Skip to main content

Things I like about Trinidad and Tobago

This May I will be 41 years old. I spent most of my life living in Trinidad except for the 5 years I spent abroad for university and work between 1998 and 2003. I had to wait in Chaguanas and decided to start this blog post. I am happy being grateful and appreciative.

The first thing that came to my mind is the weather. We have two seasons in Trinidad and Tobago, a dry season and a wet season. It can be annoying when the sun is really hot or when the rain in falling and you have to travel somewhere but generally I appreciate the warm tropical atmosphere. It sure beats the bitter cold I experienced in New York and Atlanta. Coconut water and a walk around the Queens Park Savannah. Bake and shark on Maracas beach. Coffee and crix on a rainy Sunday morning.

The next thing that comes to mind is that Trinidad and Tobago is a land of many opportunities. Not perfect. Not the best. Not first world but I feel many times better than many other places. From cheap electricity to free education and health care to stable economy and governance.

How else could I decide to the be a tech blogger if it wasn't for good internet connectivity. Again not without problems and more so in some areas but overall the options and speeds in Trinidad and Tobago are something to be thankful for. Right now I am sitting in the mall using an open wifi connection. Came from the bank where there is an access point for customers. At home I have the cheapest internet package (15 Mbps down and 5 Mbps up) and that more than does it for me. A good internet connection opens us to many opportunities. So this is linked to my previous point.

The people. Tourist tend to say it more than we do. But overall the people are down to earth and good at heart. We know how to make the best of given situations. If you don't have some sugar to brown your stew you can count on your neighbour to share some with you. The ole talk, the smiles and the vibes. Let's recap. To me this is the land of tropical warmth, opportunities, good internet and good people and these are some things I like about Trinidad and Tobago.

Comments

Nicolai Matthew said…
Hello Hassan, my name is Nicolai and I am 18 years of age. I really enjoy your blog posts on technology and also your stories of your time in other countries. I also like hearing about your appreciation for our country because I feel the same way, even if the country isn't perfect.
Your stories about university abroad really interests me.
I have taught myself a bit of web development(HTML, CSS, Javascript, React) and also currently learning a bit of Data science(Python). Your story is truly an inspiration to me and I hope to follow in your footsteps. I hope to someday attain a college degree in Computer Science and get a job in Data Science/AI or software engineering. Thanks for reading.

Popular posts from this blog

God opens doors

It is 1203am and I have decided to write. Saturday I spent the night coding. I was trying to get a FastAPI app up and running, all from my budget Android phone. The test cases were written to use Puppeteer. I ended up using Replit for that. Coding is more challenging when using a mobile phone. Not impossible but more challenging. I hardly blog about technology and coding anymore but the love is still there. I still have a dream of creating my own coding and youtube studio with a nice desk setup. That is nice but what should I make this blog post about? What do I want to write about? What should I write about? I love creating presentations. That is something I could do to revive my youtube channel. I love Maths too. I have this feeling that I could solve one of those longstanding Maths problems that seems impossible. Sometimes, like right now, I feel like abandoning my blog post. It is going nowhere. Maybe I should get up and go wash the wares. I wish God could tell me what to write abo...

Mundane

It is 123am and I have decided to write. I have this new idea for a book called Mundane. It would be me writing about the ordinary. We chase the extraordinary but there is beauty in the ordinary. There is beauty in the simple. There is beauty in the everyday. What about God? We often think about God in grand terms. But what if God is simple too? What if God is mundane? What if we look for God in the everyday moments? I sit in this dark room with the air conditioning on. The fan is also on. The curtain is down but I imagine the moonlight shining on the grass outside. The cats are probably sleeping. I wonder if anyone else in the neighbourhood is awake at this hour? Is there another writer around who is also writing about the mundane? The fan breeze helps the air conditioning cool me down. These nights are warm otherwise. A mosquito flies across my screen. Hello friend or foe. I cannot quite decide which one. If I had a swatter you would be gone. I check my notifications and there is an ...

What we do not know

It is 1245am and I have decided to write. I had this weird alienish dream and it ended with me winning by simply stating "the truth is that we do not know". In the dream everyone was having an opinion of what was happening as if they knew. On to something random. I had this question. What is the most unrandom thing? Then what is the most random thing? What if everything is equally random. My friend Chatty thinks that randomness is not an absolute property—it is a relation between you and the system you observe. Randomness is not absolute—it depends on perspective. Something perfectly ordered can seem random if you do not know its pattern. So in a sense, everything can be "equally random" relative to the observer's knowledge, making randomness more about perception than an intrinsic property. The more we know the less random things become. Let me make a detour. Suppose we do not predict things but things predict us. For example, when I flip a coin, did I predict ...