THINK DIFFERENT!! Not so little, but a little bit TALLAWAH...by Dr. Parris Lyew-Ayee Jr
That slogan is really annoying, especially when used to reference Jamaica on the global stage. Jamaica is the 166th largest country on Earth, out of roughly 250 countries and territories measured, according to the UN. Let's have a look at some prominent countries smaller than us: Trinidad and Tobago (174), Luxembourg (179), Hong Kong (counted separately from China 183), Singapore (190), Barbados (201), and Monaco (248). So technically, we're really not THAT small. Hell, technically, Bahamas is larger than Jamaica in terms of TOTAL land area, but that's what you get when you add up so many islands... Of these, the IMF ranks Luxembourg (2), Singapore (3), Hong Kong (9), Trinidad and Tobago (36), and Barbados (73). Jamaica is 107. So not very tallawah economically. Only Singapore ranks in the Globalsecurity.org's top 100 militaries (26) in terms of its armed forces, though Hong Kong can count on China (3). So not very tallawah militarily.
There's a Global Innovation Index that ranks the most innovative countries in the world across a wide cross section of variables. For 143 countries studied, Switzerland, the UK and Sweden are top 3; USA is 6th. Among the little tallawahs, Singapore is number 7, Luxembourg is 9th and Hong Kong (again, not China) is 10th. Jamaica is 82nd, but ahead of Trinidad and Tobago (90). Even within the Caribbean region, we're behind Guyana (!) at number 80. So not very tallawah innovatively. What about tourism? Ever seen Fiji or Bora Bora? Those guys are micro-tallawahs... So what are we tallawah at? I tried looking at music lists, but the jury's out there. Yes, we honestly do have a world-class export in reggae, but that market isn't huge. But we do have a music icon in Bob Marley, so that has to count for something, but there's a lot of subjectivity in this category. I don't think Barbados's Rihanna comes close to Bob. But we must also remember that music is more than the singing and performance talent; it's the whole industry. The closest thing I could get at was sports. Our track and field is in another stratosphere, and our medal tallies at successive Olympics tend to support this, especially among the little tallawahs. But we're almost a one-trick pony at track and field, but then again, who else has a Bolt? Sure, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago managed to make it to a FIFA World Cup Finals, but haven't repeated that feat since. We have to group up as a region to play cricket internationally. Just a different perspective. It's nice to be patriotic and jingoistic, but it's more important to be realistic.
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