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