Globalization has contributed significantly to unemployment in the Caribbean with the removal of the trade barriers some industries has not been able to complete globally, the lack of adequate skills workers that required for new industrial ,the lack of investment to create new business after the closing down of multinational firms.

There are nine Caribbean countries that has the highest unemployment rate to the lowest

  Refer to figure 1: Pie Chart Showing Unemployment in the Caribbean Region

Carnival is a festival which is celebrated in Trinidad and Tobago and even the Caribbean as a whole, celebrates it on a yearly basis. It’s an ebullient celebration of life, colour and artistry. This festival was dated back to the 18^th century, after the Emancipation of slaves in 1838 which was then called Canboulay. It symbolizes the freedom and defiance. 

This genesis of Carnival has been attributed to the influx of French settlers who came with a large number of slaves whose masking and mimicry merged overtime with stick fighting and music accompanied by chanting and drumming in the streets. Today the festival found a home on Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday.

J’ouvert  also known as Jouvay, it is the dance from dust to light through the streets of towns early on Carnival Monday which indicates the opening of Carnival. Ole mas is an essential part of J’ouvert, it is a street theatre, these Carnival costumes includes: Pis-en-lit, is a person who walks around in nightgown waving a chamber pot or Dame Lorraine, a man in a dress with enormously stuffed bosom and bottom, blue devils (a person who paints himself or herself in blue), midnight robber (all in black with a large hat and a whistle) Indians and jab jabs. Ole mas competition portrays the masqueraders with often incongruously composed and cryptically elaborated by a satirical placard usually of social and political topics against each other to win a prize. 

Today’s Carnival costume replaces the traditional costumes with Brazilian style costume of beads and feathers. This mass band starts around 11 a.m., where everyone follows a specific route, passing before judging posts, where every ethnic group of all shape, size and colour, play themselves along the side of the truck to the most popular tune for the season. 

Music that plays on the streets on Carnival Mondays and Tuesdays are called Calypso and Soca. Calypso is an indigenous Trinidadian music with roots in West African songs of praise and mockery and strongly influenced by Calinda. Soca is a modern form of calypso with an up-tempo beat and an irresistible rhythm and melody. The steel pan which is made from oil drums which creates some of the most beautiful music in the world. 

I strongly believe that Carnival has continued to foster great relationships and friendships between the different classes such as poor, middle and rich, it also strengthens the relationship between the ethnic groups not only within my country, but within the Caribbean region as a whole by collaborating of songs, arts and even bands to become a united island.

My religion is called the shouter Baptist. I live in the southern part of Trinidad which is called Ste Madeleine, my ancestors use to work in the Usine Ste Madeleine sugar factory however after Emancipation they continue dwell in that area, it is made up of eighty percent African, and with in my community there are eight Baptist churches.

 The shouter Baptist also called the Spiritual Baptist has been suppressed by the great British colonial for many decades. Many of these churches were named after tribal groups such as Yoruba, Ibo, Dahomey, Mandingo, Congo and Rada to name a few. 

During the years of slavery in the Caribbean the African slaves had a need to maintain their spiritual health in order to cope with the terrible conditions they lived in. The Europeans tried to Christianize them but many Africans brought their own powerful belief structure into the equation.

Many of our fathers and brothers in the faith who fight for the freedom for us to worship today, has endured hardship and also suffer after 1917  example: Teacher Patrick of Sande Grande had to serve three months in prison for conduction baptism by a river, Leader Roach earned himself the name brave boy for preaching at the street corner in spite of rotten eggs being pelt at him ,Leader Harold Lackeye was put into prison for six month for preaching and then put on bond ,Leader Smith of Roxborough was beaten and arrested for conducting a baptism and lastly Pastor Guiton of Tunapuna was raided several times and had to pay a fine

The Spiritual Baptist or  Shaker’s had been banned from worship in countries such as St. Vincent, in 1913 which was then introduced to other neighboring islands.  According to Sir Henry Gollam, “It was an unmitigated nuisance and a shouter meeting would make the neighborhood where it took place unfit for resident occupation” why?   The chanting of songs, dancing to the beat of drums, shaking with the Holy Spirit, ringing of the bell, lighting of the candles, and speaking in an unnamed tongue just to name few. 

