This is our creative analysis of the way in which corruption is expedited by crime and how this contributes to mistrust within the Caribbean. Click here to view.

Where do we start?

What steps do we take?

It’s easier said than done, to learn to trust and tolerate

Unity lives in the mind, but reality is what we need

A place where dreads could live without brutality and be able to plant their seeds

Their lives were ruined by the Dread Act when rastas they sought to kill

For what? A simple mentality that a different belief should be made still

It showed just how different we all were and how hard it was to trust

Building a Caribbean identity would be beneficial to all of us

But, where do we start?

What steps do we take?

It’s easier said than done, to learn to trust and tolerate

Ha, at least we did try

To create unity and to prevent insularity

Once again it failed, the Federation was to no avail

Time and time it was proven that the Isles were on their own

Too many believed in only themselves which is why a Caribbean identity is not known

What did this cause?

A build up of mistrust between the states

All hope was lost

Living with a history of mistrust and intolerance might just be our fate

So, where do we start?

What steps do we take?

It’s easier said than done, to learn to trust and tolerate.

-Yashika Salmon

Politics.

Poli-ticks.

Poli-tricks.

Neatly pressed suits sprouting soft-spoken lyrics,

It’s all part of the gimmicks.

Fooling you,

Fooling me,

They have lost our trust.

Can’t they see how great we’d be

If they weren’t so unjust?

Pretty smiles for the camera,

As they ruin the diaspora,

How could we trust you

When corruption’s all you brew?

Our point of view you misconstrue,

Your explanations, they’re too few

And don’t seem to be true.

Congratulations!

On your big debut

Hello corruption

Politics

Poli-ticks

Poli-tricks

Trust.

The assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something.

Welcome to the Caribbean

No, trust does not reside here.

-Dacia Reid

The Caribbean today is characterized by grave intolerance and mistrust at all levels. Intolerance is an unwillingness or refusal to tolerate or respect opinions or beliefs contrary to one’s own (Cambridge). Mistrust means having doubts about the honesty or abilities of someone (Cambridge). The state of our society today is as a result of our historical experiences and is influenced by our concept of identity.

Historically, we were exposed to the intolerance of the whites. This did not help to nurture an environment of inclusivity and bred mistrust. The discrimination we faced has left mental scars that cannot be eradicated in such a short period of time. Hence, the Caribbean people have learnt, under the tutelage of our colonizers and thereafter, our ancestors, to mistrust government or authority figures and to be intolerant of all forms of social control.

As a result of this, Caribbean people have developed stereotypes, prejudices and homophobic attitudes. We have even adopted colourism among ourselves after being psychologically attacked by racism for centuries. Colourism is prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone, typically among people of the same ethnic or racial group (Oxford). In addition to developing these negative attitudes, the enslaved were also taught violence as a form of social control and hence, many of these attitudes have led to violent interactions. In 2018, aspiring Jamaican entertainer France Nooks was murdered during a dispute over $100 JMD. (Francis, 2018) This story demonstrates the gravity of the unfortunate predicament we’ve found ourselves in.

To conclude, the manifestation of crime in the Caribbean as a result of intolerance and mistrust can be traced back to our shared colonial history. Enslavement has had psychological and social impacts on persons within the Caribbean and plays an integral role in defining Caribbean identity.

-Dacia Reid

“Men build too many walls and not enough bridges” This quote by Joseph Fort Newton encapsulates the way in which Caribbean today is characterize by grave intolerance and mistrust at all levels. The Caribbean as a region is not the most trusting or tolerant place for people of differing beliefs and lifestyles which seems to conflict with the image most persons outside of the region have. To those outside the Caribbean is a tropical paradise where all its people sit on nice sandy beaches and get along well with each other but unfortunately that is just a facade created to attract tourists. The truth is that there is mistrust among Caribbean people and a level of intolerance that renders civility and respect almost nonexistent.

