Dr Winford James
Trinbagonian Child, pursuant to your request for clarification on the difference between ‘country’ and ‘island’, I offer the following discussion, appreciating that it is not enough to use the examples of Tobago, Trinidad, Trinidad and Tobago, and Barbados to establish the difference. I am pleased that you are not yet a teenager, but you are curious to differentiate between concepts that routine usage simplifies, having stripped them of a precision that is important to the advancement of our political thought and discourse as a nation. (What, you might ask, does the latter word mean?)
You will recall, Dear Child, that I told you that Tobago is an island, Trinidad is an island, but they are not countries; rather, it is Trinidad and Tobago taken together that is a/the country. Barbados is also an island, but, unlike Tobago or Trinidad taken singly, it is a country. So, from our data set of three islands, an island (Barbados) or two islands (Trinidad and Tobago) can be a country, but an island (Tobago) may not be a country.
How can this be, you ask, Attentive Child? It can be if we are talking politics. It is politics, and not simply geography, that throws up these differentiations. And if you want a definition of ‘country’, it is politics that will furnish one like the following: ‘a nation with its own government, occupying a particular territory.’
So a country may be a nation (Cf your hypothetical question above). And now we have a little complexity introduced into our discussion. ‘Country’ and ‘nation’ are presented as synonyms. A nation is being said to have its own government and its own territory. Assuming that an island is the territory and that that island has its own government, can we conclude that Tobago is a nation (alias country) since it satisfies both conditions? Eh, Reflecting Child?
Permit me to play Devil’s Advocate and let’s see where it takes us. In the definition of ‘country’ and ‘nation’, we take it as a matter of course that Tobago has its own territory (never mind the legal boldfacedness of the Trinidad-dominated Parliament as to boundaries), so it must be correct to say that the critical element is possession of its own government, right? It has its own House of Assembly, its own Executive Council (or Cabinet, if you like) complete with Chief Secretary (or, if you like, Premier or First Minister), right? If this is so, then Tobago must be a nation and a country, not so, Troubled Child?
Not so fast, Trinbagonian Mentor, some might say. You very well know that, under our Constitution, there is one nation or country–Trinidad AND Tobago, if you please–and so, the fact Tobago has its own government doesn’t make the island a country. The matter turns on its constitutional permit or, in other words, on the degree of autonomy the Trinidad-dominated Parliament grants it. (And if you have the stomach for it, it also turns on whether either Trinidad or Tobago secedes from the union.)
So you see, Frustrated Child, according to this deeply political stance, Tobago can become a (completely autonomous, self-governing, independent) country by, critically, the Trinidadian’s constitutional fiat or by either the Trinidadian’s or the Tobagonian’s decision to secede.
And yet, Hopeful Child… .
There are territories in the world that are called countries even when they are part of another country. The United Kingdom (of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), or simply the UK, is a country, but it comprises four constituent countries: England, Scotland, and Wales (collectively called ‘Great Britain’) and Northern Ireland. Through the process of devolution, the last three named have had autonomous powers granted to them. Indeed, they operate subnational parliaments and are allowed to have national sports teams. (Wales, for example, has a national team in this year’s Football World Cup.)
A specific word on Scotland might be helpful. The UK Supreme Court denied the country their desire to hold a fresh independence referendum without the UK Government’s consent. The First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and her Scottish National Party want to win independence from the UK, in part to ‘escape the disaster of Brexit, the damage of policies imposed by governments we don’t vote for, and the low growth, high inequality economic model that is holding us back.’
But they are looking for a legal and democratic way of escaping.
And, Trinbagonian Child, they are a country without being independent.