Sixty-four years after Independence, Trinidad and Tobago has become very good at cataloguing what is wrong with Trinidad and Tobago. Yes, there is a lot to complain about – crime, economic uncertainty, poor productivity, weakening institutions, political division, indiscipline – to name a few. The list is familiar.
Perhaps the more difficult question is this: have we become so accustomed to diagnosing our problems that we have forgotten our own capacity to solve them? Long before “resilience” became part of the language of development policy, Black Stalin offered a much simpler proposition: we can make it if we try. At 64, perhaps that is both the challenge and the opportunity before us.
There is much about which we can legitimately be dissatisfied, but dissatisfaction should not erase progress. T&T today is vastly different from the country that hoisted its red, white and black flag in 1962. We expanded education and healthcare, built substantial infrastructure, developed sophisticated energy and financial sectors and strengthened indigenous professional and entrepreneurial capacity. Our relatively high rank on the United Nations Human Development Index confirms that development has occurred.
Our contribution extends well beyond our shores - steelpan, calypso, soca and Carnival have travelled globally, while our athletes, academics, artistes, professionals, entrepreneurs and diaspora repeatedly demonstrate that our location does not constrain our global footprint.
But development must also be judged against opportunity and potential. Given the considerable natural-resource wealth available to us over several decades, have we converted enough of that inheritance into productive, human and institutional capacity for future generations? That question is less comfortable.
Oil and gas do not themselves develop countries
Despite our wealth from natural resources over decades, at 64, we face a simple truth: oil and gas do not themselves develop countries; people do. Resources provide revenues and opportunities, but it is the knowledge, productivity, creativity and enterprise of our people - and, importantly, the institutions we build - that ultimately determine what a nation becomes.
This is where Black Stalin’s proposition becomes particularly relevant. T&T’s greatest development asset was never simply what lay beneath our soil; it is what resides within our people. The development of our country is therefore not simply something any government does for people. Governments must govern. Citizens should demand competent leadership, functioning institutions, accountability, prudent management of public resources and policies that create opportunities. But citizens cannot be merely spectators in the development process. We cannot complain about dirty communities while throwing rubbish through car windows. We cannot demand efficient institutions while searching for a “contact” to circumvent their rules. We cannot lament low productivity while treating punctuality, performance and quality customer service as optional. And we cannot demand a more tolerant society while reducing every disagreement to insult, political tribe or personal attack. Nation-building requires something from the citizen too.
Perhaps our national watchwords – discipline, production and tolerance - were more profound than we sometimes appreciate. These should be more than three words associated with Independence; they speak directly to the kind of society we wish to become.
Discipline matters for productivity, institutions and the choices we make with scarce resources. Production reminds us that sustainable prosperity ultimately requires the creation of value. And tolerance provides the social cohesion that allows a diverse people to disagree while continuing to build together.
At 64, perhaps we should ask ourselves not whether these watchwords remain relevant, but how faithfully we have lived them.
We can make it —but we have to try
Our problems are real. Crime continues to devastate families and communities. Too many young people struggle to find meaningful opportunities. Our economy continues to search for sustainable new engines of growth. Climate change and an uncertain global economy add further vulnerabilities. But cynicism is not a development strategy.
Countries are built and develop through thousands of seemingly ordinary decisions: the teacher who prepares properly; the public servant who chooses service over indifference; the entrepreneur who creates employment; the business that behaves responsibly; the parent who instils values; the citizen who protects a public space; the young person who chooses to create rather than destroy.
Each generation inherits a T&T it did not build, but each leaves behind a country it has helped to shape. Perhaps two of our greatest calypsonians understood the development challenge better than we realised. Black Stalin reminded us that we can make it if we try. The Mighty Sparrow reminded us that building the country requires each of us to lend a hand. Different songs. Same enduring proposition: T&T cannot be built by a nation of spectators.
At 64, we are still becoming. But becoming is not automatic. It requires discipline, production and tolerance; capable institutions and accountable leadership; and citizens prepared to take responsibility for the country they wish to inhabit. Independence was a milestone. Development remains unfinished business.
Can we make it? I believe we can. But we have to try - and each of us has to lend a hand. Sparrow’s words from decades ago remain timely as we celebrate T&T at 64: “…show your patriotic spirit… Unity somehow, if Trinidad ever needed you, is now.”
