A Small Place

This piece by Jamaica Kincaid is perhaps my favorite one out of all the ones we've read so far. Her use of the second point of  view to write it was genius. When she uses you instead of he or she Kincaid puts us in the place of the tourist. She wants to say that it's easy to blame someone else but in the end, somewhere along the way we are going to tourists too and we are not blame free. This article debunked the myth that tourist countries are better of than those who  aren't because it's all a facade. Antigua looks wealthy with its new Japanese cars and new paved roads but what these tourists don't know is that they're all for show to keep attracting tourists and pushing the needs of its locals aside. I was shocked to read that they fixed only the road that the queen was going to be driving on. Instead of fixing all the roads with the revenue they earned from the tourists, they spent that money on fixing their image for one specific person.

I found myself frustrated toward the end of the piece because the government has chosen to further expand their business rather than put their focus on fixing the problems within the country and their people. I think Kincaid purposely did that especially when she kept using the phrase "or, worse, Europe" in parenthesis. As I was reading and kept stumbling upon that phrase I actually groaned once and said enough! Kincaid is saying enough too, enough tourists who come and don't know what's really going on and  bring that back to their homes then spreading the lie around.