The Bligh We Should Not Give | Chronicles from a Caribbean Cubicle…

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I feel that those who talk the loudest have no idea what they’re talking about. To me, the best way to change behaviour is by demonstrating the desired behaviour. Often company owners and executive life one truth and tell their staff to life another. They will treat the customers like gods and insist their staff do the same, while the same staff is constantly disrespected, undermined and most of all, can’t pay their bills. It is ironical and would be amusing if it wasn’t sad.

Regards
Charmaine Morris

I have always found them easy to work with, however I would equate them with Americans in the way in which they have an egalitarian disposition in the workplace, punctuated by easy banter.

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As a Trini I can recognize a reluctance to take swift action, as in the examples you give, but for me this is often a reluctance to take ANY action and this is rooted in a fear of being blamed for when things go wrong.

I think Trinis don’t relate well to the word responsibility as we don’t listen to that word as genesis, as an opportunity to cause something to happen, or to create something, we hear it as apocalypse, as destruction has occurred and “Who is responsible?” In other word taking responsibility in Trinidad means having your name called when things go wrong. And there is pre-supposition that it will.

Responsibility = blame

As a result we are a risk averse people, preferring to keep our heads down rather than risk having it chopped off. We often get angry at those of us who do dare to take risks, especially when they succeed, and the common Trini reaction is to bring down those who are up to big things, taking big risks and reaping big rewards.

We will go out of our way to treat Brian Lara and our Govt ministers as if they owe us money, and spread any rumour we hear about them (while secretly feeling very proud to have them acknowledge us in public).

So I don’t see it as some carefully cultivated cultural strategy that works to achieve greatness in Trinidad. Not assigning leaders, not taking leadership, not stepping up to the challenge is part of our culture and it doesn’t work here or anywhere else.

Given this culture of crabs in a barre,l the people who do take risks here and achieve deserve special commendation, because they achieved greatness in a culture that is geared towards killing it.

A friend of mine described it this way. She said ” In America people are stabbing you in your back so that they can get ahead, here people just stabbing you in your back so that you stay back with the rest of them.”

Trinidad is not alone in this cultural dysfunction, but as you have observed we certainly have perfected it to an art, and we are only able to get by because of the bounty of oil and gas. I hope we can get our act together before it runs out.

And btw, the word ‘disrespect” is thrown about here quite a lot also.