Today
I spoke to a good friend of mine about a situation that I'm sure has passed
through the minds of every young graduate/college student in my small country
of St.Vincent and the Grenadines (and I will be talking about SVG for now, my
non-Vincentian readers because in order to accomplish much, one must first
accomplish little, but feel free to chime in with your perspective!). The
situation to which I'm referring is the overwhelming urge to flee the country.
We are not the war torn Congo and the typhoon ravaged Philippines, but the
young developed minds of the country have no desire to stay and nation-build.
One might ask why, only to have a chirpy reply of "What does this country
have to offer me? No jobs, nowhere to go, political spitefulness, just 150
square miles of boring backwardness." And yet...there is a small trickle
of determined young folk abroad who are excited and willing to come back and
make a difference. So where does the great divide begin and why? I think the
divide starts once we finish college.
I
believe that for a good number of us (and I say us because I've been struggling
with this myself) once we have a taste of spending any amount of time in a
developed country, we begin to dream of Peter Pan lifestyles where we'd never
grow up and we would escape the reality of our situations back home. Because
think about it, back home we pay high prices for clothes from
"foreign" that were so last year's fashion, our movies come out two
to three months after the premiere if at all (by the time they arrive, we've
already seen the DVD version online - supposedly) things that we consider
readily accessible abroad are scarce or inhumanely priced at home.
I
know for myself, paying $10 for a proper fitting dress in "foreign"
and coming home to see the same dress for $175 EC left me with a dry taste in
my mouth. Don't even talk about the food. And that's just two of many things
that bothered me whenever I came back from travel. Returning filled me with a
feeling of impending doom and sadness that I was uncomfortable with for a long
time. I was unhappy at the prospect of coming back home, and I was ashamed that
I felt that way. But I was friends with a few people who lived abroad and
wanted to come back and I couldn't understand. Why would you give up cheap
food, over 200 types of ice-cream, cheap clothes, and the opportunity to do one
different thing every single day, to come back to an island that you could
navigate in three hours? Did they know how hard it was to find a good shoe on
an island?
And their answer was so simple. They didn't want to be a cog in a machine. I thought that was such a mindblowing statement. Think about it readers: unless you've got a ton of money, you're going to be one of millions working for the famed 1% who run the foreign countries. Basically, cogs in a machine. However, in the Caribbean, there is a 100% higher chance of being your own boss, as an entrepreneur, or the head of a ministry, anything really. And some just genuinely want to see their country prosper and do well. And that made me feel even more ashamed. I'll tell you a story.
I
had the opportunity of going on student exchange that allowed me to visit
Canada for the first time. For four months, the longest I'd been away in a
truly "foreign" country (cuz Barbados don't count) I was in this
place of crisp air, cheaper clothes and movies that I could see on the premiere
day. I envisioned myself living there wearing thigh high boots and coats from
Sex in the City. And then on the first week of school everyone asked where I
was from and NO-ONE knew that the
country I came from existed. Ok, maybe two people. But that was it. A young
Asian guy asked me how I was able to come to Canada, and how I managed to
escape the Pirates. I know I read about people being asked questions about huts
and transportation but I never believed it until I experienced it. I got offended.
Then I got mad. Then I got determined. I wanted to come home. Not because
Canada wasn't a great place, it's an awesome place, but I think that everyone
should know WHERE my country was and that it is home to 110,000 people.
Barbados has Rihanna to put them on the map. What did we have apart from random
shots from Pirates of the Caribbean? I mean, people thought we had real life
pirates in our waters for griefs sake. I don't want people thinking I have to
fight off pirates to travel (really, random Asian guy?!).
So
if I came home and even did one thing, one small thing that allowed my country
to be more than a blip on a map for all of twenty minutes, I'd do it. But I want
to throw the question out to you guys. Why are you so determined to abandon the
proverbial ship? If you can leave shores to be entrepreneurs, can't you do the
same at home? A lot of people leave here looking for greener pastures only to
end up doing things they never would have dreamed they would do for money. And
for those who want to come back, why do you? Does anyone want to...come home?
Swingin
in my mango tree,
K.C
(P.S, I mean swinging swinging, not...swinging)
