Text & Photos: Julie Schwietert Collazo
I’ve been in St. Kitts this week, a country about which I knew little before I arrived.
The trip has fit another piece into the postcolonial puzzle that I’m sure I’ll spend the rest of my life putting together and working to understand.
St. Kitts, a tiny country (68 square miles), is not without its problems, but it has been politically stable since gaining its independence in 1983. The current prime minister, Dr. Denzil Douglas, has served three terms, and is preparing to run for a fourth.
And while one can’t make the generalization that the quality of life is exceptional across the board (Can that really be said about any country, though, when one takes a long, hard look at marginalized people?), the local economy seems remarkably robust, particularly considering that the sugar industry–the country’s main source of income for decades– collapsed completely just three years ago after underperforming and draining government resources for the preceding 10 years. As is the case with the other Caribbean nations, tourism has rapidly become the island’s bread and butter.
A woman I interviewed here said that she feels optimistic about the island’s future, and it’s a sentiment that seems to be shared by many.
Today, while roaming about Basseterre, the capital, I noticed campaign signs featuring familiar words and phrases: “Hope.” “Change.” “Yes, we can!”
It seems the candidate running against Dr. Douglas has appropriated a page from the Obama playbook.
And he might just win by doing so.
“We waited up all night,” the woman told me, referring to the night of the election returns in the United States. “Everyone was in the streets, watching big TVs and cheering for Barack Obama. And when he won, well… we all just shouted and danced and wailed– it was like he was our president, too.”
I get the feeling Obama’s campaigning style is going to influnce a lot of politicans, especially those trying to win government from leaders who have been in power for quite some time.
Post-colonial countries are interesting places. A puzzle, like you said. That’s what makes Macau and Hong Kong interesting places, if you delve beneath the surface of things.
It’s nice to see US politicians inspiring the people of other nations, instead of those people burning the politicos in effigy.
@Stevo- Agreed on both counts. And I was in Hong Kong right as it was about to be “handed over”: I knew nothing about these issues at the time, but now that I know more, I find all postcolonial states really interesting.