JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Wednesday, January 22, 2025

All that swag for what?

by

Shaun Fuentes
164 days ago
20240811

Swag, in terms of how peo­ple car­ry them­selves—their walk, style, and over­all de­meanour—can be quite telling about a coun­try's cul­ture and the char­ac­ter of its peo­ple. It's of­ten a re­flec­tion of the val­ues, con­fi­dence, and so­cial norms with­in a com­mu­ni­ty.

For in­stance, in some cul­tures, a con­fi­dent, re­laxed walk and vi­brant cloth­ing might ex­press pride, re­silience, or a strong sense of iden­ti­ty. In oth­ers, a more sub­dued style may in­di­cate hu­mil­i­ty, col­lec­tivism, or a fo­cus on tra­di­tion. The way peo­ple present them­selves of­ten com­mu­ni­cates un­der­ly­ing so­cial val­ues like in­di­vid­u­al­i­ty, con­for­mi­ty, open­ness, or mod­esty. Swag can al­so be shaped by his­tor­i­cal, eco­nom­ic, and so­cial fac­tors.

The phe­nom­e­non of peo­ple in T&T, walk­ing with a cer­tain "swag" can be com­plex and root­ed in a mix of cul­tur­al, so­cial, and eco­nom­ic fac­tors.

Here are a few pos­si­ble ex­pla­na­tions: 1. Cul­tur­al Ex­pres­sion and Iden­ti­ty - Swag as Cul­tur­al Pride: In T&T, swag most times is a form of cul­tur­al ex­pres­sion, re­flect­ing pride in our iden­ti­ty, her­itage, and com­mu­ni­ty. This swag­ger can stem from a deep sense of be­long­ing, re­silience, and the his­tor­i­cal lega­cy of over­com­ing ad­ver­si­ty. It's a way to main­tain dig­ni­ty and self-worth, re­gard­less of ex­ter­nal cir­cum­stances.

But let's ask our­selves. Do we de­serve to have all that swag then based on all that has been writ­ten here so far and con­sid­er­ing the state we are in both on and off the sport­ing fields?

It is al­so said that coun­tries and com­mu­ni­ties with a his­to­ry of over­com­ing ad­ver­si­ty might car­ry a cer­tain swag­ger as a badge of sur­vival and strength. In con­trast, a more con­ser­v­a­tive so­ci­ety might ex­hib­it a more re­strained and for­mal style as a re­flec­tion of its tra­di­tions and so­cial struc­ture. Ul­ti­mate­ly, swag is a form of non-ver­bal com­mu­ni­ca­tion, of­fer­ing in­sights in­to how peo­ple see them­selves and want to be seen by oth­ers, which in turn can re­veal much about their cul­tur­al back­ground and com­mu­ni­ty val­ues.

Where are we now as a na­tion? Look at nine out of ten young men and even old­er ones on the streets of T&T and you see swag every­where, all walk­ing around as though they rep­re­sent some form of suc­cess with that 'bad boy' or dap­per sta­tus.

As I have done in pre­vi­ous ar­ti­cles, I'll use Ja­maica as an ex­am­ple. The youth in Ja­maica can af­ford to move with all the swag they want, es­pe­cial­ly be­cause of their con­sis­tent suc­cess in ath­let­ics. Even the non-ath­letes can eas­i­ly walk around with pride be­cause of who they rep­re­sent. At this point in time, we in T&T can't ex­act­ly af­ford to be this. We need to hum­ble our lau­rels or in oth­er words, stay ground­ed and be­have that way.

Ja­maicans are of­ten seen as hav­ing a nat­ur­al swag, which can be at­trib­uted to a com­bi­na­tion of cul­tur­al pride, his­tor­i­cal achieve­ments, and sig­nif­i­cant suc­cess­es in ar­eas like ath­let­ics, mu­sic, and glob­al in­flu­ence. This swag is not just about out­ward ap­pear­ance or de­meanour but is deeply root­ed in a sense of na­tion­al iden­ti­ty and ac­com­plish­ment. Cul­tur­al Pride and Iden­ti­ty - Na­tion­al Pride: Ja­maicans have a strong sense of cul­tur­al pride, of­ten re­flect­ed in their con­fi­dent and dis­tinc­tive swag­ger. This is linked to their rich cul­tur­al her­itage, which in­cludes reg­gae mu­sic, Rasta­far­i­an­ism, and a his­to­ry of re­sis­tance and re­silience against colo­nial­ism and op­pres­sion.

