Soca Warriors on Trinbago Airways to Germany

THE EDITOR: After having had this discussion with a group of patriotic Trinbagonians — we have come to the conclusion that it is high time that Trinidad and Tobago be granted its own national airline. Now, many may object to the sentiment — citing that we do in fact have a national airline — called BWIA. BWIA — an acronym which has absolutely nothing to do with the name of our country — is often being referred to as ‘ours’. I tend to disagree for many reasons. Having already mentioned the fact that BWIA in no way refers to Trinidad and Tobago, I would never accept it as belonging to ‘us’ because it is painted in colours like aquamarine, yellow and silver. If we ‘own’ the bird, why on earth can’t we let it wear plummages of our national colours — red, white and black? Why can’t we call it ‘Trinbago Airways’, ‘Trinidad and Tobago Airlines’ or even ‘Trinbagonian Airways’?

The British no longer have their bloody grip on our country and still, the twin island republic, has a so-called national airline bearing the name ‘British’! The presence of our national instrument on the aircraft’s tail is a welcome one, but not in tandem with the present acronym. The Jamaicans must be a proud people when ‘Air Jamaica’ touches down at the Michael Manley airport. Tobagonians might be somewhat pleased that ‘Tobago Express’ was brought on stream. Think how wonderful it would be to see the ‘Soca Warriors’ en route to Germany in June 2006 for their historic first ever participation in the World Cup, on board a red, white and black bird.

R GREENE
Port-of-Spain