Happy Diamond Jubilee, Sweet T&T.

Given how much time I spend griping about my country and countrymen, one might get the impression that I’m not too fond of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

I wouldn’t waste my time and money on a blog (or ranting on Facebook when time doesn’t permit me to use the blog) if I didn’t care deeply about this country.

Am I proud to be a Trinbagonian? No. I tend to think that national pride is, at best, an inane concept and, at worst, a dangerous one. For an example of the inanity, look no further at all the people who are “proud Trinis” but will dump anything anywhere at any time. For a glimpse at the dangers of nationalism, sneak a peek at our neighbours to the north.

I am not proud to have been born in Trinidad and Tobago because I had absolutely no control over that particular piece of happenstance, but I am grateful for it. Despite the fact that I sometimes want to tear my hair out over the utter ridiculousness of life in this place, I feel fortunate to be a Trinbagonian. Our culture is rich and varied; our music is pure joy, our cuisine is undefeated and our history is inspirational. Our islands are gorgeous and blessed with abundance in ways other nations can only dream of. Our people—when we’re at our best—are mind-bogglingly creative and brilliant. I will never get over the fact that the only instrument invented in an entire century was invented right here. I will never stop feeling a bit of joy when I hear of another Trinbagonian achieving something extraordinary somewhere in the world. That this little twin-island nation, home to just under 1.4 million people, has done so much is, quite frankly, iconic.

That’s why I am so often exasperated with this place. Our collective brilliance is only rivalled by our commitment to collective dotishness. I recognise that this is not accidental. Between the glaring gaps in our history curriculum and what passes for political discourse, it’s quite clear that there is a vested interest in making sure we spend our time bickering over nonsense. Otherwise we might, on the occasion of our nation’s 60th birthday, take a look around and wonder if we’ve progressed as much as we are capable of given all of the resources with which we’ve been blessed. And if we start wondering about that, we might look at the people granted the power to lead us and ask some difficult questions. So they keep the theatrics coming and many of us continue to parrot the nonsense they feed us even as they enrich themselves at our expense.

Not all of us, though.

Some of us are well aware of how far we’ve come in our 60 years as an independent nation and how far we still have to go. We’re also well aware of what has hindered us from getting there. As we step into our 60th year, my hope for T&T is that we as a people finally begin to see ourselves for the talented, resourceful and resilient people we are; that we finally recognise the power we have to create a space that actually serves us all; that we fully step into who we are and what we’re capable of when we’re not dancing to the beat of those who have no interest in seeing us thrive.

Happy 60th birthday, T&T.

It’s the perfect occasion for us to finally grow up into the nation we deserve to be.