thereby also becomes a way of proving that one elevates community val-ues over other forms of individual distinction. Building on these themes, this chapter also explores what kinds of visibility are considered appro-priate or otherwise.
As was argued in the previous chapter, ideals around different kinds of social visibility are revealed through the use of social media.
However, unlike the groups described to illustrate different kinds of social visibility, most ordinary citizens in El Mirador do not aspire to being cosmopolitan or international, nor do they seek worldliness as a form of cultural capital. Activism may also be viewed unfavourably as it negates the place- based identity of El Mirador. In the field work it became apparent that ordinary citizens in a small town do not actually engage with politics in a highly visibly way because it invites the risk of social judgements and their consequences. Accordingly, this chapter will be divided into two parts. The first half details the case of the hun-ger strike and the extent of engagement with politics on Facebook by people in El Mirador. The second half explores the everyday values the community elevates in favour of politics and how these are expressed on Facebook.
Dr Kublalsingh’s 21- day hunger strike
The first extended period of field work in Trinidad in 2011 formed the basis of the book Webcam. In November 2012, when following up with the research participants, 40 individuals gave updates on the new apps they were excited about or the upgraded phones that had been provided with their plans. The news that was dominating local mainstream media featured a protest in front of the Prime Minister’s office in the capital city, Port of Spain. After a couple of days, residents in the town were discussing the protest increasingly – it was ‘the news’ that was unfold-ing. I followed how the event was received in the field site, from hearing how people spoke about it to viewing it through mainstream media and visiting the site of the protest at Prime Minister Persad- Bissessar’s office.
The protest intensified quickly because it was led by a relatively well- known figure, Dr Wayne Kublalsingh, the leader of the HRM (men-tioned above) and a lecturer in literature at the University of the West Indies. He had planted himself on the street in front of the Persad- Bissessar’s office, on a hunger strike. At that point Kublalsingh was already into his second week of elected starvation, with the stated aim of persuading the Prime Minister to reassess the decision to build a section
of a highway linking the southern areas of Point Fortin to San Fernando.
The hunger strike and its purpose generally confused and exasperated the public. News outlets had sensationalised Kublalsingh and, although his interviews gave an impression of being passionate but articulate, some of the national newspapers focused on his discord with Persad- Bissessar and his history of environmental activism – this included a landmark court case in which his protests had halted the construction of a smelter.4 The response to his actions in El Mirador was a combina-tion of fascinacombina-tion with the gossip around the situacombina-tion and criticism of his perceived attention- seeking behaviour and efforts to ‘stop progress’.
No fewer than ten of the research participants talked about the hunger strike in different terms, noting that it was not clear what Kublalsingh was trying to achieve or why. He was spoken about as a spectacle and the subject of political gossip. The hunger strike had arisen in several conversations in the town, for example in bars, shops and restaurants – anywhere where people could read a newspaper. But the comments were mostly negative, with one research participant stating that, ‘I feel he should just die’ and another saying, ‘Those people are crazy, trying to stop a highway’.
The day after at the university, an hour’s drive away from the Prime Minister’s office, there seemed to be a very different side to the story. A group of around a hundred, made up of former students of Kublalsingh and others from the faculties of law, geography, envi-ronmental studies, gender studies and development studies, came together and walked around the campus to express solidarity with Kublalsingh and his actions. Other students engaged the group in questions or discussions on the hunger strike’s implications for local politics and governance as well as the construction of the section of the highway. The staff and students who supported Kublalsingh created a Facebook event to stimulate debate and show their support. Some 176 people responded as ‘attending’, with two staff members who are active in development issues along with three of their students posting regularly on the page.
The facts gleaned from conversations and the media so far were these. Firstly, the aim of the hunger strike was to force a discussion with Persad- Bissessar to reconsider the construction of the section of the highway as it would have negative impacts on the environment and the communities living in the area. Secondly, Kublalsingh and the HRM were not against the construction of the entire highway, which would connect the cities of Point Fortin and San Fernando; indeed, they agreed that it would bring much needed economic growth to the area. Rather,
they were disputing the building of a section of the highway, intended to connect the much smaller town of Debe to Mon Desir, due to factors of economic and social disruption.
At the Prime Minister’s office, Dr Kublalsingh was now on day 15 of his strike, abstaining from both food and water. His health had begun to deteriorate and a large group from the HRM had joined his protest; they sat with him in solidarity, as accompanied by a group of journalists, cameramen and photographers from Trinidad’s main television and print news outlets (Fig. 6.1). Kublalsingh’s relatives also came to the site every day. They were becoming increasingly concerned about his deteriorating health and were paying for a doc-tor to remain on call at the site. The protest nonetheless appeared to be a calm and mostly pleasant gathering. Members of the HRM held placards and distributed pamphlets to passers- by and others who had come to inspect the scene at the office. Local musicians in sup-port of Kublalsingh brought their guitars to lift the protesters’ spirits (Fig. 6.2).
When the effects of not eating and drinking became more visi-ble, Kublalsingh began to garner more interest from the general pub-lic around the subject of the highway and his own dedication to the movement. This was reflected in greater discussion of the issue in the mainstream media. Kublalsingh and the HRM meanwhile claimed that
Fig. 6.1 Dr Kublalsingh being interviewed by television journalists
the construction of the highway was proceeding in the spirit of ‘bogus’
development. For example, the construction of the highway had been taking place over six years, with responsibility for the project swinging between the two major political parties, the PNM and UNC. No adequate economic, social and environmental impact studies had been carried out under the previous PNM government, who had approved the highway’s construction. The disputed section of the highway is also within Persad- Bissessar’s own constituency, the area of Siparia, and so there are fur-ther allegations that the rush to complete that section of the highway is primarily to satisfy residents and boost her popularity there. There have also been allegations that the communities that will have to be resettled – some 40,000 households – have received no concrete notice of compensation, nor information concerning the date or site of relo-cation. In the case of supporters of the local government or those with connections to influential businesses in the area, it was also claimed by the highway’s opponents that they had been handsomely ‘paid off’ to relocate quietly. The main argument for the highway construction is an Fig. 6.2 Dr Kublalsingh with musicians showing their support
economic one: that it would increase connectivity for business and alle-viate traffic in the region.
Kublalsingh’s hunger strike and the HRM protest at the Prime Minister’s office soon began to reveal how ordinary citizens perceive pol-itics in Trinidad. On day 19 of the strike another activist and supporter of Kublalsingh, Ishmael Samad, stormed the site of the protest to perform a ‘citizen’s arrest’ and remove Kublalsingh, stating that he would not let him commit suicide. Minutes before Kublalsingh had been attended to by his doctor, who was now on stand- by, visiting the site twice a day.
An ambulance was also kept on hand, funded by his family. In the con-frontation, Samad grabbed Kublalsingh by the wrists and attempted to drag him upright from his cot. Cameramen and photographers sprang to capture the incident. As Kublalsingh was pulled at by Samad, his sister and doctor tried to pull him back down, while journalists and members of the HRM attempted to restrain Samad. The incident was one of the key events in the protest, staged to receive attention from Trinidadian mainstream media, and one of which a large proportion of the popula-tion would have been aware.