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This work discusses the effectiveness of the sets of policies employed by the government over a fifty-year period spanning 1958 to 2008 in the effort to foster the growth and development of the economy. It concludes that Trinidad and Tobago has underperformed in respect of its growth and development. Compared with other countries more or less similarly placed around 1960, Trinidad and Tobago has not achieved in key areas of health-care delivery, education access, and income and wealth, notwithstanding its substantial resources of oil and gas.

Historically, Trinidad and Tobagos economy cycles from boom to bust depending on what happens to the price of oil. The carefree, undisciplined lifestyle of most of the population is occasionally perturbed by a paroxysm of social unrest. Downturns are accompanied by ritual incantations by government officials of the need for diversification to reduce the countrys dependence on oil and the energy-based industries, the formation of new committees, task forces and boards, and considerable hand-wringing and angst about the sustainability of government fiscal operations. Seemingly bold new initiatives and projects are announced, and all the while people wait and secretly hope for a quick turnaround in the price of oil, ammonia, methanol and natural gas so that rents will again begin to accrue, government spending programmes can restart and the fête can resume. Trinidad and Tobago will not achieve its potential for development unless and until this cycle is broken.

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Students and teachers of education in the Caribbean have long relied on ethnographic research from North America to enrich their understanding of life in schools and classrooms. Based on actual experiences from the perspectives of both students and teachers, this collection of ethnographic research articles provides the first up-close view of Jamaican schools and classrooms. Hyacinth Evans and her research team used careful, well-executed interviews and participant observation methods. The result is an insightful view of the ways society's tensions are played out in educational settings, the ways personalities are shaped and identities formed in face-to-face interactions, and the ways circumstances and experiences in the Jamaican setting affect teaching and learning. The articles examine - Student-teacher interaction - Teacher authority - how it is maintained, nurtured, or eroded - The social construction of student interest and attention versus disruptiveness and apathy - Consequences of streaming children in perceived ability groups - Standard Jamaican English (SJE) methods and their effectiveness in teaching Creole-speaking students - Teaching and learning in schools where materials and resources are limited - Career decisions for teachers This book is an essential addition to the body of education texts used throughout the Caribbean, geared for undergraduate and postgraduate students, classroom teachers, and anyone interested in schools and education.

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The social history of Belize is marked by conflict; between British settlers and the Maya; between masters and slaves; between capitalists and workers; and between the colonial administration and the Belizean people. Belize shares many features with other parts of the Caribbean Central America, including a long history of colonialism and slavery, a dependent economy in which the ownership of land is highly concentrated, and the population which is largely poor. In this collection of essays, Boland analyzes the most import topics during three centuries of colonialism. Part One examines the early British settlement, the nature of slavery in Belize, and the development of Creole culture in the nineteenth century. Part Two analyzes the relations of between the Maya and the British in the nineteenth century. Part Three considers systems of labour control after Emancipation and discusses the origins of modern politics in the labour movement of the 1930s and 1940s. Part Four considers the complex issues of ethnicity and politics in the contemporary arena.

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The anglophone Caribbean has long been celebrated and known for its vibrant and innovative music. Reggae, dancehall, calypso, soca, gospel and ringbang have flourished within the Caribbean and have exploded on the worldwide stage. Somewhat surprisingly, many facets of this contribution have not been analysed or discussed by academic writing. This work deliberately moves away from the customary exclusive focus on Trinidad and Jamaica and broadens the discourse to represent the wider region. It addresses such topics as the status of Caribbean gospel; the birth of new musical styles in the Eastern Caribbean; cultural misrepresentation in Caribbean music videos; the representation of Aids in Caribbean music; and the impact of the actual music technology utilized by Caribbean musicians since the 1980s.

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The West Indies Cricket Team, formed in 1884, made its first overseas tour two years later to Canada and the United States. The tourists played thirteen matches during August and September; they won six, lost five and two were drawn. The first match was played against the Montreal Cricket Club, 16-17 August 1886. It ended in a draw after which the West Indians moved on to Ottawa, Toronto and Hamilton.They arrived in the United States to play several matches in Philadelphia where the cricket culture was well established. Local clubs proved too strong an opposition for the tourists. The press was encouraging but made it clear that the islanders were out of their depth. It was an important tour for the first West Indians cricketers. It was the first international step in an apprenticeship that lasted decades. The English decided, finally, to host the West Indians in 1900. This book speaks to the Canadian and American beginning of the West Indian cricket culture that was to emerge a century later as the most powerful performance force the game had ever seen.

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This interdisciplinary study examines the cultural and historical significance of the Jamaican Anansi folktales.

Anansi the spider is the trickster folk hero West African slaves transported to the Caribbean, who symbolises key aspects of Afro-Caribbean culture and is celebrated as a vital link with an African past. Anansi stories, in which the small spider turns the tables on his powerful enemies through cunning and trickery, are now told and published worldwide.

Anansi survived a cultural metamorphosis and came to symbolise the resistance of the Jamaican people. This original book examines Anansis roots in Ghana, details the changes Anansi underwent during the Middle Passage and his potential for inspiring tactics of resistance in a plantation context, and analyses Anansis role in postcolonial Jamaica, illustrating how he is interpreted as a symbol of individualism and celebrated as an emblem of resistance.

With its broad historical sweep, tracing Anansi from Ghana through to his contested position in contemporary Jamaica, this book makes an important contribution to the ongoing debate about whether the slave trade transmitted or destroyed the culture of the enslaved.

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Claude McKay remains one of the most influential intellectuals of the African Diaspora. Best remembered for his extraordinary poetry, his achievement in verse has been widely analyzed and praised. Yet in the welter of discussion about McKay, little has been said about his early writing in Jamaican. Two collections from the period, Songs of Jamaica and Constab Ballads, are more known about than known, and his poems for the Jamaican press, most of which have never been anthologized, are rarely studied.
In A Fierce Hatred of Injustice, Winston James elegantly redresses this omission. Through a subtle and detailed consideration of McKay's formative years on the island, James reviews the themes and politics of poetry which McKay began writing at the age of ten. Above all he focuses on the poet's pioneering use of Jamaican creole revealing the way in which this laid a foundation for subsequent work by writers such as Louise Bennett, Linton Kwesi Johnson and Michael Smith. The volume concludes with a comprehensive anthology of the early poems together with a comic sketch about Jamaican peasant life by McKay and an autobiographical essay on his experiences in the Kingston police force.