Since when Jamaicans have a 'happy-go-lucky' stereotype? Overly aggressive and surly, yeah - happy-go-lucky? Not so much.
Any, I think we can unanimously agree that this is much ado about nothing.
Among us Caribbean people yeah... that's how we perceive because we are more observant and can pick up in the nuances that differentiate us. To the wider world I guarantee you that few if any view Jamaicans as "overly aggressive and surly".
Not only that, but the overly aggressive jamaican image is almost like a thing of the past, and that behavior was strictly exclusive to the ghetto yardies like in the garrison areas who came here in the 80ies and early ninties and hot up the place, and still i have met yardies from those environments who were very happy accommodating and easy going.
IMO there's no difference between trinis and jamaicans in that respect. back in the eighties and ninties there were trinis from the ghetto who were unsavory asreholes who made all trinis seem facked up to the ppl they came in contact with.
fellas from john john, betham, sealots, richplains, fourroads, point cumana, st barbs, debe (long circular), waterhole, the harp, mango rose, belmont valley road, bellua road (belmont), never dirty, down by FF dem in barataria
, mightower, quarry road (sanjuan), sunshine ave (sanjuan) laventiile road (sanjuan) just to na,me ah few distasteful areas in our country, and there are much more that i did not mention, but my point is, all these ppl that i have mentioned, if they were to go anywhere in the world in the majority with their rotten behavior, ppl would think that all trinis were like them, which is clearly not the case.
imagine ah man from colvin street woodbrook having a vacation somewhere in foreign and someone heard his accent and said, dem ppl dey eh no good nah, only bc they might of had ah run in wid ah man from waterhole who offended them in some form.
it have trinis from st clair, maraval, stanns , cascade, queens park west, wood brook, st james, chaguanas, couva, vistabella, arouca, tabaquite, st agustine, chamflears, trincity, aranguez, santacruz, cadiz raod, jermingham ave (both belmont), federation park, lange park, la horkette (carenarge), west morring, valsayn and blue range who would dispel that notion, bc they are from the other extreme,
well it's the same with jamaica, the only thing is jamaica have less bad areas than us, and most of their undesirables are concentrated in ah few areas in kingston , spanish town, mo bay, and some parts of st thomas and manchester, @ least the last time i was there.
for every bad nasty jamaican i came in contact with, i have met four to dispel that notion, it's ah real mix basket of ppl, trust meh. BTW i find jamaican to be the nicest ppl in the caribbean, i believe the only ppl to beat them back is domonicans and st lucians, and i find bajans and antiguans to be the worst, especially in their home land.
PS: most well to do jamaicans do not migrate, instead they are the ones who are the back bone of jamaica, and it's a fact that the most uneducated backward ppl are the ones who leave in droves looking for a better life, and those are the ones we tend to meet rather than the former.