Trinidad & Tobago: Say no to chutney
Written byGeorgia Popplewell
The Trinidad & Tobago World Cup Blog analyzes the request by the Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) to have the word ‘chutney’ to be added to the name of T&T's national football, making them the Soca Chutney Warriors.
Written byGeorgia Popplewell
2 comments
Personally, I think it’s a brilliant name. Though I’d make it “Soca Mango Chutney Warriors” as everyone knows mango chutney is the best kind.
The casual reader on this would miss the issues related to Trinidad and Tobago’s ‘Trinity Cross’ award as well. In Trinidad and Tobago – and Guyana – these are political issues, leftovers from English rule and geoeconomic ‘practicalities’ of the English Empire.
But Indians (and I speak outside of my half-blood) have a point on a lot of this. Most people don’t realize that there are *gasp* people of Indian origin around the world, and in Trinidad and Tobago we’re talking about roughly half the population.
In this *specific* case, I believe it’s nonsense, and the GOPIO picked the wrong fight. But in the grand scheme of things – which is larger than the World Cup – there is a problem with the identifying of the Indian presences throughout the world – and I’ll slam the Asian continent on that as well.
“Yeah, but my best friend is an Indian…” :-)