Countries of the Caribbean share a common ancestry, geographic location and history. What reason would persons of the Caribbean have to mistrust their own people? Let us examine the case of Sonya King and her infant son who learned that answer the hard way. “I always hear people talk bad about Barbados immigration system, but we have a saying in Jamaica that ‘puss and dog don’t have the same luck’, so I put the negative behind me and pursued the trip,” King related to the Observer in an interview. (Observer 2016). Miss. King went on to describe the sense of hostility she felt the moment the immigration officer viewed her passport and heard her accent. This is where her ordeal began. She was denied entry into the country without a valid reason, was forced to sleep on a dirty mattress and her luggage was confiscated, leaving her unable to change her infant’s diapers. One could argue that this is a rare occurrence, however, Jamaicans and Guyanese nationals have, for years, complained that they have been singled out for harsh treatment whenever they arrive in Barbados.

One of the most notable forms of intolerance in the Caribbean is the treatment of the LGBT community. High levels homophobia are shared among most Caribbean nationals when certain laws such as Jamaica’s anti-sodomy or “buggery” laws that prohibit same-sex conduct between consenting adult males, are discussed. This law was created in 1864 when Jamaica was still a British colony. Sections 76 and 77 of the Offences Against the Person Act make “the abominable crime of buggery” punishable by “imprisonment and hard labor for a maximum of ten years,” (Human Rights Watch, 2014). These laws coupled with homophobic culture of the Caribbean has created a society where members of the LGBT community are often attacked and denied employment. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Caribbean face “intolerable levels of violence and cannot rely on the police for protection”. (BBC, 2014)

-Izett Hope

The Caribbean has encountered a  great deal of mistrust and intolerance over the past years in many shapes and forms. Over the past five (5) years Jamaica has taken center stage with the performance of the famous “Lottery Scamming”.  The US embassy in Jamaica has issued a public announcement asking US citizens to be aware:

“The American Citizen Services section in Kingston receives frequent inquiries from citizens who have been defrauded for hundreds and even thousands of dollars by Advance Fee Fraud scammers in Jamaica. The most prevalent in Jamaica is the lottery scam, where scammers lead victims to believe they have won a drawing or lottery, but the cash or prizes will not be released without upfront payment of fees or taxes. Do NOT believe any offers (lottery, prize claim, inheritance, etc.) that require a fee to be paid up front.  Do NOT provide personal or financial information to individuals or businesses you don’t know or haven’t verified. Do NOT send any money to someone you do not know. Do NOT attempt to recover funds personally or travel to Jamaica to transfer money.”

 This level of crime is said to have stemmed from years of slavery that originated during the Trans Atlantic slave trade. Most Jamaicans and Caribbean citizens have defended this method of crime as a form of reparation. In 2012 the popular dancehall artiste, Vybz Kartel, released a track called “Reparation” that argued the crime was a form of payback for the damage done by colonial rule. With song lyrics “Nuh rob Jamaican, don’t buy gun fi kill man,  Foreign exchange is good fi di country,” he sang. “Dem call it scam, Mi call it reparation.”

Scamming has affected the Caribbean negatively and the tourism sector has suffered greatly. Over the years tourists have been urged to stay clear of the island. On Jan. 18, 2019 Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness declared a state of emergency in Montego Bay and surrounding St. James Parish. Hotels, restaurants, schools and government went on lockdown, with residents and tourists warned to “remain in their resorts” as police and military flooded the streets. With this high intolerance of crime that surface the caribbean was deemed as being unsafe for many travelers due to robbery, scam and murder. 

The caribbean Government itself have also cause an impact the level of mistrust that have stem from the caibbean over the years and not just its citizens. Every government has a duty to seek to create and maintain public trust. The foundational element of public and international trust revolves around the expectations that the Government will act in the best interest of the country. According to an article published by the Jamaica Observer “ When a Government acts in ways that are not in the best interest of the country, that important glue disappears and public apathy emerges and mistrust reigns.

But all is far from lost. The crisis, which lies at the root of the scamming and crime, can be addressed. The economy can be put on a sounder footing. New leadership can emerge. The country has an extremely vibrant set of civil society organizations, including a vigorous and effective free press. The people of he caribbean have come a long way from the early days of slavery, we have come together as one and this too shall past with trust to be regain.

-Ieasher Chambers

It cannot be denied that intolerance and mistrust currently exist in the Caribbean. They can be attributed to relics of our historical past that have deeply affected us as a Caribbean people and whose repercussions we are still dealing with today. 

