For a while I pondering this and i just HAD to hear your opinions....

[Bourbon]

What Exactly would you define as Trinidad and Tobago's culture? We see the traditional things that might come to mind evolving....most times to their detriment.....and becoming  less deserving of pride. We have virtually imported the Jamaican style of music.......diction etc....but seem reluctant to promote our own. Has our culture become exctinct? Or is it what we really think it is? We at times tend to cuss our lack of discipline......carefree nature........and so on...but that is one thing we have always maintained from since the beginning. Discuss.

[Dutty]

If I may interject and detour the thread for a minute..I would like to discuss where you does buy your greens...I bet yours doh have no seed in it ent?

[pecan]

If I may interject and detour the thread for a minute..I would like to discuss where you does buy your greens...I bet yours doh have no seed in it ent?

Dutty . .give de man a chance ... i hope you are not deliberately trying to kill de thread?

[pecan]

Bourbon

Culture consists of many elements, including music.  So to analyze T&T culture, you many discussion items need to be brought to the forefront.

Music
Dance
Cuisine
Art
Theatre
Fashion
Values
Language/Dialect

I cyar tink of any more at the moment

If you look at at all of these, an argument could be made that the culture is alive and strong

[Bourbon]

Ok. Culture Defined here by the dictionary.
These points stood out to me:

   

the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group: the youth culture; the drug culture.

The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought.

Now i appreciate you mentioning these points.....cuz this way we can look at them individually and see how they are right now in our society.

Music
Dance
Cuisine
Art
Theatre
Fashion
Values
Language/Dialect

What i wanted to look at was each one of these aspects individually....and any more you could think of...so we get a true picture of it. I not claiming to know it all....i just trying to provoke discussion. The first thing that came to my mind was music....and this is how i see it:

Music: Most music especially that seen to target the youth demographic has been branded as Jamaican or strongly influenced by Jamaica. Declining lyrical content etc.

Lets hear any other opinions on this and other aspects of our culture you might think relevant.

[cocoapanyol]

I think Trini culture is ah subtle ting.  Yuh have de obvious music (calypso, steelpan, food), but fuh me is not something ah could really express in words. It jus is.  Is like knowing ah Trini from any other islander but little things like how we eat or mix drink and certainly by how we talk.  How we interact with others and each other.

Is like tuday at lunch, ah was wid ah Jamaican co-worker and ah spot dis car ahead ah me wid ah license plate "TNT ENT".  Right away, ah tell meh fren, DAT IS AH TRINI in dat car.  She say how yuh know.  Ah say....ENT.  Is only Trinis does say dat.  When we get close tuh de car, ah see de plate was one ah dem dat have T&T an de flag on it.  Ah say tuh meh fren..."Yuh see?"  She smile.

Sometimes, I could jes watch people in a crowd and know dem is Trini and we have so many different races.  Ah cyar explain it.

anyway....daise meh 2 cents