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The twin Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Tobago could hardly be more different. Trinidad is vibrant, cosmopolitan, culturally diverse, and multiethnic, with a population descended from East Indian, African, Spanish, French, Dutch, American, Chinese, Syrian, and English forebears. This potent mix finds full expression in unbridled revelry each February with the celebration of Carnival—a dazzling, open-to-all-comers, mass participation street extravaganza of steel bands, calypso, dance, and the magnificent costumed bands “playing mas” (short for masquerade). Tobago, by contrast, is much quieter, predominantly rural, and a tranquil tropical idyll. 
Both islands have a history of slavery and indentured labor that, even today, engenders a determination in the people to live life as they choose rather than to order. “Trinis” are by nature friendly, outgoing, and hospitable. They are slow to anger and quick to walk away from confrontation. They have an infectious joie de vivre and a laid-back attitude to time—which foreigners can sometimes find frustrating.
 
Culture Smart! Trinidad and Tobago explores the codes and paradoxes of Trinbagonian life, describing the many and varied traditions, customs, and cultures of its diverse society. It outlines the contrasting histories of the two islands, and opens a window into people’s private lives, showing how they interact socially, and their attitudes to people who are “from foreign.” It offers practical advice from business tips to how to play mas at Carnival. It aims to make that first trip to the two islands as rewarding as possible by taking you beyond the stereotypes to the real people ... Read more

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Chapters: International Soca Monarch. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 89. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The International Soca Monarch competition is an annual dual-contest event which is held on every Carnival Friday (aka Fantastic Friday) in Trinidad and Tobago. Contestants in the event may vie for two separate crowns or titles, the International Soca Monarch (aka the Power Soca Monarch) for uptempo songs, and International Groovy Soca Monarch for slower-paced songs. Recently an additional award has been added, called the People's Choice, which involves text message voting by bmobile subscribers. Subscribers can vote multiple times for their favorite artist during the competition and the artist who receives the most votes is given an additional cash prize.The International Soca Monarch competition has become the mecca of soca artists in Trinidad where the event has been hosted since its inception; and the region, as many artists who have competed on its stage have moved on to successful careers. Dubbed the "Super Bowl of soca music" it is also a highly-anticipated and well-attended event that has been graced with such internationally-acclaimed recording artists as Machel Montano, Maxi Priest, Alison Hinds, Destra Garcia and Superblue to name a few.Soca musicians from around the region and the world are eligible to compete in the preliminary round of the competition and must attain the required number of points to advance into the semi-finals and subsequently the finals which is an action-packed event that is now televised and broadcast live to viewers in Trinidad and Tobago, the Caribbean and other regions of the world courtesy the MTV Tempo Television Network. The show is also streamed online and is said to reach more than 150 million people worldwide through internet broa...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=21851685 ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellently written book.
This book deals with the Portugese of Trinindad and Tobago, a community that until now has barely been researched.Ferreira has evidently spent a great deal of time researching.It is very well written and a must readfor anyone interested in West Indian history. ... Read more

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On the days preceding Ash Wednesday, Trinidad erupts inan orgy of excitement, noise, color, and energy known ascarnival. Other countries celebrate carnival, but none quite likeTrinidad, where carnival is not just a two-day event; it is anall-year-round statement of identity. Up to 100,000 Trinidadians, oralmost 10 percent of the population, actively take part incarnival. Everyone talks and argues about it, some boycott it, but noone ignores it. Calypsonian SuperBlue has called it "one of the mostawesome moods in the world." Trinidadians have a word to describe it:"Bacchanal!"

In this vivid and exuberant book, journalist Peter Mason looks at thepast, present, and future of carnival, using not just personalobservations and printed sources but also interviews with a widevariety of participants, including performers, pan tuners, designers,and stick fighters. Mason examines the three essential elements ofTrinidadian carnival—steelband, calypso, and masquerade. He alsodiscusses recent developments like the growing influence of women andthe effects of commercialism. As Mason demonstrates, carnival bringstogether nearly all aspects of Trinidad's culturalidentity—religion, music, language, humor, folk traditions,politics, gender roles, ethnic traditions, even food and sport. Italso has an influence, outside the country, on how people view theisland and as an export in itself. Mason weaves all these facets ofcarnival together to create a vibrant sense of the phenomenonitself—its wit and its vulgarity, its sumptuous colors andheart-pounding noise, its competitiveness and spontaneity, the monthsof hard work to produce two days of exuberant self-abandonment—allthe complex energies that lead to "Bacchanal!"