Firstly, we will take a look at a group that has faced the brutality of historical intolerance in the region:the Rastafarians. A primary example is The Prohibited and Unlawful Societies Act widely known as the Dread Act, which was passed in November 1974 in Dominica. It was legislation that targeted Rastafarians and was designed to curb their growing influence among the populace. Notable is the fact that, according to Fontaine (2002), the Act protected any civilian who killed or injured a member of the Dreads from civil or criminal charges.  “The statute betrays intolerance to cultural and religious diversity…indicative of the strong adherence, legally and culturally, to dominant social groupings” (Antoine, p. 9). It wantonly violated their human rights. This led to mistrust of the justice system by Rastafarians.

Secondly, mistrust of the “other” can clearly be observed specifically, in the relations between the Chinese and the Afro-Jamaican majority. The Chinese, who were imported as indentured labourers for the planters after slavery ended, were also selected for a subtler reason – to be a barrier between the whites and the blacks.

The fact that the “interlopers” were under contract and as such were offered wages and passage back to China, that they swiftly, through combining to form a pool of resources the blacks did not have, as well as business acumen that former slaves lacked, ascended from labourers with nothing, to a middle-class of traders. This caused hostility and resentment to build among the African population. ‘…the Blacks felt that they MUST have gained all this by thieving from those who had been here long before they came!’ (Chang, 2017)

A third notable example of mistrust among the Caribbean peoples is the failure of the West Indies’ Federation. As islands, there was and still is, a natural tendency towards insularity. The constituents of the Federation, still thought of themselves as countries, not a unit.

This kind of mindset only further deepened the suspicions of the states towards each other. “No delegation could go forth from the region unless it included representatives from each of them.” (Wooding, 1956).  Chief Minister Bustamante, who was quite the orator summed up his own mistrust with perfect clarity: “You did not tell us what control the federal government might have over the islands’ domestic affairs…I understand the federal government would sit over there and tell people what to do here. Not so long as I live that won’t happen.”

From all the evidence provided, it can be concluded that the Caribbean has a history in which mistrust and intolerance are prominent features.

-Janelle Smith

Prejudice has been alive for generations,

Even after emancipation,

We’re still under segregation,

Even the slaves had different holidays, festivals and recreations,

For they did not mix, everyone had their own cliques,

If you shared the same language, was the only way slaves could speak,

We are now free, but our minds are still imprisoned,

We share the same colour, but somehow are all different,

Different jobs, different houses, different connections,

Different treatment if you came from a different location,

It is said that out of many, we are one people,

But that is not true,

We are divided, despite all we’ve gone through,

Division has shaped our identity as a society,

The different classes have different personalities,

We are still mentally enslaved, From slavery to present day.

-Réal McCarthy

                The Caribbean today is characterized by grave intolerance and mistrust at all levels. According to Zick (2011), “Intolerance threatens the social cohesion of plural and democratic societies. It reflects the extent to which we respect or reject social, ethnic, cultural and religious minorities. It marks out those who are “strange”, “other” or “outsiders”, who are not equal, less worthy. The most visible expression of intolerance and discrimination is prejudice.”

Prejudice has been prevalent in Caribbean societies for hundreds of years. Its most notable appearance in history was during the slavery period and it still exists today. This was the source of racism and classism which both manifested segregation in society. Halcrow (1982) stated “Creoles and newcomers had different holidays and festivals, recreations, eating habits and dress. Even their funeral rites differed” meaning that even though the creole slaves and the newcomers had the same colour, classism existed as both groups had different origins which caused problems. Creoles were born in the Caribbean while the newcomers came from Africa. According to Halcrow, “Even at work, however, language created a problem until a patois developed in each West Indian island”. This simply means that before one common language was developed, people from many different countries were together on the plantations. The reason for this, as posited by Halcrow was that “in practice the work force was normally divided as planters adopted a deliberate policy of buying slaves from different ethnic groups which did not mix freely.” This led to hostility among the enslaved.

In present day Caribbean society classism is more popular than racism. Your address, former institution, job or even your assets determine which class you are in. Fairclough (2016) stated,”He concluded after asking me several questions that I was not good enough for him, simply because I did not own a car. “You have to call taxis?” he asked with a disgusted look on his face.” It can be concluded that immediately she was judged based on whether she drove a car or not and was considered to be lower in society because she did not own one.

-Réal McCarthy

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