Every time the issue of illegal immigrants flooding to our region crops up the sense of insecurity prevails. And every time when discussion on such issue is engaged the thought of V.S Naipaul’s 1989 book A Turn in the South comes.
To quote a passage from the classic travel book, “In 1961, when I was travelling in the Caribbean for my first travel book, I remember my shock, my feeling of taint and spiritual annihilation, when I saw some of the Indians of Martinique, and began to understand that they have been swamped by Martinique, that I had no means of sharing the world view of these people whose history at some stage had been like mine, but who now, racially and in other ways, had become something other.”Now, in order to avoid the obvious to happen the efforts of the locals are important. In other words, we are also responsible for flooding of these ‘outsiders’ into the region. We want cheap labourers. We are not skilled in carrying out petty chores. We are not industrious. Our society today produces more couch potatoes than ever before. Of all, the biggest problem has been the possession of false pride. We feel that engaging in certain jobs is below our dignity. These factors have attracted ‘outsiders’ to come to our region. Today, we are used to giving orders and not the other way round. The more we display lavishness we feel we are raising our status to further height.
So, shedding this false pride will be a vital tool in combating against forces threatening our identity. This false pride has been stopping us from harnessing the local talents. We need skilled workers. They are our soldiers to fight for our survival.
Intellectuals and civil society organizations need to work out measures to help shed this wrong mindset. They should initiate awareness campaigns. To the elected representatives—they need to rise above the routine trifle and invest their energies in benign causes.
