The power of 'dem nuh like we'

by Keith Noel

WHEN VISITING Trinidad, where I was born and raised, I sometimes meet people who ask me "how do you survive in Jamaica, especially as you still have a bit of your Trinidadian accent?" They are incredulous because they assure me that they know for a fact that Jamaicans do not like Trinidadians. Sometimes, when I am at home in Jamaica, when talk about the Caribbean comes up, I am asked to be honest and admit that Trinidadians don't like Jamaicans. Throw Barbados into the mix and it becomes even more interesting. There are Bajans who claim that neither Trinis nor Jamaicans like people from Bimshire!

What I have noticed is that this kind of discussion only comes up when we are talking about cricket, or about CARIFTA. It is in the areas where we compete that this 'dem nuh like we' argument raises its head.

But we hardly hear this 'who nuh like who' argument mentioned when talking about Carnival or about Bob Marley and reggae music - in fact, about anything where one island or the other is clearly the leader. Trinidadians cheer lustily for Asafa Powell, V.C. Brown and Usain Bolt. Many Trini track fans, like many Jamaicans, were delighted when Bolt won the Olympic Gold, even though it was the Trinidadian Thompson who got the silver medal; and they were almost as disappointed as we were when neither of the Jamaican women won the 400 metres hurdles in Daegu.

Unity outside of region

Our regionalism, based on our common history, is a positive and almost 'natural' thing. So, it's understandable when, during the Olympics or any major sporting event, we in the Caribbean look out for each other. When the athletes lined up for the finals in the sprints in Beijing, Berlin and Daegu, we not only wanted the athlete from our country to win, we wanted the other islands to feature as well. So we in Jamaica wanted the Trinis, the Grenadians, the Bahamians, the Bajans, the guy from the Netherland Antilles and even 'Superman' from the Dominican Republic and Culson from Puerto Rico, to do well. When Jamaica went to the football World Cup, most Caribbean people wished them well, and when Trinidad went, most of us in Jamaica wanted them to be able to hold their heads high.

Why then, do we still hear the 'dem nuh like we' argument when we are talking cricket? Or when we talk about the 'unfair' trade balance between the islands? Could it be that this fire is only stoked by persons with a vested interest? Luckily, the fire stokers have not really been able to stir up much heat.

This feeling that we belong to a region, that it is not really 'them against us', has possibly served us in the Caribbean well. It probably serves all small nations well. I mean, think of what the idea of being 'alone at the top' has done to the psyche of the American people.

Disliking america

In America, a country many of us justifiably admire, there are industries that have been built on the idea that there are millions of people 'out there' who hate what America stands for and who despise the 'American way of life'. One problem of American education is that it tries to teach its young to search for the truth but, at the same time, fosters an irrational distrust and hatred for persons seen as 'the other'. For a time, it was the Germans who were hateful, then it was the Godless communist Russians and Chinese. Then the terrible Vietnamese. Now the American has a new enemy - Islam. This religion is now, for many, the work of the devil and many Muslim countries, and groups of activists are defined as 'hating the American way of life and everything America stands for'.

There is an entire billion-dollar industry in the US which exists because the American people are made to think that there are millions of hateful people 'out there' who 'nuh like dem' and are waiting to put an end to 'their way of life'.

Keith Noel is an educator. Email comments to columns@gleanerjm.com.