Sweet-Tooth Politics: African in the Caribbean - The Wise World Traveler: Becoming a Part of All that You Meet - page 328

terized by deference to one's social superiors and resigned acceptance of Brazil's vast dis-
parities of wealth. [285]
In the former British colony of Guyana, a per capita income of about $3,750 is the
backdrop to the country's politics. The population includes blacks (35 percent), East Indi-
ans (51 percent), and Amerinds. Blacks and Amerinds are primarily Christian; the South-
east Asians, however, are Muslim (10 percent of the Asians) and Hindu (40 percent).
Muslim and Hindu have cooperated in a successful attempt to wrest control of government
from the once-politically dominant blacks. But poverty in tandem with religious and race
rivalries can make a troubled polity. Before and since independence (1966), Guyana has
been beset by periodic waves of rioting and racial violence.
Unlike Guyana, the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is a haven of considerable polit-
ical stability. As its name asserts, it is a Republic of two islands, with Hindus clustered on
Trinidad. The Republic has a racially mixed population. Indians arrived after the abolition
of slavery in 1833, joined by Madeirans seeking jobs, freedom of religion, and political
dissent. Religious dissenters from Britain and France contributed to the white population,
so that today the population of the country's two islands is something on the order of 1.34
million, with 40 percent East Indians, 40 percent racially mixed, and perhaps one-half of
one percent is white.
Several explanations are offered to account for the country's stability. Some writers
ascribe stability to the country's delicate ethnic balance, as no one group is large enough to
tilt the scale downward with the weight of their numbers. Other writers see stability in the
country's Hindu heritage with its emphasis on Kharma— a divine law of action and conse-
quences—which Christians can easily assimilate to the Biblical injunction, “As ye sow, so
shall ye reap.” Another explanation also lies with religion. Blacks and those of mixed an-
cestry are nominally Christian, but many also profess Orisha, an African religion brought
by slaves. Orishans identify African gods with Christian saints; in doing so, they lessen
the likelihood of a country beset by the intolerance often associated with Christian fun-
damentalism. And still others (including the Trinidad-English writer, V.S. Naipaul) argue
that Trinidad's multiple cultural roots are so intertwined that the country's culture can only
be derivative and imitative. Happily for stability, goes the argument, derivative and imitat-
ive translate into British justice and fair play. Whatever the truer explanation, Trinidad and
Tobago's political stability suggests that the shadow of the sugarcane reflects the many skin
tones of those who worked the cane fields. More practically, the stability is self-rewarding.
It helps make the Republic attractive to tourists and offshore investors.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once remarked that every credit has its debit side. [286] Sug-
arcane brought much wealth and pleasure to people and places across the globe. It also
brought misery and suffering to many of those same places. Sugarcane set in motion great
changes in the economics, the politics, and the lives of those most involved in the sugar