Apart from some missing pitch on the airport runway, there is something of even greater importance missing from the airport—our culture!

I had the privilege of working for our esteemed airline for a short time, and this provided me with the opportunity of seeing things “up close and personal.”

Big things come in small packages. And boy! did I learn a lot in that short space of time. I could tell Minister Ken Valley what he needs to know about BWIA in a couple of words, and that includes the good things which he apparently does not know. But that’s another story.

I also learnt that something is terribly wrong with the food at the airport. It’s not that the Royal Castle, KFC, Church’s Chicken or Pizza Boys are not good. But where exactly does our culture fit in there?

I think here is where I see the negative effects of globalisation. It is definitely a sad irony. Look at it: Anyone entering or leaving Trinidad and Tobago has to pass through the airport, right?

Now, there are the duty-free shops that have memorabilia of our culture, but all these are in stark contrast to the food outlets mentioned above. More important is the fact that with the exception of Royal Castle (which, by the way, is an imitation of KFC), they are all imported.

What does the rest of the world see at the airport when they are hungry? They see the rest of the world. They don’t see callaloo, coo coo, curried duck, roti, bake and shark, bake and buljol, curried crab and dumplings, salt fish and smoked herring.

They don’t see bhaji rice with pigtail, cook-up, stewed pigeon peas, oil down. No siree! They don’t see any of these things. They see oily fries (not even potato chips), but fries and well-marinated fried chicken.

And that is my problem.

Our airport should be our main medium of presenting our culture to the world. It should represent us—who we are as a people!

There was once some doubles at the airport, at a location where everybody could find them. Now? They are behind God’s back. It is as if we are telling visitors to our country that we are ashamed of this little snack, which can be the tastiest thing in the world if it is prepared well.

We are certainly not giving the vendors a chance to even serve it up well, having relegated them to a place well hidden from sight. Not only do they make less money, but also no one (and by no one I mean travellers, although some of our own locals could be included here as well!) knows that they exist.

This is the only strand of our culture that I see is “allowed” at the airport. A strand that we must hold on to for dear life, for it is the only one that points the way to the type of food outlets we should be proud to have organised, or rather “displayed,” at our airport.

It goes further. When during any delay, passengers must be fed, whether it is dinner, lunch or breakfast, our beloved doubles vendors are not in the agreement to exchange meal vouchers for food.

Not even Royal Castle, which belongs to us (imitation though it is!), is allowed to accept meal vouchers.

And that is what I consider to be a grave injustice to our culture. We could tell the world what we want! About how great Trinidad and Tobago is, about the wonderful cuisine we have here and all that goes with painting the tourist “picture,” but if our action speaks a different language, we are a bunch of frauds—plain and simple!

All these food outlets belong to foreign investors who in no way speak to our culture. KFC is not ours—neither is Pizza Boys nor Church’s.

Something is missing—please give it to us—we are hungry!