Carribbean Politics Essay, Research Paper
Ethnic Affairs of The State
All men are created equal. In the books this statement is valid, but in everyday life we have a long way to go before this becomes more than just a perception. The Caribbean Islands that were once only populated by blacks has now become a white man s world. Whites have forced their ideas on the whole world and just about everyone has accepted them. The actions and words that come from the new inhabitants are the white man s views. This change in cultural politics has brought the style of thinking back to the days right after the abolition of slavery. Cultural politics is the way we, as individuals, act to certain situations in our everyday lives.
The individuals in the Caribbean Islands have been forced to have white man s ideas, but some have adapted freely to these feelings. When the average American goes to a foreign country we expect them to have the same language, attitude, and feelings that we do towards everything. This is why many tourists like to go to the Caribbean. They cater your every need and they will think the way you would like them to think. They are not puppets though; they are all wrapped up in cultural politics. Their actions are controlled by the society that drives them, not the one that makes rules of the land. This makes a big difference because the society that pushes them doesn t always believe in equal rights.
When someone lives in a one-sided world skin is the first thing that is seen. We do not really see people as who they really are, all we see is how someone lives or how someone acts. We assume many things when this happens, for example in Visiting by Roger McTair; Margaret thinks that Eric, a black man, works on the island for the hotel. The mindset of the woman from Canada was He is black so therefore he works in the hotel, what a blinded view of the world. That was a racially prejudiced comment.
The police force in Barbados was mostly made of racist officers. When the police came down to the bar on the beach for a disturbance from a black couple the police really suspect the black man there, Eric. The big American was trying to settle the commotion before the police had to show up. He even told the police that the white man was the one who cause the fracas. The police talked to that man but they were still watching Eric. They did not want to get the white man in trouble because they are more important on the island. They just wanted to blame it on someone that would be easier to be able to put the blame on. This is the main instance where it is apparent that black people are treated differently from everyone else on the island. In some countries the poorer natives treat the tourists differently because they dislike them.
The reaction that the poor natives give the visitors in From a Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid is quite unwelcoming. They are in such poverty that they despise vacationers, because they can travel and see the world while they cannot. This is the same view that Americans have when foreign travelers come and visit America. We always say, Stupid tourists. Why don t they go back home? This view has become the same around the world; it has become part of cultural politics.
Even though the government and storeowners like the money tourist s drop when visiting their country the tourists like them just as much as the flu.
Visitors are the main income for many of these countries in the Caribbean and without the tourists; the islands would not be in the shape that they are in now. The airlines, tour operators, and hotels profit a great deal because the tourism is so high throughout the year in the Caribbean Islands. The local people get jobs at the hotels and employment also goes up, because hotels are constantly being built. Last Resorts: The Cost of Tourism in the Caribbean by Polly Pattullo tells how these aspects of the vacation industry have revolved around the tourists and have built hotels like skyscrapers and for every room that is built a new job is created. The only real thing that outsiders are in control of is the airplane industry; in 1992 foreign airlines controlled three quarters of the flights to the Caribbean. So now it seems like when you go on a vacation to the Caribbean Islands you are really taking a vacation to a luxury hotel in the United States.
The way the world does anything today is to completely change it to fit the needs of ourselves. The Caribbean Islands are a perfect example of this, it is a great vacationing spot, it is always warm, the luxuries remind us of home, and the people are friendly. This friendliness is not real though it is forced upon them. They know what politics is, it is telling the people what they want to hear no matter what. The men and women who work in this tropical paradise are real politicians, they are there to please the masses.