Life of G is here!
a curated list of opinions, backed by facts with a big helping of creativity
Sometimes life requires you to “Up Di Ting” if you don’t know what that means, you’re going to learn, eventually. Just keep reading the blog.
Welcome to “life of g”
Hi Guys, Welcome to “Life of G”.
My name is Georgina…. Gina…. Genes… Georgie (pooh)... George and finally… G. The name you know me by always tells me when you met me, so for those meeting me for the first time, and those who have known me in a “previous iteration” let me reintroduce myself:
I am G. This is how I see life and I’m sharing it with you in this space.
As the journey of my names so has been the journey to creating this platform. For many years I believed that my work and ideas alone could speak for themselves, and getting to know me and seeing my face wasn’t necessary. However, we live in a world where it is so easy for a brand to say one thing and the founder another. When integrity is only used to make sales and not improve the world it becomes so much more important to see the person behind the ideas. In what I will call my personal pandemic pivot I decided it was time to be out with the faceless brand and in with all of me and all my authenticity. It’s time people get to know what I’m all about.
Even though it’s called Life of G this space is about more than me. I created it as the home of my vision and creative projects. What I hope for and what I want to build my country and region into. Life of G will grow as I grow and there will always be more to come. To start I am launching with “Made in the West Indies”, a blog dedicated to my journey of embracing the idea of life as a West Indian and thinking of the entire region as one space. That means no longer switching the channel when an ad for Dominica comes on (true story), or thinking “not my country, not my people”. Look let’s be honest Barbadians are some of the biggest xenophobes in the region, I am calling myself out and holding myself accountable too. Let’s not make Bajans feel so singled out in our xenophobia, most islanders are xenophobic. We let colonial nonsense separate us when we are really Many Cultures but One People. Take the journey with me as I explore the best way to Made in the West Indies.
out with “Caribbean” & in with “west Indian”
For those curious about why I keep saying West Indian and not Caribbean, tell me, especially those who have studied or lived overseas for an extended period of time. What is the first thing people ask or tell you when you say you’re from the Caribbean and God forbid you specifically say Barbados:
Do you live in coconut trees?
Isn’t that in Jamaica?
I wouldn’t go to work if I lived there, I’d be at the beach every day.
Can you teach me how to dutty wine? (I just dated myself, I know)
OMG can I call you Rihanna
You sound like Calypso from Pirates of the Caribbean
These are all lived experiences people!!! All of these have happened to me! The person who asked me if he could call me Rihanna is now one of my dearest friends lol. He always tells people the story; “and She (that’s me) said NO! I have a name!”.
In reality, whose fault is it that people from outside of the “Caribbean” have this skewed view of our region and who we are? The only large scale education and promotion we produce of ourselves, has been what we sell as tourism. The mythical “Caribbean” seen in tv ads, online banners and in the ever more expensive international events and trade shows ie. glittery, sparkly: sun, sea, sex and sand, and in quite a few tourists’ minds a joyous hedonistic combination of all four.
To sum up, the “Caribbean” is white people enjoying vacations and the “natives” performing or serving them in some way. I didn’t make this up, just look at any of the promotional imagery with themes that haven’t changed since the 1950s. This is because Tourism is the Caribbean’s major foreign income earner, most of us don’t really export much else. Like why in the year of Rihanna 2021 is tourism still the main focus of most of our island economies?
I’m saying let’s drop “Caribbean”, stop pussyfooting around with the idea of CARICOM and truly do this, become one space, one people. Let’s reintroduce the region as “The West Indies”, a concept tied to a definitive and marketable (read profitable) brand, like Made in France or Scandanavian design. We become known as a global brand made up of joyous creative people, with a rich yet complicated history that has no comparison. By extension Made in the West Indies means indigenous makers and creatives passing down centuries of knowledge and skill. Innovators and forward thinkers in the Caribbean sea. A unique melting pot of skills and people associated with high quality and design.