Companion CD available ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Countries and Their Cultures, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 1254 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Covers the broad range of popular religious culture of the United States at the close of the twentieth century. Beliefs, practices, symbols, traditions, movements, organizations, and leaders from the many traditions in the pluralistic American community are represented. Also includes cults and phenomena that drew followers, such as Heaven's Gale and UFOs. ... Read more

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Designed for undergraduates with little or no background in world music, Music in Trinidad is one of several volumes that can be used along with Thinking Musically, the main book in the Global Music Series, in any introductory world music or ethnomusicology course.Music in Trinidad explores how the history and culture of Trinidad is related to the expression and interpretation of Carnival music, the musical tradition most representative of Trinidadian culture. It looks at the genres of calypso, steelband, and soca and describes both their musical structure and their political and symbolic meanings in Trinidad's society. The book also examines how the instruments, sounds, and lyrics of Carnival music provide a sense of national and ethnic identity. Music in Trinidad includes many vivid accounts and illustrations of Carnival performances and is packaged with a 70-minute CD that includes examples of the various genres of Carnival music. ... Read more

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"This book deals with British colonial strategy in its colonies of Trinidad and Tobago and British Guiana/Guyana to deal with an East Indian threat to the political order it desired in the run up to independence for Trinidad and Tobago in the 1960's and the threat of Communist subversion in Guyana in the 1950's and 1960's. In both instances the British strategy called for the creation of a racist political order that destroyed the East Indian threat in Trinidad and Tobago and placed a minority race in power through successive fraudulent elections until the decade of the 1990's in Guyana. The British legacy in both instances is a racist social order premised upon racist hegemony." ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Social unrest has shaped the development of Trinidad and Tobago since the middle of the 19th century. Attempts by the British colonial government to crack down on the celebration of Carnival sparked the Canboulay Riots in 1881 and 1884. Attempts to control the celebration of Hosay by the Indian population culminated in the Hosay Riots in 1884. In the early 20th century, the Water riots culminated in the destruction of the Red House, the seat of government, by a mob of protestors.In response to poor working conditions and inadequate pay, the Labour riots of 1937 shook Trinidad and led to the birth of the trade union movement. Labour problems again resulted in unrest in 1965. ... Read more

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Interpretive outcomes and survey findings update ethnographic accounts of the 1950s and provide more recent empirical data to support policy and programme initiatives for influencing male reproductive behaviour and father roles. A synthesis of phenomenology and rational choice theory and a sequential mixed methods QUAL?QUAN?QUAL research design builds on each phase of inquiry. The interpretive outcomes suggest that associatedmeanings are socially constructed during primary socialization and later determines behaviours in intimate relationships and the manifestation of father roles. Behaviours are differentially influenced by individual characteristics, socioeconomic status, the situations in which the behaviours occur and sociocultural factors. Qualitative assessment ofprogramme and policy initiatives suggest a greater advocacy and support role for the media, civil society organizations, and state agencies. Full engagement of policy - gender, family and population, and programme initiatives directed at men in the context of male reproductive behaviour and fatherhood are also indicated. Caribbean policy makers,programme planners and researcherswill find the contents useful ... Read more

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This comedy of manners in set in Trinidad and is written by the author of "The Mystic Masseur", "The Middle Passage", "The Return of Eva Perron", "Mr Stone and the Knights Companion" and "A House for Mr Biswas". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A universal story told as a fable
This is the first Naipaul book I've read (following Paul Theroux's "Sir Vidia's Shadow", which I highly recommend), and it has spurred me into reading more from Naipaul.Not to bring anyone into disregard, but I believe it was high time for the Nobel Committee to return to richly satisfying writers of a monumental girth (such as Naipaul, Saramago or Garcia Marquez, to name just some of the more recent ones) when choosing its literature prize winners.

