Close to Christmas, I was visiting a popular store in downtown St John’s, Antigua, searching for gifts when a woman suddenly flared up nearby. She was the thickset, sullen attendant at one of the main business outlets owned by the successful local descendants of a prominent Syrian-migrant family, the Shouls.
Loudly declaring her support for the then government of the United Progressive Party (UPP), with hands planted on her hips, she proceeded to prance about and shout angrily above the soft holiday music, forgetting carols and parang, and launching a fiery fusillade about “dem dam dutty foreigners” allowed to take over “awe islands.” Turning to look pointedly at surprised me standing across her, in front of a packed shelf display, she gesticulated with full fingers, and ranted about “all dem thousands Guyanese reachin yah to thief everything – from awe jobs, awe land, awe house, awe man…”