Today the Spiritual Baptist (shakers) or Shouter Baptist has find a place in society, on the 30^th of March, Trinidad and Tobago celebrates The Spiritual Baptist Liberation Day. Thanks to my forefathers who has endured many hardships and sufferings so that I can walk down the street today in my spiritual clothes and not be ridicule or stand on the street corner with my church members preaching the gospel without the fear of being arrested. The lesson I learned from this, is to never give up on what you believe in spite of trials and tribulation. 

Salbury, Ken. "Still, The Greatest Show On Earth: Trinidad Carnival 2017." YouTube. N.p., 15 Mar. 2017. Web. 13 July 2017.

Shared Hope International. "Undercover Jamaica Child Sex Trafficking Sting Video." YouTube. N.p., 10 Nov. 2008. Web. 13 July 2017.

"The Birth & Evolution of Trinidad Carnival." Discover Trinidad & Tobago Travel Guide. Mep, 02 Mar. 2017. Web. 13 July 2017.

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 During classes there were a number of topics that stood out in my mind. Firstly, chattel slavery. They had been through the most barbaric atrocities done to African slaves for over four hundred years of slavery.
 For example: 
The Zong massacre,  captain Collingwood and his crew killed 133 slaves in November 1781,  by throwing them overboard instead of giving them medical assistance or drinking water.

Secondly, the British, French, Portuguese, and the Spaniard, they all took free African people and made them into properties that can be bought and sold without impunity.  As property, they have no rights, daily floggings and possible mutilation and death.

Thirdly, some of the barbaric punishments is one of which Thomas Thistlewood, a slave owner, incurred to the slave is called the Derby’s Dose (a torture) use in Jamaica, if a slave who tries to escape or commit offenses such as stealing a sugar cane stalk, you will be beaten and salt pickle, lime juice and bird pepper would be rub into his\her open wounds or he would have another slave defecate into the mouth of miscreant, who would then be gagged for four to five hours.

After Emancipation, we see that these slave owners demanded compensation for loss of wages for the slave being freed which cost the government billions of dollars. These British slave owners invested their money to create an empire called Great Britain,  from the 'backs' of African slaves.

I still believe that the African people in the 20^th century still has not been fully accepted into society as a ‘bonify’ human race. Some of us need to emancipate our mind and the rest of us need to educate our self about our heritage. Once there is a coming together as one, then I believe we will get recognition and compensation as we deserved.

 

The silent crime of the Caribbean is called human trafficking.

Human trafficking/ Sex trafficking is the term use for the act of recruiting, harbouring, transporting, providing or obtaining a person for commencing sex act through the use of force, fraud or coercion within boards. There are 16 Caribbean Countries who tolerated this type of silent crime: Dominican Republic, Aruba, Cuba, Barbados, Curacao, Guyana, Jamaica, St Lucia, St Vincent & the Grenadines, Trinidad &Tobago, Antigua & Barbuda and St Maarten. 

Throughout the investigation it is said that the countries is consider a great source, destination and transit region  were women, men (mostly from LGBT) and children are taken.

 What is heart rendering is that many of these children are coerced into prostitution often occurred through parents, uncle , aunts or caregivers  pushing their children to provide sexual favor to older men for exchange for money , school fees and gifts.

 Another way is when youths seek employment, trafficker’s use fraudulent practices such as advertisement for foreign jobs. When they arrived to their destination, a taking away of their passports and restricting their movements and force them into prostitution/exotic dancing.

At risk children are those works in  the informal sector such as street vending or shops as well as those who beg on the streets.

Many of these government have not made progress in proactively identifying and assessing suspected trafficking victims or even prosecuting the traffic offenders. The laws are weak to hold trafficking offenders accountable and because of that, there is significant lack of enforcement and punishment.