Whiteness: Jamaica Kincaid - Essay Example

RUNNING HEAD: Whiteness Whiteness Whiteness Jamaica Kincaid's surging rage, which was kindled during her colonial upbringing, towards the power relations in the society is depicted with an air wit in her commentary of 'A Small Place'. A complete comprehension of the article must invariably be based on the history of both the author and the country. The first settlement on the island we now know as Antigua was not established until the 1600s, when English settlers arrived. Antigua remained a part of the British Commonwealth until its independence in 1981. Today, Antigua is a popular vacation destination, attracting tourists with its ideal climate, 366 beautiful beaches, amazing landscape and leisurely lifestyle (Royal Caribbean). Antigua and Barbuda is country located north of Guadalupe in Caribbean. Being country of around hundred thousand locales, there are not many countries in the world with such smaller population. St. John's which has a population of around 25000 is the largest city in the Island (Financial Standards Foundation 2009). Elaine Potter Richardson (the childhood name of Jamaica Kincaid) had lived with her stepfather who was a carpenter till she was sent to work as an au pair at Westchester in New York. By then, she had done her secondary education in the elegant British education system. Antigua continued to be a British colony until 1967 before it achieved the status of an independent nation within the Commonwealth until 1981. The obvious detest about the white power and colonialism seems to be cultivated in her since her childhood, along with an intense love and appreciation for the English literature (Vorda 1993) She felt first-hand the negative effects of British colonialism as the colonists attempted to turn Antigua "into England" and the natives "into English" without regard for the native culture or homeland (Kincaid 1988). The anger that Kincaid has in her for a long time towards English and the Antiguans is expressed through and as the main thread of 'A Small Place'. It denotes the effects of colonialism to be the main cause of the pathetic condition of the Antigua as well as the Antiguans to completely make use of the freedom they have. It is an enthusiastic and soothing way of awakening both the partially enduring Antiguan locales and, at the same time, to the overpowering and never realizing white imagery. In her attempt to bring out the social, cultural, educational and infrastructural issues of Antigua, Kincaid undermined the sovereignty of Antigua as a free nation. The exaggeration to a great extent helped the reader to understand the intensity of 'colonial, postcolonial and neocolonial myths, thereby interrogating the tourists' perspective and unraveling the continuing colonizing construction of a place legitimized only by its visitors' (Corinna McLeod). The following are some of the realities of Antigua as a nation. 'Antigua and Barbuda has no indigenous sources of oil, natural gas, coal or hydropower. It is largely dependent on imported oil to generate electricity. Oil imports are around 4,500 barrels per day. The IMF estimated the external public sector debt at US$520.4 million at the end of 2008, which was equal to 46.3 percent of GDP. Agriculture is a very small part of the economy with crop production accounting for just 0.9 percent of GDP in 2006. There are 1,165 km of roads (723 miles) of which 33 percent are paved. Traffic moves on the left. The US State Department's Travel Advisory for April 2, 2008 noted that the "major roads are generally in good condition." Drug trafficking has become a major illicit activity. According to a March 3, 2009 article on the St. Maarten Island Time. The largest individual investor and employer was Sir Allen Stanford. The billionaire financier had extensive real estate holdings and also owned the Stanford International Bank, the Bank of Antigua, two restaurants, a cricket ground and the Anguilla Sun newspaper. In February 2009, Stanford's financial empire disintegrated when it was discovered he was running an $8.0 billion Ponzi scheme' (Financial Standards Foundation 2009). These short comings of her own mother land can only be attributed to oldest settlers who took over the land only on the merits of ruthless power vested upon as being non-ethnic. To understand A Small Place better one must perceive the hair- raising post colonial issues. Today, almost half of the world population being in the commonwealth countries would recognize those issues such as nation formation, national identity, neocolonialism, and economic underdevelopment. It was the mercy of the queens white power that left those people who had been oppressed for centuries, exposed to such issue in utter despair. On the other hand Kincaid accept the positive aspects of colonialism and blames the locales for not capitalizing on it. 'This inability to promote the importance of education and hope for the future is symbolized in the failure to rebuild Antigua's only library, St. John's, which was "damaged in the earthquake of 1974" The sign on the old colonial library in Antigua's capital reads, "THIS BUILDING WAS DAMAGED IN THE EARTHQUAKE OF 1974. REPAIRS ARE PENDING." As Kincaid points out, both the sign and the damage to which it refers date back to the colonial period in Antigua' (Kincaid 1988). When Kincaid marvel at the people of Antigua for their unusual sense of time, because they have waited for more than ten years for the repairs, one is left to look into some of the aspect of implementation of public interests in Antigua. Though there is free and compulsory education in Antigua by rule, because of lack of adequate resources, parents in some circumstances may have to provide or purchase desks, chairs and textbooks. "Antigua and Barbuda has ratified the UN Convention Against Corruption. It has also ratified the Inter-American Convention against Corruption. According to the US State Department Human Rights Reports for 2009 (covering 2008), "the law provides criminal penalties for official corruption, and the government generally implemented these laws effectivelyThe Integrity in Public Life Act requires public officials to disclose all income, assets (including those of spouses and children), and personal gifts while in public office. The law established an Integrity 9 Commission, appointed by the governor general, to receive and investigate complaints regarding noncompliance" (Financial Standards Foundation 2009). This substandard life styles and uneven distribution of wealth is, in fact, remaining as the identity of white imperial colonization all over the world. Kincaid had been a closely observing the subjects mannerisms in colonized Antigua as child. Her attitude toward the visiting Princess Margaret is reminiscent of the child in the story of the Emperor's New Clothes: while everyone else is happy-even excited-to stand around for hours in the sun to catch a glimpse of the royal guest, the seven-year-old Kincaid is unimpressed. As an adult, the same critical eye with which Kincaid saw through the pomp of the royal visit is turned on the island at large. She reacts sharply on the dishonesty of the administration and the compliance of the locales. She might consider it to be caused by the inadequate education. She obviously puts the present dilemma of the country as result of the power relation existed in the English colonial Antigua. Kincaid will not be completely belong to any group, she could never be a true English due to the history, yet her closeness with English society increases her horizons far beyond the small limits of Antigua. Reference Corinna McLeod (2008) Constructing a Nation: Jamaica Kincaid's A Small Place p 77-92 . ISSN 0799-0537 Financial Standard Foundation (2009) Standard Forum Country brief Antigua and Barbuda Royal Caribbean (2009) St. John' Antigua; retrieved on Jan 23, 2010 http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruise/ports/group/home.doportCode=ANU Kincaid (1988) A Small Place. New York: Penguin, 1988. (Book Cover) (small.gif) Vorda (1993) Face to Face: Interviews with Contemporary Novelists. Houston: Rice UP Read More