Nora is Here!

Nora arrived in Barbados today for a week-long visit.  It is great to have her here and we are planning on doing som fun activities.  Stay tuned for updates on our adventues and perhaps the stray blog post from Nora herself (I am going to see if I can press her into blogging duty again...).

Almost Done!

Yesterday I handed in my last assignment until my one and only final on May 11th.  The semester is almost over!!  After my final I have just one more paper due on June 3rd and a class that runs from June 15th-30th before I am officially finished with classes at UWI.  CAN'T WAIT!

Last night my friends and I celebrated being done with classes for the semester by going out to a bar and today we went to a beach I had never been to: Brandon's beach, which is a bit of a walk from where I live but totally worth it.  It's a large beach with soft sand and was relatively unpopulated today.  There are also life guards which is good cause it makes leaving your stuff on the beach while you go swimming a lot safer.

So that's basically all that's new with me.  Classes are over for the semester and it's time to relax for a bit before I have to study for finals.

My Group Project Nightmare

The reason I haven't posted in a while is because I've been busy with school work.  The chief culprit has been a nightmare of a group project for my Sustainable Tourism class.  Basically, this project fits every stereotype of group projects: absentee members, shoddy work from partners, unequal burden sharing, etc.  The result is that I am left to write the majority of our paper despite having three "partners."  In short, the experience has been exactly like this commercial:

I can't wait till this project is over!  Just a few more days.

Good New Bajan Band

The other day my friend Stefanie introduced me to a new rock bank from Barbados called Threads of Scarlet.  Their sound is nothing original, but the music is still very good and tightly played.  I was particularly excited to find a Caribbean rock band as I am growing increasingly tired of Dancehall, Soca, and U.S. pop/rap.  No one listens to rock n' roll anymore (when was the last time a rock song was #1 in the U.S.?) and it makes me sad!  Anyway, I if you guys are interested I recommend you check out their album, which is called "Katharsis."  Here is a video of them playing live in Barbados from a couple weeks ago.  It's not the best quality footage, but you get the idea.

Jamaica Swaggers, Barbados Strolls

Yesterday in my Regional Integration and Development class, the professor spoke about how upon landing in Jamaica, one immediately feels in the heart of the Caribbean, a feeling one does not get upon landing in other Caribbean countries.  Based off my few days in Jamaica, I completely agree with this statement.  Jamaicans have a confidence and pride in who they are, their culture, their industry, etc that makes them walk tall.  They are Caribbean and proud of it.  They are loud and extroverted; cultural imperialists yet absorbers of almost every culture on earth.  In short, Jamaica, despite its diversity, seems to be extremely confident of its identity.  In fact, Jamaican identity is so strong that it is an integral part of their development strategy - the question of how to use "brand Jamaica" is discussed in all aspects of their economy. 

Contrast this to Barbados.  If Jamaica walks tall with a swagger, Barbados ambles along quietly.    Whereas Jamaica is confident of its culture and identity, Barbados is unsure of who it is.  Whereas Jamaicans can point to Bob Marley and Reggae, Rastafari, Jerk Chicken, Dancehall, and Usain Bolt as anchors of their identity, Barbadians can point to little other than Rihanna and perhaps, flying fish.  More than once, the question of a "Barbadian Identity" has come up in my classes.  Typically the question is phrased as such: If you had to advertise your country with just a few pictures, what would you choose?  In the case of Jamaica it could choose any of the cultural icons mentioned above.  Barbados....not much.  Banks beer is essentially unknown outside of Barbados.  Bajans eat way more pork and chicken than flying fish.  Half the population finds Rihanna's overt sexuality repulsive.  Even Bajans admit they wouldn't know what to put in the advertisement.  Suggestions of sun, beaches, and babes are valid but not unique - those things could represent any of the Caribbean countries.  Simply put, Barbados lacks a definitive identity beyond being conservative and the most "British" of all the Caribbean countries.

Of course some would argue this is one of the advantages of Barbados.  With no set culture or identity Bajans are free to be themselves more than citizens of other Caribbean islands.  This in turn breeds relative tolerance, diversity, and a pragmatic outlook.  Why is Barbados relatively developed compared to the rest of the Caribbean?  Some would say it is due to this laid back, non-domineering, and insecure society.  Whereas Jamaica feels no need to prove itself, Barbados does.  This need drives Bajans to be productive and down-to-earth, two qualities that have done well for Barbados.