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Make Way for de Youth

Ariana Marshall
Mar 31, 2017
7 min read

Are those the lyrics? Technically no. Figuratively yes....in my head.

When I listened again after hearing the artists’ names – Make way for the U! Make way for the R – Ultimate Rejects. Ohhh....Ah ha lol!

I relate to this too.

Why is it that I have felt like an Ultimate Reject from the time I decided to get on that plane and move back home to Barbados.

How many times can I take hearing the word no.

I search everyday for jobs overseas but I can’t bring myself to actually take one.

It is time to buckle down and just deal with the reality that if you have a different view, a creative solution and criticisms of how things are - you are rejected by Caribbean societies.

Especially if your face looks too young.

Now I could go deep into how this Full Extreme song moved me, how it represents Caribbean reality – the good, the bad and the hopeful or simply how musically it was so refreshing to hear a familiar voice and sound in a very different way that appeals to youth globally. The remixes reflect that from soca to edm - this song has levels of vibes.

I could go deeper – or you can just search the hashtag #wejamminstill or watch their video with over 1 million views. Look at the impact. Look at what this song means for the Caribbean Diaspora. The song has already gone beyond the Caribbean carnival audience to SXSW and Miami Music week. It has crossed audiences but still in an accented way – Trini accent, arrangement accent, brass accent, bpm accent and bass accent.

The point is this song goes beyond being easy to relate to or even relevant for Caribbean culture. It is about coping and hoping. Whether subconsciously or consciously, this song reminds Caribbean people that we’ve been through some things but the party will always be there.

Laugh if you want, that is a form of coping too.

The song reminds the Caribbean Diaspora of what we cope with too -

Immigration, misunderstood and appropriated Caribbean culture.
Trying to have solidarity with other immigrants on certain issues but we are dismissed as island people.
Facing the “We lived in paradise perception"
i.e. Island people must not really care that much about our issues because you can escape to paradise at anytime
i.e. Why would anything which happens outside of your island matter to you - you live in a beautiful place full of opportunities. You can live where we vacation so why should you care about life in the U.S., in the U.K....in Canada?

Things are not always as they appear…das why.

Back to coping.

Some joy-killing myopic thinkers may say partying is about running from your reality and not dealing with your issues. Much the same as how many people view alcohol consumption.

The truth is some of us do use parties, music and alcohol to run but because of how life is set up, we can’t run for ever so eventually we will have to run back or get runover.

Who wants to get runover?

Some of us can come back to the problems of life a lot more quickly and efficiently if we have coping strategies rather than pretending like we are dealing with issues and depriving ourselves of joy as punishment for not getting our life together.

Music and partying - this is our Caribbean way of coping and it resonates most with the youth. Youth are not the problem. Music is not the problem. Partying is not the problem.

Problem - We aren’t giving youth and the young at heart with creative ideas a substantial chance to make a difference. Youth are tokenized, when really now is the time for us to lead.

After all can we afford to wait, literally can we afford it?

Youth and the young at heart were NOT the ones who have been making the decisions about our economy.

Economy could fall down – We Jammin Still

Caribbean economies are struggling. Barbados foreign exchange reserves are dwindling. Government spending is sky high. Most Caribbean businesses are always complaining (sometimes I wonder if this a marketing strategy to play on our pity for their struggle). Then there is all of the population, development, resource and climate change stress on our islands.

I accelerated my plan of moving back to Barbados after I finished studying because – climate change is literally happening now and for me it became urgent to start working on the ground which grew me. Yes there is a lot of work the Caribbean diaspora does without being based on an actual island but we all know how things work in the Caribbean – if you run into someone face to face, more than likely you will get more business done than if you send them 3 emails, 6 whatsapps and 9 letters. Being home and being present is priceless. You can definitely better use the time you’d spend trying to make connections over the seas.

So back to climate change happening and our economies struggling. Climate change is influencing our health, our ability to export and import goods and tourism. On a micro-scale just as threats to the economy, lack of confidence in the government has the impact of reducing the risks we take and which foreign investors are willing to take on business in the Caribbean – so too does climate change have that affect.

I have a name for what results from this lack of confidence.

Juk out eye culture which includes -

“I not spending money on y’all” culture

“I will charge you more than I have to just in case the government take too long to give me my tax return culture”

“I will charge you more for this product because I don’t know if people will stop buying my product/service because of what the government does next culture”

“I will wait for this…I will wait for that….I end up not doing anything (paralysis by analysis) meanwhile the actions and decisions which create the struggling economy and slow down our ability to adapt to climate change – continue to happen” culture

The bridge between Caribbean people being able to cope with climate change is our economy. Not just how well our economy is doing but what does economy mean to us.

What economy means –

noun

1.

the wealth and resources of a country or region, especially in terms of the production and consumption of goods and services.

2.

careful management of available resources.

"even heat distribution and fuel economy"

synonyms:

thrift, thriftiness, providence, prudence, careful budgeting, economizing, saving, scrimping, restraint, frugality, abstemiousness

"one can combine good living with economy"

adjective

1.

(of a product) offering the best value for the money.

"an economy pack"

What does economy really mean to us?

It is time that we activate a new model. Based on talking to a lot of young people, young at heart people, stubborn old people and wise elders here’s our conclusion -

Step 1 – Import only good stuff, stop with the cheap quality crap. Buy quality in bulk in cooperation so that we can afford it. This creates the market for……Step 2.

Step 2 Businesses, entrepreneurs need to create products which actually improve our quality of life to bring in revenue and also subsidize the cost of dealing with the infrastructure of running the country.

Step 3 – Rethink tourism and integrate it into all of our public service needs.

Science tourism - invite emerging and established green technology companies which value cultural relevant marketing. The Caribbean could be a green economy exhibition stage for the best – with flavor.

Nature and Cultural Tourism – Film makers, video makers, photographers, researchers, scientists, consultants and artists come to the Caribbean to create content, build their portfolio and use the awesomeness of the background of the Caribbean for financial benefit.

Nothing is wrong with this.

However, an issue which goes under the radar is that often times the content created or knowledge gained benefits those outside of the region more than it benefits us who are paying to maintain the natural beauty of the Caribbean (our taxes) and who are the substance of that Caribbean culture.

Sometimes films made with a Caribbean background (including our smiling faces and accents) aren’t accessible in the Caribbean. Sometimes educational videos created in the Caribbean are never seen by the eyes of a child living in the Caribbean. Sometimes consultants, researchers and scientists make discoveries or conclusions which could benefit the very Caribbean which provided them with the data to advance knowledge, yet it doesn’t advance knowledge or application in the Caribbean. Most of the time, we in the Caribbean just don’t know about this information so how can we put it into practice?

Then there is the side note that we have excellent professionals in all of those career areas mentioned above who are based in the Caribbean, paying to live here, who have grown up here or who have a vested interest in the Caribbean – yet they can’t get work or their skills and experiences are rejected because “anything from overseas is better than what we have in the Caribbean” . This is not my experience alone. I hear and see it in every professional field in the Caribbean region.

Y’all we really need to consolidate our efforts, act as though we can think critically and think as though we don’t live in a bubble but still value what we have in the Caribbean highly. We need to get over this every man/woman for themselves ting…create tings to work together…and not for self serving purposes either….or purposes which immediately create more problems.

We can not always forsee what problems are coming but CHA we need to have some standards of evaluation outside of "well it was done before" or "we saw that it was done in xyz places".

We have to recall some memories about the resilience of Caribbean people to give us hope, strength and focus on the way forward. We need to listen, learn and make way for the youth to lead us out of the mess the generations before have made for us.

Please and thanks.