Tim Ewbank - Trinidad & Tobago--Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture

eISBN: 978-1-85733-547-7

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue entry for this book is available from the British Library

Copyright 2011 Kuperard

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior permission in writing from the publishers.

Culture Smart! is a registered trademark of Bravo Ltd

First published in Great Britain 2011
by Kuperard, an imprint of Bravo Ltd
59 Hutton Grove, London N12 8DS
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8446 2440 Fax: +44 (0) 20 8446 2441
www.culturesmart.co.uk
Inquiries:

Series Editor Geoffrey Chesler

Cover image: Carnival mask, Trinidad iStockphoto.com

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TIM EWBANK was born in Bournemouth, England. He started his career in journalism after graduating from Aberdeen University, where he gained a distinction in English. He has worked for several English national newspapers, including the Daily Mail, covering assignments all over the world. Tim is the author of sixteen books, including best-selling biographies of footballer David Beckham, cricketer Andrew Flintoff, and singer Rod Stewart. As a travel writer he has worked in TV and radio, and contributed articles to a wide range of international newspapers and magazines. For the past sixteen years he has been a regular visitor to Trinidad and Tobago, where his partner has a home in Port of Spain.

The Culture Smart! series is continuing to expand.
For further information and latest titles visit
www.culturesmart.co.uk

The publishers would like to thank CultureSmart! Consulting for its help in researching and developing the concept for this series.

CultureSmart! Consulting creates tailor-made seminars and consultancy programs to meet a wide range of corporate, public-sector, and individual needs. Whether delivering courses on multicultural team building in the USA, preparing Chinese engineers for a posting in Europe, training call-center staff in India, or raising the awareness of police forces to the needs of diverse ethnic communities, it provides essential, practical, and powerful skills worldwide to an increasingly international workforce.

For details, visit www.culturesmartconsulting.com

CultureSmart! Consulting and CultureSmart! guides have both contributed to and featured regularly in the weekly travel program Fast Track on BBC World TV.

The first thing to know about Trinidad and Tobago is that the two islands could hardly be more different. For most people, the Caribbean conjures up images of a poster-perfect paradise, sun-kissed beaches, palm trees swaying in the warm breeze, and the tinkling of steelpan music never far away. But while this preconception largely holds true for Tobago, Trinidad has too much going on to bother unduly with tourism.

With bustling, hectic Port of Spain as its capital, Trinidad is cosmopolitan, culturally diverse, and multiethnic. A population descended from East Indian, African, Spanish, French, Dutch, American, Chinese, Syrian, and English forebears gets along in relative harmony. High-rise towers, old colonial-style houses, and gothic cathedrals somehow blend with Hindu mandirs, flagship hotels, Muslim mosques, modern apartment complexes, and newly built houses displaying Hindu prayer flags. Its a potent population mix with an underlying vibrancy that explodes into full expression each February with the celebration of Carnivala dazzling, open-to-all-comers, mass participation street extravaganza of steel bands, calypso, dance, and the magnificent spectacle of the imaginatively and colorfully costumed bands playing mas (short for masquerade). Not for nothing is Trinidad known as the party island.

By contrast, Trinidads sister island Tobago is much quieter, predominantly rural, heavily forested and, aside from its busy capital, Scarborough, and a handful of other small towns and villages, its charm lies in its picturesque bays and unspoiled beaches, although, to cater to its burgeoning tourism, hotels and resorts are gradually laying claim to stretches of its coastline.

Trinis, as Trinidadians like to be called, are by nature friendly, outgoing, laid-back, and hospitable and need no second invitation to enjoy themselves, usually to a Caribbean beat. They have a history of slavery and indentured labor that, even today, engenders a determination to live their lives as they choose rather than to order. They know their country has problems and want these addressed with common sense, which, they believe, is all too often lacking at the top.

This book explores the codes and paradoxes of Trinbagonian life, mindful of its many and varied traditions, customs, and cultures. It outlines the islands contrasting histories and opens a window into peoples private lives, showing how they interact socially, and their attitudes to visitors who are from foreign. It offers practical advice from how to play mas at Carnival to how to meet and make friends. Culture Smart! Trinidad and Tobago sets out to take you beyond the clichs to connect with the real people.