Trinidad and Tobago
Leader Dr. Eric Williams
Economy G.N.P. is $2,380 per year
Debt service payments overseas as % of exports: 0.5%
Main export: oil
Rate of inflation: (average 1970-1977: 22.8%
People: 1.1 million/town dwellers: 21% of total
Health: Child mortality (1-4 years): (0.3%) (Sweden 0.1%)
Daily calorie availability: 105%
Access to clean water: probably 85-90%
Religion: A little over one-third of the population professes Roman Catholicism; one-quarter are Hindu and nearly that many Protestants.
Ethnic groups: African 43%, East Indian 40%. The Africans were brought by the French as slaves to the sugar estates in the late 18th C, the Indians encouraged to come by the British, to replace the freed slaves in the mid 19th C. Language: English officially. Some Spanish, Hindi dialects and French patois in rural areas.
Previous colonizing power: Britain since 1802. (Trinidad was the first British crown colony).
Independence: 1962 (with Tobago).
All figures from World Development Report, 1980.
A runaway favourite among this year's crop of calypsos in Trinidad and Tobago was King Austin's Progress, a biting and bouncy commentary on the cost of affluence - the dirty rivers, the lack of jobs, the use of drugs and idleness of kids - in one of the Caribbean's most prosperous countries.
Calypsos and Carnival are synonomous with Trinidad and Tobago. But Progress sounded a new, more cynical note of what life in the islands today is becoming. New calypsos frequently take pot shots at local leaders, customs and institutions; this time a deeper current of disillusion seemed to have been tapped. For all the new cars, trips to Miami and expensive imports, life in oil-rich Trinidad and Tobago is not all it is cracked up to be.
Trinidad has been producing oil for more than 70 years. But like the huge asphalt deposits at La Brea Lake, where Sir Walter Raleigh caulked his ships in 1595, it was just another natural resource until the price rises of 1973. Then, though not an OPEC member, the country's revenues soared and the sudden transition into middle income status brought many of the ills of the industrialized world.
It is partly a problem of infrastructure. The country cannot, literally or figuratively, support the weight of new investment. Heavy trucks haul machinery and building materials to new industrial sites over a road system that was adequate until 10 years ago. New money has brought new demands for vehicles and now the country licenses more cars in one month than it did five years ago in one year. These cars are put together in three assembly plants on the islands but recently two of these were closed by their owners because, they said, of continuing labour troubles. The result is frustration, as people wait months for new cars and then sit in traffic jams on the overtaxed roads.
At the other end of the scale problems are more basic. Inflation and unemployment have made life for the low wage earner a hand-to-mouth affair. When island food staples like tomatoes and sweet peppers reach prices of $8 to $12 a pound during the August-December wet season, few bother to even ask the cost of housing. Squatting or putting together your own shelter on a rented patch is the only solution.
These are the gloomy realities of Trinidad and Tobago's oil boom. But the country's people have always had a special facility for fantasy. Perhaps it is Carnival, the three day pre-Lenten parades and carousing which, people say, Trinidadians spend all year either preparing for or recovering from. Perhaps it is their notable lack of interest in politics (only 54% voted in the '76 elections) which have been dominated for nearly a quarter of a century by the same leader. In any case, perhaps it is just as well.
Penny Sanger
INCOME DISTRIBUTION
Gaps between rich and poor widening, but partly cushioned by a national social security scheme.
SELF-RELIANCE
Heavy dependence on oil and foreign technology.
POSITION OF WOMEN
Slave and plantation cultures weakened extended family. But women participate in most spheres of life.
POLITICS
Multi-party system with extensive state control of industry.
LITERACY
95%. Primary school is free and compulsory, secondary school free. Technical schooling needs expanding.
FREEDOM
No reports of political prisoners. There is a free press, broadcasting and television services.
LIFE EXPECTANCY
70 years. State medical services are free. Three modern hospitals and over 100 rural clinics.
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Voices from the margins:
Multimedia: video, podcasts, and more.
- Poetry Slam in Zimbabwe
- The House of Hunger poetry slam held in Zimbabwe in 2006, and organised by the Pamberi Trust, showcased young artists performing inspirational work on issues from corporate power to child soldiers. The video features four of the poets.
Published by Pambazuka News.
- Iranian women speak out
- 3 March 2007, London. Women's rights activists marched through the English capital last week to celebrate International Women's Day with a protest against the misogyny of the Islamic regime in Iran and the threat of invasion by the US. Hear the voices of Iranian feminists Azar and Leila Parnian and the sounds of the demonstration as it passed through the heart of the city. Click here to learn more about the campaign.
Produced by Heidi Bachram.
- Raised Voices audio:
- Benny from West Papua on Corporate Power
- Vinayan from India on agriculture
