The following is an exchange between Amir, the protagonist in the novel The Kite Runner, and a taxi driver, Farid. Amir starts the conversation:
"Strange," I said.
"What?"
"I feel like a tourist in my own country," I said, taking in a goat herd leading a half-dozen emaciated goats along the side of the road.Farid snickered. Tossed his cigarette. "You still think of this place as your country?""I think I always will," I said, more defensively than I had intended."After twenty years of living in America," he said, swerving the truck to avoid a pothole the size of a beach ball.
I nodded. "I grew up in Afghanistan."
Farid snickered again.
"Why do you do that?"
"Never mind," he murmured.
"No, I want to know. Why do you do that?"
In his rear-view mirror, I saw something flash in his eyes.
"You want to know?" he sneered. "Let me imagine, Agha sahib. You probably lived in a big two or three-storey house with a nice backyard that your gardener filled with flowers and fruit trees. All gated, of course. Your father drove an American car. You had servants, probably Hazaras. Your parents hired workers to decorate the house for the fancy mehmanis they threw, so their friends would come over to drink and boast about their travels to Europe or America. And I would bet my first son's eyes that this is the first time you've ever worn a pakol." He grinned at me, revealing a mouthful of prematurely rotting teeth. "Am I close?""Why are you saying these things?" I said..."You? You've always been a tourist here, you just didn't know it."Ever since I read this Khaled Hosseini novel some years ago, this particular exchange has been haunting me. I think it is particularly relevant in the context of the ongoing national discussion on race, race relations and the links between our politics and race. The issue of how well we know our society is particularly relevant.Unfortunately many of us are like Amir. While we live in Trinidad and Tobago, we only really get to see a very small part of the society.
Of the part to which we are exposed, we understand only a part of that. All in all, very few, if any of us really understand the different elements that contribute to this thing we call the nation of Trinidad and Tobago.In some cases, getting to know the other parts of the society (or not) is a choice and for some the structure of society prevents full interaction with segments of the society.What this means really is that moderately well off or wealthy people really have no limit on how much (or how little) they explore pockets of the society outside of their traditional spheres of interaction, though they would have to consider the risks of so doing.
On the other hand, people of limited financial means face very real barriers to exploring parts of the society to which they do not naturally 'belong'. If money is in short supply, one cannot simply decide to hop on the ferry, far less a plane, drive down to Charlotteville and stay in a guest house for a few days-don't even think of renting a car and staying in a three or four star hotel while buying meals.Whatever the reason(s), the fact that most people exist in the society without really being exposed to the different elements of the space, creates the conditions in which mistrust, misunderstandings and conflict are almost natural.
The increase in both the frequency and intensity of crime over the years, has made it more difficult to explore the society freely. Whether the result has been the explosion of gated communities or a reluctance to take the family for a Sunday drive to 'wherever we end up' or a fear of spending a weekend in Mayaro or Buccoo, the result is that more and more people are more and more of the time, interacting with only limited groups of people, who are often intensely interconnected, and therefore developing a skewed view of what T&T society is really like.
If this perception is indeed reality, conversations about national identity and purpose; about equity and fairness; about humanity and our place in the world will all take place in an environment of relative ignorance.Therefore the problem needs to be addressed at different levels. As individuals, we must make more of an effort to explore the society outside our traditional zones of comfort.At the level of the government and policy makers, more programmes encouraging interaction between and exploration of communities are necessary. Schools should be encouraged if not mandated to take every class on field trips to different parts of the country-every term.
This is our country. Most of us love it dearly. No matter how deep you dig, it is unlikely that you will ever be able to dig our navel strings out of the Trinbago earth. We must therefore, encourage others and take steps ourselves to better appreciate what we have, why others love it as much as we do and find the many things that tie us together rather than highlighting the few that push us apart.