An Introduction To Caribbean
The Caribbean has been faced with many circumstances in the past which has greatly influenced the actions and situations currently occurring in the various destinations within the region. Caribbean nationals have developed in their respective islands, a particular culture. Each culture is unique to the respective island based on historical events that occurred. This includes the previous leadership for the particular island as well as the issues and even achievements faced/ acquired by that island. The Caribbean has been governed by the French, Spanish and British and also endured the effects of colonialism and due to its past, the Caribbean now exhibits particular behaviours in society at present when pertaining to certain aspects of life. These will be analysed under the headings: Mistrust and Intolerance. Is the Caribbean governed by grave mistrust and intolerance?
What is Intolerance and how is it seen in the Caribbean today?
Intolerance refers to the unwillingness to accept and allow particular behaviours or concept in a society. A major example for intolerance by society within the Caribbean is the topic of sexuality. This can be broken down into many aspects such as an individual’s sexual preference or even gender roles. Expanding on sexual preference we have the most common topic at present, Homosexuality. This comes in to play due to many factors such as the religious belief of the society. The Caribbean is a diverse region in many areas, one of which is religion. It is made up of many different belief systems such as Catholicism, Hinduism, Judaism and Rastafarianism and so much more. These religions came about due to the many different groups of individuals that came to the Caribbean in the past. These include the British, Spanish, French even the East Indian Indentured Labourers and individuals of the slave trade. All of these individuals have a contribution toward the various religions that exist throughout the Caribbean. That being said, it is seen that the most dominant religion in the Caribbean has been proven to be Christianity which makes up almost 95% of Dominican Republic and even Guadeloupe. This is due to the territories which were controlled or had leadership that were of Christian belief (Spanish, French). The main belief system from these groups of Europeans was Roman Catholicism. Hence this belief was passed on to the persons in those particular territories. Due to the prevalence of the Christian belief, this has driven the high level of intolerance in the Caribbean for particular disruptions to traditional sexuality conducts. Within the Christian belief system, God made Adam and Eve as the first people to walk the earth. They were made and in the Bible it is stated to be fruitful and they were to multiply. Now Christians take this particular event in the Bible to mean that God created all humans, man for woman and not woman for woman nor man for man. Also, the bible mentioned multiplying which basically means to reproduce and as it turns out this requires a man and woman to be fulfilled. Hence Christians are totally against the idea of homosexuality. There is also an account in the bible referencing a city being completely destroyed by God for indulging in such behaviour. All of this has a huge impact on the way in which most of the Caribbean society respond to homosexual behaviour, as well as the newly formed social group known as the LGBTQIA.. group. This is a group of individuals who fall under the homosexual category with respect to their sexual orientation as well as other forms of sexual preferences etc. They contain activists who try their best to gain “equality” in society. The need for this group is as a result of the intolerance for their lifestyle. Expanding on that statement we have particular actions taken against individuals who fall into this category such as: belittling, isolation, physical abuse and so much more. Some persons decide to get physical toward individuals who are a part of this group since they totally disagree with the lifestyle they are indulging in. Also, many persons criticise members of the group and make their life challenging. This is done by physically abusing them, bullying of all forms, unfair treatment etc. This has reached so far as to some people not being willing to hire individuals due to this sexual preference. Apart from religious beliefs, some Caribbean nationals don’t agree with such lifestyle out of their own “morals and values”. This sort of ties into the Christian belief but it isn’t necessarily rooted in that belief system. Their argument is such that “in order to create another human being you require male and female hence if it is morally correct for homosexual behaviour then what our purpose in life is? Why are there male and female? If it was okay then there would only be 1 gender found on the earth.” These are some of the comments made over the years concerning the topic. In some countries there are also legislation against acts conducted between individuals of said group. This has stirred up an uproar in the community which was also one of the incentives to creating the group and pushing their fight against “discrimination” and mistreatment. Hence, with respect to this aspect of society it is seen that the Caribbean is governed by grave intolerance toward the change in traditional sexuality and its aspects.
What is Mistrust and how is it seen in the Caribbean today?
Mistrust, you say? It’s very self explanatory. This is where trust is not found in a particular person, idea or thing and in this case ideal. It involves disagreement with a particular idea brought to the forefront or even an action conducted. Although not commonly spoken of or noticed, mistrust of the higher authorities and by extension European leaders is present amongst Caribbean nationals. This tie back to the Europeans being in control of many territories in the Caribbean in the past where they had the say to the way in which things operated. Individuals are afraid of returning back to such a state where they were unable to govern themselves. Due to this “fear”, they try their best to maintain a proper order when it comes to conducting the affairs of their respective countries. They always try to reduce the amount of involvement from outside or foreign countries. This is because of inability to handle a replay of control that occurred in the past. Also, Caribbean nationals as seen in Trinidad and Tobago, have a high level of mistrust toward their government. Their political leaders and those in authority with respect to running the country as need be. The citizens of this country have no trust or little trust in the government in power. This is seen no matter which political party takes over. There is always uproar on the steps taken by that political party in efforts to solve any issue or even efforts to make living in the country a little better. It can be said that this mistrust in leadership has been carried throughout the years from since slavery days up until present. Back then they had no say, they were forced to endure whatever the leadership at the time issued to be law etc. Now, they have some input but yet they still don’t have that level of trust in the government elected by they themselves.
Is it really governed by these two factors?
As seen above, the intolerance for particular behaviours is high but when it comes to mistrust it’s just a little bit. It can be said that the Caribbean is governed by mistrust and intolerance at all levels depending on the criteria at hand.
Caribbean Mistrust And Intolerance 