Dear readers

I've discontinued blogging on this site. Please see my new blog, www.caribbeanprblog.com

Best regards,
Karel

We did great. As a Trini in London I was extremely proud of my guys because they were great. Of course we can do better, and I'm hoping we can do that on Tuesday against Paraguay. Imagine if England beats Sweden and we beat Paraguay 4 nil, we going second round :) If God really is a Trini, we need him now! But I am so proud to be a Soca Warrior, so proud to be a Trinbagonian, and I can hold my head high and smirk at the Brits and hit them a cheeky "you'll not going to win the World Cup anyway"!

I hope that the Soca Warriors don't go home before I do though, I wanna be there to jump up and welcome them with everyone else since I've been denied that honour being here in the dreary cold.

We are the winners, though the result says differently. Ranked number 47 but yet we were competition for a Top Ten team.

England is not going to win this World Cup anyway, and they better start preparing from now to meet us in the next World Cup.

World Cup showdown today. Gooaaal Soca Warriors!

Goal Soca Warriors!!!

I know I haven't been on in a while. I'm busy designing my questionnaire for my research on PR in T&T. That won't stop me from watching the match tomorrow though.

Oh, how I'm hoping for sweet victory.

Fingers crossed and saying some prayers.

Well, today is Indian Arrival Day in Trinidad and Tobago.
So, big up to all d Trinbago Indians and to people like me,
who have a trace of Indian in dem.

The whole idea of Indian Arrival Day got me thinking. In
colonial times Indians came here as indentured labour.
Now, in T&T, multinationals such as Alcoa (the so-not-liked
aluminium company) are bringing in Chinese to work. And it's happening
in other countries too. Planes now replace the ships that brought our ancestors here.

Sounds like indentured labour to me.

Colonialism, back in d day and still much alive today, is evident in
multinationals, evident in some politicians (ah doh wanna say all
ah dem chupid bad) and even some of our own people who in true
capitalist form or chupidity or narrow-mindedness, couldn't care
about true development of the Caribbean and our people, as long as their own pockets are full.

Sounds like neo-colonialism to me.

So I finished Elizabeth Nunez’s Discretion this morning.

The writing is so clear, so supple that one feels for the

protagonist, one feels the suffering he endures for being

separated from his lover. Of course, there’s a twist,

he’s a big-time ambassador with a wife.

An African, he battles with his European, Christian

upbringing that teaches him that one should only

have one wife, but he yearns to have them both

since he does not wish to be without either.

The difference though is that while he can exist

without his wife, his time is torturous without

his lover Marguerite, a Jamaican-born artist

who lives in New York.

Although he stays with his wife, more out of the

need for image and loyalty to her father (the President),

he is not happy with her, no longer sleeps in her bed

and even goes away to his cottage to be alone

quite often. His wife describes him as a zombie,

he can't concentrate, he can't think of anything but

Marguerite, he can’t sleep and when he does he

wakes up sweating from dreams of Marguerite,

and he faces painful waking hours.

Marguerite is equally tortured since on two occasions

she ended the relationship, as she could not deal with

her guilt. Her philosophy is that women will only start

having power when they stop sleeping with other women’s men.

While there are other characters in the novel, they act as

true supporting actors, providing the right setting for this

story.

According to Caryl Phillips, author of Cambridge and

Crossing River, “it’s so rare to read anything that

deals with the Caribbean, Africa, and the United

States in such a seamless way”. I can’t quantify

whether it is indeed rare since I haven’t read

enough novels to consider myself an authority

on the matter, but indeed, as characters dip in

and out of America, Africa or Jamaica, one doesn’t

feel jerked from one scene to the other. They are seamless.

Most, if not all, of Nunez’s books deal with Trinidad and Tobago.

Obviously, although she’s spent many years in the States,

Nunez’s homeland is always on her mind. And even though

Discretion is not based in T&T, she finds a way to mention

it in an expose on the West Indian experience in Brooklyn,

she finds a way to mention the Mighty Sparrow.

The critics were right; Discretion is “a provocative love story”,

“a real page turner” and “a mystical tale about love, passion,

and the choices we make in life”.

For more info on Nunez, check out www.elizabethnunez.com

Within my new hobby of finding anything Caribbean-related,

I'm also using this blog as a sort of journal on my progress

on my research for my dissertation for my Master's in

Corporate Communication. Seems, I never end up

writing in the notebook I bought to use as a journal.

