Untold Stories: Contemporary Social Commentary in the Caribbean
Let me begin by saying while living in one of the Caribbean countries, there are many issues the Caribbean faced with. Since our islands were all colonies at once before we gain independency. These issues are discussed in articles,books and songs. However as these are discussed it is in my benefit to know about these Caribbean problems as I am part of the Caribbean culture. My goal in this paper is to bring applicability with a song sang by ‘Buju Banton’ called Untold Stories in 1995 from the album called “Til Shiloh”. The song relates to contemporary social commentary in the Caribbean. Social commentary is define as expressing how one feels about a certain aspect or nature of society.1
To achieve this goal, I have organized my paper using themes cited from the lyrics of the song, in relation to what is occurring in the Caribbean. The themes are explained in specific paragraphs which each has as its main focus. Positive and negative effects are displayed with coherence with the themes such as education, competitiveness and poverty, standard of living, survival and employment, crime and migration. I end my paper with a conclusion of the applicability of these themes. There are two types on poverty absolute and relative. Absolute poverty is the lack of basic humans needs, such as water, nutrition, healthcare, education, clothing and shelter because of the inability to afford them. Relative poverty is the condition of having fewer resources or less income than others within a society or country compared to world wide averages. In the Caribbean both types of poverty is experienced by economic views. A main factor contributing to poverty and affecting individuals is the standard of living due to the lack of resources eg. Money and time. As we know it Caribbean people are faced with two constraints when purchasing due to the high prices so therefore a choice of what to purchase is made in order to meet their needs in aid of survival “It’s a competitive world
To achieve this goal, I have organized my paper using themes cited from the lyrics of the song, in relation to what is occurring in the Caribbean. The themes are explained in specific paragraphs which each has as its main focus. Positive and negative effects are displayed with coherence with the themes such as education, competitiveness and poverty, standard of living, survival and employment, crime and migration. I end my paper with a conclusion of the applicability of these themes. There are two types on poverty absolute and relative. Absolute poverty is the lack of basic humans needs, such as water, nutrition, healthcare, education, clothing and shelter because of the inability to afford them. Relative poverty is the condition of having fewer resources or less income than others within a society or country compared to world wide averages. In the Caribbean both types of poverty is experienced by economic views. A main factor contributing to poverty and affecting individuals is the standard of living due to the lack of resources eg. Money and time. As we know it Caribbean people are faced with two constraints when purchasing due to the high prices so therefore a choice of what to purchase is made in order to meet their needs in aid of survival “It’s a competitive world