January 23 Blog Post - Makayla, Aleema, Bri


                        January 23 Blog Post!!

Today, we all went to our last UWI lecture for our first week taking classes at the university. We also joined a class called Cinema and Gender that discusses important themes that are relevant to the diaspora of Caribbean/Trinidadian identity.

 

Prior to our class discussion, we were able to enjoy lunch at the Tea House on UWI’s main campus (picture above). In class, we discussed important themes that relate to Trinidadian nationalism and its interaction for Indo-Trinidadians to Indian nationalism, particularly at a time when India gained its independence from Britain. Another important topic was the relationship between media, resistance, and oppression. It is interesting to examine how historically media has been used to perpetuate stereotypes and reframe history to better serve a colonial narrative. In contrast, it was admirable to see how despite the dominant media reflecting oppressive perspectives, there was a lot of resistance and hidden messages shared that aimed to lessen the impact of misconstrued histories. 




Artwork from Noir! A coffee shop we often go to before class. 


This week we all went through many exciting changes such as our first days of class, navigating a new campus and finding spaces on campus to de-stress and acclimate to our new school. We also had many interesting discussions in class examining race in Tobago and how the multi-ethnic population comes from a diaspora of people attempting to create a home in a new place while trying to preserve their culture. The text that we covered this week dove into the experiences of different ethnicities and how they were able to unify under nationalism in order to fight colonialism. Despite these ethnic and racial divisions being able to unify under nationalism there are times when these divisions are still apparent such as in politics which draws on these divisions even more so than ideological opinions. The complexity of Trinidad & Tobago lies in its racial divisions but also acceptance of diversity and cultural backgrounds. Through art forms such as Calypso and Carnival people are able to gather for the celebration of Trinidadian culture.  


Additionally, it was interesting when attending a UWI Heritage tourism class as it related to the text we covered  the week prior. The Heritage tourism class made many parallels to the text, for instance even in the introduction of the class the professor recognized the poly-ethnic background of the nation and how that contributed to many different peoples with different racial backgrounds unifying and gathering under one flag. However the professor also tied in imperialism and the aspect tourism plays in Trinidad and Tobago's nationhood. Heritage tourism more specifically allows Trinidad and Tobago to make revenue that recirculates through regional areas so the wealth goes back into T&T’s economy. It’s a complex issue though when profiting off of heritage tourism means making spaces more palatable for foreigners. Already we have learned so much and have invested a lot into taking a deep dive in our respective courses:) 


 Overall, this week has been one very busy yet fun and insightful one and we all look forward to the school year ahead of us.     


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