To the Suffrage of Elvira, then.The story is a simple one, very charmingly told."Pat" Harbans is a man on the verge of old age who, mainly to be in a position to benefit from public works contracts (roadworks)decides to stand as a candidate for MP for the region of Elvira, Caroni District.It is 1950, the second election after Trinidad's independence from Britain, and in Elvira there are 8,000 voters, of which the majority are of Hindu origin, with a few Muslim, Black and "Spanish" ones thrown in.Mr. Harbans is traveling to the town of Elvira to visit Baksh (a rambunctious tailor who is seen as the leader of the Muslim group) and Chittanrajan (a rich goldsmith, who leads the Hindu faction).His hope is to get Baksh's and Chittanrajan's support, thus ensuring his final victory in the elections.During the trip everything seems to go wrong.Harbans runs over a dog and almost hits two American Jehova's Witnesses on bikes.He sees these events as an ill omen, and he is not mistaken.In Elvira he is forced to pay through the nose, as all his future constituents take him for a ride that doesn't end until the end of the book.He is forced to appoint Baksh's son, Foam, as campaign manager and to agree to his son's marriage to Chittanrajan's daughter.He is forced to open an account at Ramlogan's run shop for his supporters, and is eventually forced to pay for the privilege of visiting ill Hindu voters, for the burial of a political opponent, and for a motorcade on election day.Everyone, and not the least Harbans (who is not at all suited for the rigours of a campaign, who hates to talk in public and easily falls into depression) is flawed.Harbans's main opponent is a black candidate, nicknamed Preacher (who comes across mainly as a religious fanatic), and the chief of Preacher's campaign is a confidence man named Lorkhoor.I won't tell much more, not to spoil the pleasure of future readers, but suffice to say that even the more appealing characters (Foam and Chittanrajan) are not without their blemishes.This is small town, third world life, warts and all.And the election is absolutely true to life, and not only for Trinidad, but also for many other similar regions.I am not Trinidadian but Colombian, and I could recognize all the characters portrayed.

Naipaul is Swiftian, but not as acerbic as would be the case in his future works.The election (and, indeed, democracy) is a mockery, and, while everyone tries to take advantage of everyone else, the strong prevail whereas the weak fall by the side, not without having inflicted some damage as a price for their destitution.No one is too weak to spit and bite and even the big beasts sometimes have to retreat (although they win in the end).

The book is funny and probably was very difficult to write in spite of its short length.I regretted not knowing what happened with the Jehova's Witnesses in the end, and I think Naipaul could have given Preacher a bit more of air time.But otherwise, I have no complaints.Read this book."Do your part, vote the heart".

Revisiting some old themes, and well worth it.
This is a short book, and the subject matter is fairly commonplace - the book is about an election.However, Naipaul is such a master of constructing personalities, that the subject becomes completely fascinatingand the lives of the characters that populate the story are as involving asthe plot.All his characters - Harbans, Chitaranjan, Baksh, and the townof Elvira - are developed with amazing natural grace and, as always,Naipaul's conversational style is engaging from start to finish.The storyitself is consistent with themes he previously explores: provincialism,tragedy, self-consciousness, and how the individual finds his place in theworld.I still recommend "Miguel Street" as the perfectintroduction to the author, but TSOE is right up there on the list of hismust-reads - not only because it is a heartbreaking story but also becauseit is a full display of Naipaul's technique.

unassumingly twisted view of the Caribbean
V.S. Naipaul presents to us an unassumingly twisted view of a rural Trinidad on the verge of self-government and postcolonialism.He spins a carnival of motley characters (Hindus, Muslims, Blacks, Creoles, EastIndians) who bite, backbite, and betray each other as their town's firstelections approaches.While Naipaul once again seems to lampoon a fatuous,confused Caribbean culture, he makes serious speculations on theCaribbean's ability to govern itself orderly,effectively and justly in thewake of colonial control.His vision is stark and bleak as thesecharacters grotesquely play out their parts, be it (pseudo)politician,campaign manager, voter, prophet, pundit, bulge-bellied child.Coming fromBelize, I can say the impressions are in many ways familiar, but may alsoveer into the histrionics of a dispeptic author who has suffered too longunder a stagnating colonial society that has never respected his art andhis worldliness, or understood his need to rise above the mire ofcolonialism.

An ealry work that presages the sublimity to come
The Suffrage of Elvira, is a novel based on an election that occurs inrural Trinidad. Being Trinidadian gives me a unique vantage point, there isa more gratifying appreciation for the truth of this novel. Despite theshortness of the work, their is an intricate plot that is surprising,humorous, and tragic in turns. The story generates interest and exicitmentfor the reader, and may compel him to consume this marvellous craft in onesitting. ... Read more