Ja­maica's glob­al in­flu­ence - Ja­maican cul­ture has had a pro­found glob­al im­pact, from Bob Mar­ley and reg­gae mu­sic. This in­ter­na­tion­al in­flu­ence adds to the con­fi­dence and swag that Ja­maicans ex­ude. Ath­let­ic Suc­cess and World-Class Ath­letes: Ja­maica's suc­cess in ath­let­ics, par­tic­u­lar­ly in sprint­ing, has giv­en the na­tion a glob­al rep­u­ta­tion for ex­cel­lence.

Icons like Us­ain Bolt, Shelly-Ann Fras­er-Pryce, and oth­ers have dom­i­nat­ed world ath­let­ics, bring­ing pride to the na­tion. This suc­cess on the world stage, even at the 2024 Olympics nat­u­ral­ly boosts na­tion­al con­fi­dence and swag. Lega­cy of Ex­cel­lence: The con­tin­ued suc­cess of Ja­maican ath­letes at the Olympics and World Cham­pi­onships has cre­at­ed a lega­cy that re­in­forces a sense of achieve­ment and pride. This ath­let­ic prowess con­tributes to the col­lec­tive swag of the Ja­maican peo­ple, as they have tan­gi­ble ac­com­plish­ments to back it up.

How does T&T match up when it comes to this? Dwight Yorke and his gang of 2006 can walk with swag, Bri­an Lara, Dwayne Bra­vo and a few oth­ers in crick­et can walk with swag. Led by Ato Boldon, Keshorn Wal­cott and a hand­ful of oth­ers now in­clud­ing Jereem Richards can walk with that swag. Hase­ly Craw­ford at age 73 can fall in that group if he choos­es to. But the rest have a lot more to do, a lot more to ac­com­plish be­fore we can think of be­ing part of that clip.

De­served Swag Earned Con­fi­dence: The swag­ger of­ten seen in Ja­maicans and sev­er­al oth­ers, take Ar­gen­tines for in­stance, can be con­sid­ered well-de­served, giv­en their coun­try's achieve­ments. We look in awe at all those sta­di­um pho­tos on the in­ter­net of Leo Mes­si and his team­mates strut­ting through sta­di­ums on game days. mov­ing with a sense of au­thor­i­ty like they own the place. Whether it's their dom­i­na­tion in cer­tain sports, their cul­tur­al in­flu­ence, or their glob­al recog­ni­tion, peo­ple in places such as Ja­maica and oth­er des­ti­na­tions have tan­gi­ble rea­sons to car­ry them­selves with pride and con­fi­dence.

Rep­re­sen­ta­tion of Suc­cess: Swag is more than just style; it's a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of suc­cess, re­silience, and glob­al im­pact. This makes it not just a cul­tur­al trait but a well-earned char­ac­ter­is­tic that sym­bol­is­es a na­tion's ac­com­plish­ments. In sum­ma­ry, their swag is a re­flec­tion of a strong na­tion­al iden­ti­ty, pride, and the con­fi­dence that comes from sig­nif­i­cant achieve­ments on the world stage.

In T&T, the time has come for us to re­flect deeply on what it tru­ly means to achieve the sta­tus we as­pire to as a na­tion. It’s not enough to re­ly on past ac­com­plish­ments or the rep­u­ta­tion we’ve built around our vi­brant cul­ture and abil­i­ty to en­joy life. While these are im­por­tant as­pects of who we are, they alone can­not de­fine our fu­ture suc­cess. We must hum­ble our­selves and ac­knowl­edge that there is more work to be done. The road ahead re­quires ded­i­ca­tion, re­silience, and a col­lec­tive ef­fort to ad­dress the chal­lenges we face. It’s not about ac­cu­mu­lat­ing wealth or be­ing known for host­ing the best par­ties; it's about rolling up our sleeves and com­mit­ting to the hard work need­ed to make re­al progress.

Lis­ten, noth­ing's wrong with a lit­tle bounce in our step. No­body's say­ing to go in­to a shell. But this mo­ment calls for us to put aside any com­pla­cen­cy and fo­cus on the ac­tions that will tru­ly up­lift our so­ci­ety. If we want to turn things around and achieve the great­ness we are ca­pa­ble of, we must pri­ori­tise our ef­forts, in­vest in our com­mu­ni­ties, and work to­geth­er with hu­mil­i­ty and de­ter­mi­na­tion. On­ly then can we earn the sta­tus we seek—not just in the eyes of the world, but in the lega­cy we leave for fu­ture gen­er­a­tions.

Shaun Fuentes is the head of TTFA Me­dia. He was a FI­FA Me­dia Of­fi­cer at the 2010 FI­FA World Cup in South Africa and 2013 FI­FA U-20 World Cup in Turkey. He has trav­elled to 88 coun­tries dur­ing his jour­ney in sport. The views ex­pressed are sole­ly his and not a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of any or­gan­i­sa­tion. shaunfuentes@ya­hoo.com


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored