Verbal Spark!

There has been quite a bit of times I have heard in the wake of some school killing or in light of rising school violence that the reason kids on our end of the world (North America) are so violent nowadays is because prayer (god) has been taken out of schools and so on. To people who espouse this type of logic, their line of reasoning goes along the lines that with the removal of god from the schools there has been a direct upswing in school troubles. If this is true, why is it that in countries like Sweden and other northwestern European countries where church and god have been basically placed in a trash bin like yesterday’s trash do we find relatively low crimes rates, prosperity and stability?

While we’re at it, another thing I find interesting is this. Many of us of the black race have grown up in or under the influence of Christianity, a religion that became part of our legacy in great part through slavery and colonialism that was thrust upon our forefathers by former European colonial powers like France, England, Spain, Portugal, The Netherlands and Denmark. Well statistics continue to show that those nations are straying further and further away from taking Christianity seriously, treating it and the church more as a relic even in Italy the seat of the once universally powerful Roman Church. So the former slave masters have practically cut loose of their ties to one of their most powerful tools that helped to justify and reinforce their past crimes on Africans (as well as others) and their descendants yet those they inflicted it upon still cling to it.

For example, in Mexico, a largely Catholic country, colonized by Catholic Spain, only 2-3% of Mexicans do not believe in God (from a 2004 BBC survey) yet in Spain today, 24% of Spaniards consider themselves “atheist” of “agnostic.” It is also not surprising either that you are likely to find more (serious) believers and churchgoers amongst black people in the U.S than white people in the U.S relative to their individual populations.

Food for thought.

A recent newspaper article here in South Florida highlighted an explosion of Caribbean based websites based here in South Florida.  As a native of the Caribbean myself, I find this tremendously encouraging. It is yet another bit of evidence of the increasing visibility and emergence of Caribbean culture in large metropolitan areas.  Already with a similar climate and  surrounding shrubbery, South Florida has been called the “northern Caribbean.”  Broward County, where you would find cities like Ft. Lauderdale, Pompano Beach, Lauderhill, Hollywood, Pembroke Pines and Coral Springs, has become home to the largest Jamaican population in the United States surpassing Brooklyn, New York. Also expected is that Broward will also become home to the largest West Indian population in the United States surpassing Brooklyn, New York.

It’s rather refreshing to walk into local supermarkets and find products I grew up on back in St. Kitts (where I was raised) and St. Thomas (where I was born). It’s nice to see our flags blowing in the breeze at some car lot or dangling on rear view mirrors. Broward’s and Miami’s carnival has the unique position of being the only carnivals outside of the Caribbean that has the similar tropical feel many from the Caribbean remember from home. Tropical climate, tropical surroundings and the beach a few miles east of any location in the Miami or Ft. Lauderdale metropolitan areas.

Anyway, getting back to the websites, the article noted how these websites have become popular not only amongst Caribbean natives living abroad, but also amongst those born abroad to a parent or parents from the Caribbean.   They have helped to breakdown certain barriers that  have sometimes separated Caribbean people. It is not uncommon nowadays to find Jamaicans in Trinidad for Carnival or an Antiguan visiting an island like Dominica. Websites like www.Caribplanet.com has a dynamic success in that it caters to the wider Caribbean and not one particular island. The founder grew up in St. Croix, United States Virgin Islands yet you can find active members from Bermuda to Panama and points in between, all representing Caribbean culture (yes, Panama is part of the Caribbean also). There are active non Caribbean members from Seattle, England and Japan.

It is certainly clear we are a force to reckon with. Politicians are courting us and as of last year, Congress designated the month of June as Caribbean-American Heritage month. So with all of this in mind a popular Jamaican saying would sum it all up. “Wi likkle but we talawa!”