So net junkie like me, I usin d net. Thankfully, I've

finished my research proposal, just to print, bind

and submit it. I'm pretty excited about it. Gonna look

at public relations and corporate social

responsibility in Trinidad and Tobago.

It's a damn shame that there's hardly any research on

PR in the Caribbean. They writing about everywhere

else but the isles of sun, sea and sand. Except for

Dr Juliette Storr, a Bahamian, who did some research

on the use of PR in educating people on HIV and AIDS.

And really, all the PR books are predominantly about

practice in America, the UK and Europe. There is

some research on PR in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

All d Global Public Relations Handbook could say is oh,

we have no research on the Caribbean, but it's important

to learn more about PR in this part of the world since

it can lend new knowledge to international and multicultural PR.

Damn skippy!

So I tink is best for one of us to start the research

instead of some outsider with little understanding of

our cultural, historical, social and political environments

and who though he/ she may become informed to an extent

on the subject will invariably insert some stereotypical views

of the developing world.

Now, I not saying that I don't have my own subjective thoughts.

And obviously my research subjects will have their own views

but I'm gonna present their reality, as they see it, as they

describe it. That way I can claim objectivity be presenting

their objectivity and subjectivity as is.

And to my lecturer who thinks I may be distracted by doing

my dissertation at home and end up liming on the beach instead

of doing my work, doh worry, dis Trini eh stupid. You know how

much pounds I pay just to study and live in jolly (roll eyes) England?


Karel

Well, today marks the birth of my blog and the birth

of another reason for me to spend more ridiculous

hours online. Blogging has always interested me, but I

didn't know if I'd be able to keep up with frequently

updating the site. Additionally, I think that when you

put something "out there", it should add value to people

somehow, that when they're finished reading maybe

they discover something new, perhaps a concept or

just some small piece of information. It shouldn't just be

some self-indulgent expose.

Caribbean literature

These days I'm big on Caribbean literature.

Well, I was always hooked. Since I was like 9/10

I'd be reading Michael Anthony's All that glitters or

The Year in San Fernando. Now, having Amazon deliver

stuff straight to my door, it's lovely, one of the few

things I enjoy about England. Lol. These days I'm

buying Elizabeth Nunez novels like it was fry bake and

smoke herring (Shout out to the Antiguan lady with d

parlour on Charlotte Street who hooked me up before I

ent to work... oh and the snow cone man too).

My first experience of Elizabeth - Beyond the Limbo

Silence, the first novel I read (years ago courtesy UWI's

library) is un-put-downable. So, I thought I'd buy some

more to see how the rest were. Didn't know if I'd have

a Toni Morrison experience. See, Song of Solomon

was great, so I thought I'd check out her other stuff,

but somehow I couldn't read the whole thing, the magic

wasn't there. I don't know what the fuss is 'bout her,

but then when you're Oprah's friend things happen eh.

Anyway, I digress, so yeah Nunex is da bomb. Partly

wanting to see if she'd do a Toni Morrison on me and

partly proud of the fact that this Trini writer is da bomb,

I bought some of her books. I picked up Discretion to

read last night. Talk 'bout a lack of discipline on my part

when I should be studying for a law exam and I had vowed

I would be a virgin to the book until I took my seat on a

Virgin plane to head back to Trinidad, meh mudda land,

meh fadda land, meh brudda land, my land. Well, three

hours later I was already half-way through the book.

Ah force mehself to put it down so I could get some zzz

and not feel mash up today. Ah also force a Nunez on meh

English landlady.

I still have to get Bruised Hibiscus (imagine reading 'bout

Orange Grove and Chaguanas an ting in beautiful prose).

Muah! And I ha to get Prospero's Daughter, her latest.

Was just reading that Nunez is in Jamaica this weekend

for the 2006 Calabash International Literary Festival.

She was in Trinidad during this year's Carnival for another

literary bash. I love it when our writers come home to

exchange ideas and do whatever they do. I not gonna

pretend I know what goes on in those events.

If you want to find out more 'bout her, check out www.elizabethnunez.com

Hey Liz, afta dat plug ah jes gi yuh, send some novels nah.

Anyhoo, enough of my dabbling for the day.

Take care peeps, and thanks for reading my first blog.

Hope you discovered something new.

Karel