Every morning on my commute to school, the journey from south to north Trinidad reveals a plethora of scenes from rural to urban landscapes by which the lives of so many people are connected. As I have only now began my exploration into the miscellany of the urban world, many of the usual images now appear in a different light.“Nature shrinks as capital grows. The growth of the market cannot solve the very crisis it creates.” -Vandana Shiva, Soil Not Oil: Environmental Justice in an Age of Climate Crisis
This picture is focused eastward along Chaguanas Main Road where all its commercial developments can be seen in the distance, and its perpendicular orientation to the Uriah Butler Highway overpass. The particular element which never fails to catch my attention is the row of struggling plants at the center of the scene. The fact that all that exists of the natural scenery in this area has long been destroyed and replaced is certainly disheartening, although I hardly even know what was considered its former glory.
Situated in central Trinidad, Chaguanas was once considered prime agricultural land where sugar cane and cocoa flourished. With the development and construction of the Railway in 1880, which provided convenience for transporting agricultural produce, as well as passengers, it transformed Chaguanas, making it the most important market town in the area. Its main urban land use began its metamorphosis from agriculture to transportation. By the late 1940s and in the 1950s, although Chaguanas was still surrounded by cane fields, a modern system of roadways enhanced it still as a hub of communication.
The beauty and abundance that was once synonymous with the area ceased to be its life-blood and Chaguanas today remains a key village known instead as a burgeoning retail centre with large shopping stores, such as Pricesmart and Food Basket, the largest and most popular outdoor flea market in Trinidad, and the north-south Uriah Butler/Solomon Hochoy Highway running through it.
Early urban growth is associated with the development of human control of the environment through the domestication of animals, crop production and irrigation (Hall and Barrett, 2012). What served as the core of the earliest villages, agriculture is now not only on the periphery, but entirely overlooked as the primary source of sustenance. The time has long passed where tending for nature came alongside tending for oneself.
Second image taken from http://www.squidoo.com/a_potted_history_of_the_world_-_the_birth_of_civilization
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I absolutely love the quote that starts this entry. It's captivating and dives directly into the topic at hand, even in its simplicity.
ReplyDeletelove your picture..there's lots of activity, so much to look at! :)
ReplyDeleteThis really is fantastic photo. It says so much. I think you could like this photo to decolonizing processes from our text or even sustainability. There may be other links you could include, just to give your audience an idea of Chaguanas -- perhaps something of its history from the Borough www?
ReplyDeleteGood.
DrK