FLYING THE NATIONAL COLOURS — ALWAYS ...

Football is the most popular sport in the world. More people play it than any other and the World Cup 2006 has been a wonderful event so far for the players, the spectators and the countries. Sport unites a country. There is always a loser but in this competition some of the losers have also been winners like Ghana and South Korea.

As a matter of fact I was in Toronto a couple Sundays ago when the Korean national team drew with mighty France at the World Cup and was there ever a celebration after! Hundreds of Koreans (and Asians of all types as well) after watching the game on big screens at the Rogers Centre, dressed all in red, faces painted in the colours of their national flags, streamed into the streets waving flags, banging drums and honking their car horns in a spontaneous show of collective emotion. I had to do a double take to make sure that I wasn’t back home, the way they behaved!

A couple days later, around midnight, we were in Miami when the city’s basketball team, the Heat, won the 2006 NBA Championship.

Again, thousands screamed at the tops of their voices, high-fived each other and hugged and danced when the final result came in — once again, Cubans, Haitians, whites, blacks, Chinese, they all embraced and showed the power of sport in bringing people together.

Granted, they probably returned to their old ways once the euphoria wore off but for that brief period they were as one, complete strangers from different lands, separated by economic and racial impediments, yet able to set aside whatever differences they may have had. I wish it could always be like that.

I was unable to see all three of Trinidad’s World Cup games, the only one I watched in its entirety was the first one against Sweden. From what I gather that was the best of the lot anyway. Where I was in Montreal, showing Trinidad’s matches live wasn’t very high on their list of priorities and so I caught glimpses of the last two games on airport tv screens and on tv highlights.

It’s amazing to think but despite what some of us feel and our politicians tell us, Trinidad still isn’t well known by many, many people. I was in the company of several foreigners, many of them well-educated, from the US, UK, Europe, Africa and parts of the former Soviet bloc of countries and, maybe less than ten percent knew where our country was located. Nearly all of them knew the Caribbean but thought that Jamaica, Puerto Rico and Cuba made up most of that area! One girl from the Ukraine thought Trinidad was close to Australia!

Yes, the World Cup may have done plenty to announce to the World that we do exist but we have some ways to go before we get to the point where our politicians say we already have. The thing is, almost everywhere I have travelled I have encountered Trinis in that city yet we remain largely unknown. Some are faceless — like the man who hung a huge Trinidad flag outside his door along Crescent Street in Montreal yet was never home every time I tried to visit. Or the person who hung the Red, White and Black midpoint along the train tracks which I spied during a rigorous six-hour journey from Toronto to Montreal. Others are easier to spot.

Like the woman in Portland, Maine who was shopping and was so overjoyed when she heard my Trini accent she rushed over and introduced herself. (She was from Chaguanas by the way!) Or the chef in Kissimmee, Florida who ensured that I had the best cut of meat after spotting the Trinidad button I always wear abroad. Or the security guard in Philadelphia who went out of his way to buy us dinner, again when he heard the accent. There were and will be many incidents like these — it’s hard to keep track. Trinis turn up in the strangest places.

During a pit stop in the wilds of Nevada at about three in the morning, a young woman heard a couple of us talking amongst ourselves. She was fascinated and asked what language we were speaking in, if it was our native tongue. When I informed her that we spoke English she was incredulous remarking, “No way, people from Trinidad talk different, sort of like ‘rak-a-tak-atak,’ some sort of weird language!” Yet, to a homesick Trini, that is the sweetest sound they’ll ever hear. Regardless of colour, creed, or race, once we are “out there” we become uniquely Trinidadian, a disparate force each trying to find another like themselves to unite with.

It’s only over here that we are selfish, fight amongst ourselves, call the other derogatory names and speak hateful things of our neighbours.

“Out there,” it’s different. Why can’t it always be like that? Why can’t we carry over the unity we build, feel and nurture in sport all the time? A few weeks ago everyone was sporting national flags all over the place — manufacturers couldn’t keep up. Yet, as with most things in our “Land of the nine-day wonder” these same symbols of nationhood are lying scattered all over the highways, torn, tattered — no longer fashionable. I have a flag in my office that flew above an actual Trinidad mission in Brazil — this never comes down, through the highs and the many lows that we encounter. Nationalism, patriotism and love of country shouldn’t be seen as temporary or a fad — it’s a lifestyle/mindset that we need to adopt.

As a young man growing up reading comics and sci-fi we always looked forward to a better world, free of animosity and hate, where man’s inhumanity to man was a thing of the past — always looking forward to recognising man’s inherent greatness.

Sadly, I think it’ll be a long time before we realise all of those dreams. But we can work towards it. Having encountered those many homesick Trinis all over the world, I’m wondering how we can attract these people back to our country — to help develop it for future generations. Maybe we should turn our minds to this.

So until next time, God willing, know that Faith without works is dead.

As usual I can be reached at THE GENESIS FOUNDATION at 627-8433 or email genesistt@tstt.net.tt