Rebranding an entire region is nothing new, the Netherlands just did it in 2019 ditching the name Holland and its somewhat sketchy reputation (thank you Amsterdam) to completely rebrand its global image even down to creating a whole new logo. In all examples, these concepts had to be created and took time to be defined. Which means it is very possible for us to do it too. Shoot other European nations are trying to rebrand too. In 2016, the Czech Republic attempted to make Czechia its widely-used country name.
Putting all the eggs in the Tourism Basket
The pandemic has proven that operating as separate entities that are all dependent on tourism from former colonial countries will be the death of us. As Simon Naitram writes in A New Tourism
“We find ourselves at a critical juncture. We need to diversify, and we need to restructure a volatile and vulnerable industry that works for only a few of us.”
He argues that the next step should be to pivot tourism into immigration. Peter Lawrence Thompson’s vision of this new tourism became a reality in the Barbados Welcome Stamp. This new immigration or long term type of visitor would give us the population needed to diversify our economies while also creating a “lifestyle” model of tourism where the visitors become part of the fabric of our society. Barbados isn’t alone in adopting this plan, other islands are cashing in on these extended stays.
Even though proving to be well-liked internationally and bringing in much needed foreign exchange locally, in my opinion, wholesale immigration isn’t the answer either. While working wonderfully in the short term this should only be seen as an interim solution while we create something more long term and self-sufficient. Most of our islands’ social services and ecosystem (destruction of our coral reefs for example) can’t handle a large permanent influx of people and again tourism in any form is putting our dependency on external factors (read that as formal colonial countries) and once again we're still not self-sufficient but here is where the West Indies comes in to save the day.
is it time for “the united west indies” ?
Did you know that before the American Civil war, there was no such thing as an “American”? You were a Virginian, Bostonian, wherever you lived was your place of allegiance (sound familiar?). So even though referred to as the United States of America it was “ a loose union of states” who had no particular interest in being one nation.
“The United States went to war in 1861 to preserve the Union; it emerged from the war in 1865 having created a nation. Before 1861 the two words "United States" were generally used as a plural noun... After 1865 the United States became a singular noun.”
The idea of an “American” had to be birthed to unify a place completely torn apart. In today’s world, the idea of individual American states is a foreign concept. In 2020 we have been torn apart by the pandemic, so what if we use this as our catalyst. What if the West Indies unified right at this moment? Three generations from now would not know anything other than the United West Indies. We tried at it before but we are in desperate need of it now.
In The President’s Chat, Prime Minister Mottley mentions many of the reasons why we need to relook at our unification, whether or not that was her intention. She states that historically the world goes through periods of time where little happens for long periods and then there is a burst of activity for a short period as a result of some existential crisis. Like the American civil war of 1861, the global pandemic of 2020 has created that moment where the burst can happen. As PM Mottley says due to this crisis;
“People are more willing to deconstruct and reconstruct and therefore come up with solutions that are appropriate to the time and the circumstances...”
She even touches on the issue that many of our graduates would love to have more high-level job opportunities but are limited by small populations and landlocked economic spaces (you should really watch the interview). In becoming this one united space we create opportunities for our own people, no longer needing to be dependent on former colonial countries to stay afloat (tourism or emigration). The free movement of our own peoples between country states would solve both these issues.
Also with this new united West Indies, we would have true global strength and bargaining power. As she notes “What is the example of colonialism, divide and rule” with each individual country negotiating for themselves we will never get the best possible deal. Whether that be the IMF or in a more shallow example better cell phone plans. Imagine a world where you get cell phone plans where you don’t actually have to shell out $2000 for a phone, it simply comes with the plan. This would be because phone companies would be servicing the region and not individual countries. We would now have the large population needed to allow diversification in business sectors and forget depending on tourism we would become our own tourists.
In Conclusion
Every great idea comes at a cost though, this isn’t going to be perfect. Just look at the US right now state governments (Texas we see you) are always going head to head with the Federal but the pros out way the cons. The only way we can survive in this post-pandemic world is if we do it together.
Well if the earlier examples of France and Scandanavia are anything to go by it is quite obvious it shall be the creatives who lead us.
So again… I welcome you to Life of G.
