Having spent some time on our second campus, the University of Trinidad and Tobago John Donaldson, or the Creativity Campus, I am getting a nice second look at Trinidad’s student population. You would expect universities to feel starkly different when the costs are entirely subsidized by the government and local students pay nothing to attend. Not so. People still willingly choose to be engineering majors. Some students still probably take the privilege more seriously than at Northwestern.
I have been so impressed by the government initiatives, the construction, the infrastructure, the agricultural development and the overall drive to be self sufficient in Trinidad. And to think people tried to tell me Trinidad was not industrialized before I came here. It is the racially divided politics that is really disappointing and leaves every mixed kid caught in the crossfire.
It is interesting that despite being such a small island, the regions vary so much in level of development, dominant culture, and physical appearance of those who live there. The pockets of Indian neighborhoods are a bit worrisome coming from a multicultural integration standpoint. Maybe dougla people are the only hope for more peaceful racial relations.
