Claiming a (our) spot

Throughout history many regions, countries, continents and societies had their claim to fame and some still do. The Chinese had their various Dynasties, England their empire and industrial revolution, and currently we are living in the age of democracy and technology mainly distributed by the USA.
All my life I had been reading and learning about all these amazing nations and their people. The accomplishments and contributions to the world. I can remember that we always looked up (and with good reason) to other "western" cultures and never questioned and worse of all, rarely pushed and stimulated our own creativity and contribution to this world.

Working in the destination marketing business, promoting the Caribbean and my home country Aruba"target=_blank" , we always define our unique selling points such as: nice beaches, excellent weather, good food, friendly people etc.
It is actually while having deeper converstaions with our audience that we truly promote our "unique" people, customs, technologies and philosophy. Also our role in this worlds history. Two examples I love most are the contributions of two tiny islands and their people to the founding and defense of the USA.

The first country in saluting and accepting the newly formed United States of America
In the North-west part of the Caribbean you;ll find St. Eustatius, one of the Dutch Antilles. Their nickname is "The Golden Rock". It was given to them for making a fortune on selling and providing weapons for the American freedom fighters under George Washington. As soon as he won the war against Britain, the (then Dutch) Governor saluted an American ship with 11 canon shots, officially recognizing the newly formed United States of America. Read more: http://www.statiatourism.com/history.html

The largest producer of Fuel for the American and Allied forces during WWII
During the years the world was at war, a small Island called Aruba, under Dutch rule was host to a large American Oil refining company: LAGO Oil & Transport Company
The production of this facility provided 75% of the Fuel for the Americans in the Pacific.
Read more: http://www.bevrijdingintercultureel.nl/eng/antillen.html#wo2

The nice things about these stories is that all the people involved were a mix of Europeans, Americans, Africans and indigenous people and all other possible mixes that one could find on the islands.
Therefore one of the unique selling points of the Caribbean, at least in my opinion, is that the Islands are too small for anyone to be left out. Every person on those Islands have been directly or indirectly invloved. Wether it was people in high and official positions or common citizens performing tasks that were just small gears in a much large machine, but nevertheless very essential.

Caribbean people are known to be humble. But after learning more and more about our history we can be proud and claim our spot in the range of nations and regions mentioned earlier who contributed to this world.
And the uniqueness of being small will help us stay down to earth, becuase in the Caribbean there will always be someone who knows you and your background and be telling you:
"I know you, I remember you stealing fruit from the neighbour in your underpants after school. So you are a Director of a company now? nice......I think we still have that picture of you playing in the field with all the other neighborhood kids"