not Brides team headed out to Zambia to film "We are Girls, Not Brides", a two-minute music video about ending child marriage. The song was written, composed and sung by a group of talented young girls from Lusaka Girls School, who take part in a girls' empowerment club run by Girls Not Brides member Continuity Zambia.

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Hindu child marriages do not exist in T&T anymore, secretary general of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha Sat Maharaj said yesterday, as he dared Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi to bring statistics over the past two years to support his case.

Maharaj said society had changed and there were no child brides in T&T over the past two years.

Following a meeting with the heads of 17 religious bodies and civil society groups on Wednesday, Al-Rawi gave statistics that showed 328 Hindu minors, 103 Muslim minors, and 117 other minors were wed under a Christian civil marriage union between 2006 to 2014.

Al-Rawi also showed statistics which revealed an upward trend of sexual offences against females under age 14 and 16, as well as an increase in underage marriages.

However, in a telephone interview yesterday, Maharaj said his information was that between 2014 to 2016, no Hindu children were married in T&T.

Asked to define children, Maharaj said: "Listen... hello, hello! I said we do not have child brides. We may have teenage brides but no child brides."

He reiterated that he was not in support of any changes being made to the Marriage Act which allows Hindu girls to be married from the age of 14.

He also said he was suspicious of a newspaper report yesterday which highlighted the plight of 44-year-old Maria Jadoo-Villafana, who said her whole life was messed up after she was forced to marry under Hindu rites at the age of nine.

Jadoo-Villafana said she met her husband at age five, was married at age nine, pregnant by age 11 and suffered extreme physical abuse at the hands of her husband.

However, Maharaj said he felt the story was a bogus one.

"The custom (of marrying children) has changed since 1945. If you get married, you get married at 14 years and over. When you run a story, why did you not ask who is the pundit? Was he a licensed marriage officer? No credibility," he explained.

He said marrying two teenagers with parental consent had nothing to do with Hinduism.

"There is no Hindu child marriage in T&T. There is Hindu teenage marriage. There are no local pictures to support that child marriage is taking place. They are picking up pictures of this outside of T&T on the Internet."

He added: "In any event, the society is correcting itself and over the last two years we had no such marriage. We are asking the AG for specific figures. Tell us how many Hindu child marriages take place over the last two years. None!

"There was a time when society didn't send girls to school. Today our girls are dominating UWI. Likewise, the society is correcting itself so we don't have children being married."

More varying views on topic

Meanwhile, founder and chairman of Muslim group, Caribbean Hajj, Zabar Mohammed-Baksh, said his organisation was not in favour of child marriages but did not want to get embroiled in a controversy with Maharaj.

"I don't want it to be a Hindu/Muslim conflict. My personal opinion is I consider it an abuse of children to force them into marriage when they are not prepared for marriage," Mohammed-Baksh said.

He added that under Islam women have more rights than men and they should be respected.

"If someone says they don't want to marry, then they should not have to marry. That is not in keeping with Islamic principles and human freedom. It is not something that should be on our legislation. God has given women rights under Islam, but unfortunately because of customs women are exploited," he said.

He added that even in the Muslim world women were robbed of their rights.

Past Trinidad Muslim League president, Dr Nasser Mustapha, meanwhile said according to Islam, "under no condition must someone be coerced into marriage, especially with someone to whom she is not attracted or with whom she is not compatible.

"There are also the spiritual, economic and social dimensions that must be considered," Mustapha added.

He explained: "Is the female physically, physiologically and psychologically prepared to be a mother, wife or homemaker? These conditions are not met in almost all cases in our society. In fact, there are many persons in our society who may not be prepared for marriage even at age 20."

Mustapha said while he did not support a marriage age of 12 years, he believes it "should be permitted in the 1 in 100,000 instances where it may be necessary. The law should reflect the parties' preparedness (physical, emotional, et cetera).

As such, if parties do not meet the requirements marriage should not be allowed. Marriage is a contract with rights and obligations that depend on many variables other than age," he added.

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Hindu child marriages do not exist in T&T anymore, secretary general of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha Sat Maharaj said yesterday, as he dared Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi to bring statistics over the past two years to support his case. Maharaj said society had changed and there were no child brides in T&T over the past two years.

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The CARICOM free movement started in the 1989 Grand Anse Declaration, free movement of skills involves the right to seek employment in any Member State and the removal of the need for work permits and permits of stay. Liberty of movement within the Caribbean Community, focus to such exemptions and qualifications as may be authorised by national law and which are rationally reasonable in a free and self-governing society".

The Consultation decided to implement free movement of skills in a phased approach, but the final goal is free movement for all. Classification of Categories for free movement of skills Graduates are persons who have attained at least a Bachelor's Degree from a recognised university. Media Persons are persons whose primary foundation of income that is drawn from media and media-related work. Artists are persons who are active in or competent to enter a specific field of art with the specific purpose to earn a living. Musicians are persons who are active in or qualified to enter a field of music with the specific purpose to earn a living. Sports persons are persons who are active in or qualified to enter a field of sports with the specific purpose to earn a living as a specialized or semi-professional. Free Movement of University Graduates: In July 1995 the Conference of Heads of Government agreed that, with effect from January 1996, CARICOM Nationals, who are University Graduates, should be allowed to move freely in the Region for work purposes, thereby eliminating the need for work permits and permits of stay. To operationalise this mandate Member States had to complete many legal steps, such as enacting and declaring legislation.Therefore CARICOM has made it easy for all Caribbean countries to be connected and acquire great opportunities.

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By doing Caribbean Studies and sitting in in History classes for CAPE , this course was familiar in numerous ways I thought that I don’t need this ”Can I be exempted from this course ”. The assignments were a bit on the difficult side especially the quiz at first, but after fully understanding and putting them into action, it was very enjoyable. A lot more was learnt of Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean as a region by doing this course which gave me the ability to fully appreciate Caribbean history for what it is.

Additionally, the convenience of face to face tutorials and being able to choose whether you preferred to do them online or in class were fantastic although the face to face ones with my lecturer Miss Alexander was the best even though my group always fell short of answering the questions and Miss Alexander answering basically the entire question for us but we still managed to get an applause which made it so hysterical . The online lectures were not particularly enjoyable as there were a few interruptions. "Blackboard collaborate" were a bit frustrating the first few times. Trying to figure out how to operate it reaching home from class at 7 only to watch the last hour of the lecture was a task. As a result, I along with many persons had to wait a while for the recorded session.

Moreover, the topics Slavery, Religion and Gender were truly intriguing being an Anglican, a woman, and having African slave and Indian indentured laboured ancestors. Secondly, learning the perception of civilization was interesting, as most people had a definition in mind, rather than its cavernous and true meaning. Unit 3- 6 were the most informative topics of how the Caribbean was moulded and distinguished. Overall, the entire course was brilliant and an awesome eye opener.
Thus, FOUN 1011 was emerging in terms of understanding and learning about Caribbean Identity. This course is vital to all students, especially to those of the Caribbean. It will absolutely benefit persons in future years, career wise and personally and hopefully they can share their knowledge to those outsides of the Caribbean who are willing to learn.

The Song below tells us about the different cultures coming together as one

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Uploaded by Caribbean Vibez on 2016-01-09.