Soca Warriors Online Discussion Forum
General => General Discussion => Topic started by: truetrini on January 04, 2007, 06:06:36 AM
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I am a Tobadadian! IF YOU IS ONE, I is one too!
(http://www.guardian.co.tt/Zen-Jarrette.jpg)
Zen Dionne Jarrette
(http://www.guardian.co.tt/Tobadadian1.jpg) (http://www.guardian.co.tt/Tobadadian2.jpg)
The patriot jacket: Glory in the front...insult in the back.
By Zen Dionne Jarrette
I recently saw one of our known soca singers in a New York drugstore. I had never met her before, so I went up to her and introduced myself.
You resemble this family I know from Arima,” she said.
Are you from there?”
No,” I said, “My family is from Tobago.”
You from Tobago?” she asked incredulously, “But how you pretty so? How come you not black, black, black?”
I would have been appalled by her question, had I not heard it hundreds of times before.
Since I was a child, spending my time between Scarborough and Belmont, any time I mentioned Tobago, it was always an open debate.
The points of contention:
There are no “red” people in Tobago
Women from Tobago are ugly
People from Tobago talk funny
People from Tobago are not very smart
Poor Tobago! What a crisis!
Why is it that some Trinidadians find it acceptable to belittle Tobago? Are we not the same country? Is Trinidad the evil twin?
I remember a schoolyard chant that would be used against anyone who was very dark: Tobago Bun Bake! Tobago Bun Bake!”
Tobago is a skin colour?
Does being “red” move you closer to God? Dark or light, we are all the same amount of Black: Any.
Black is Black. There was dark before the light. And by the by, if you cut us, all of us are red.
I am tired of having to explain my Tobagonian heritage, and I am also tired of people referring to Trinidad as though it exists singly. We might be fraternal, but aren’t we supposed to be twins? Equal? Bearing the same passport?
When our singers make big hits, Tobago is almost non-existent! Just look at songs like Trinidad, Trini to the Bone, and Portrait of Trinidad!
Where is the sister isle?
This must have occurred to David Rudder, because he lustily sang Trini to the Bone, and later made another version with an alternating chorus of “’Bago to the bone” added in.
Thanks for the afterthought!
Naya George said in his song that in fetes “...they biggin’ up Trinidad last.” Well being last is a step above what he himself did by not bigging up Tobago at all. The irony is priceless!
Mighty Sparrow did us great justice, however, when he penned the very true song Tobago Girls.
Let’s talk about the debacle of Easter, shall we?
Droves of young people flock to Tobago and treat it like a resort. It is simply a place to party, litter, drive fast in, and hop a boat home from.
No one would fathom that there are Tobagonians who don’t consider every day a vacation, or that (Gasp! Heaven for bid!) have never even been to Trinidad!
This unfortunate neglect has spread to New York, where if you tell someone you are from Tobago, they will say “Oh, you’re a Trini!”
Even on the show Seinfeld, they had joke about Tobago. Julia Louis Dreyfuss’s character quipped about a man “He’s from Trinidad and Tobago! That means his father is Trinidadian and his mother is a ‘toboggan’!”
Oh joke boy!
For the World Cup, I prepared for my trip and hit Manhattan hard to get my Red, White and Black done right. There was a plethora of items available, but every last one of them only said Trinidad. Were we back in 1898? Because I know that since January 1, 1899, our islands became one nation.
The boiling point in all this came for me when I recently bought a pack of Crix in a New York grocery store. While buttering some and cursing the winter weather, I glanced at the back of the pack and saw “Product of Trinidad” boldly written.
Where is the sister isle?
One of my proudest moments as a citizen, besides having a Tobagonian lead our football team to our first World Cup berth, was when George Bovell III returned home with his glorious bronze medal for Olympic swimming.
What did he asked for?
He asked that the international symbol for our country in sport be changed from “TRI” to T&T.”
He is not Tobago born, but he knows one thing: That is his country!
So, let me state this to the people of Trinidad: Tobago is not your little sister who you can clout and send in the shop—she is your twin. We are more than bene balls, heritage festival, planting peas and crab and dumpling! But I will hang on to those dumplings, because until Crix changes the back of the package to say “Product of Trinidad AND TOBAGO” I will not take another bite; Them vital supplies eh so vital to me!
All ah we is one family!
I am a Tobadadian.
©2005-2006 Trinidad Publishing Company Limited
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Like you callin out ENT!
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good article - she damn right!
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i agree with the post 100%
Being from Trinidad I guess we never think about how an issue it is for we fellow Tobagonians.
I is ah Tobadadian too :)
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Bovell right!! TnT it is by me toooooo
I cyar eat crix no mo? shims man ;D
buh she ent mention Ole Time Wedding ;)
I tink I is ah half Toboggan ;D
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She shoulda call out de calypsonian
I cyah beleive it still ha people dat tink everybody in tobago blue black...some trinidad people go perpetually remain ignorant and dunce oui :-\
ah wonder if Johnny Soong did name he club after she
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tobago ahve about 4 or 5 light skin women(who ere born there)..lol i know bout 4. :devil:
i say blame all dem grenadian and vencentian dat invade...heheheheh ent TI
sparrow say all tobago gyul sweet he didnt say de light skin.....
My mother is a tobadadian- my mother half spanish so she very light(one ah de 4 sweet ones i know)
is am a trinbagonian
ALL AH WE IS ONE FAMILYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
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ah wonder if Johnny Soong did name he club after she
Dutty Dutty Dutty :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:
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How much of this grumbling woulda go on if the name of the twin island country was just Trinidad from the get go.
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Like you callin out ENT!
hahaha ENT!
the irony is killing me.
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:-X
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The word "TRINI" not supposed to be representative of everyone....from Trinidad AND Tobago?
So what could we use for short then....MAXIMUM of TWO SYLLABLES.
Trogo
Tribi
I say Trini for everybody. Trinbagonian is the long version so that in a different category.
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The word "TRINI" not supposed to be representative of everyone....from Trinidad AND Tobago?
So what could we use for short then....MAXIMUM of TWO SYLLABLES.
Trogo
Tribi
I say Trini for everybody. Trinbagonian is the long version so that in a different category.
TRITOB: http://www.socawarriors.net/forum/index.php?topic=22274.0
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TRITOB: http://www.socawarriors.net/forum/index.php?topic=22274.0
Thanks e-man.
People from the island of Tobago....what you have to say about the word tritob instead of trini?