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DISSIN' THE DIASPORA, AGAIN
Date Posted: June 22, 2008.
By Bevan Springer
(NEW YORK )- Communication is the basis for life. When
communication fails, abnormality sets in.
This principle was demonstrated this week in New York with a
decision, seemingly influenced by the Caribbean diplomatic
corps, to retain the services of a "mainstream" public
relations firm to communicate to members of the Diaspora and
the Black media.
The event was the Conference on the Caribbean which
attracted several Caribbean Heads of State and cabinet
ministers who arrived in New York rather surprised to hear
that some local media operatives were considering a boycott
of the meetings engineered by the respected Harlem
Congressman Charles Rangel who chairs the powerful Ways and
Means Committee.
The boycott suggestion attributed to Guyanese broadcaster
Bobby Vieira, general manager of One Caribbean Radio, and
supported by some media colleagues, alarmed several of the
visiting Heads who must have been concerned about a
potentially hostile response from the Diaspora for an
important Diaspora-centered event that had been so poorly
publicized throughout the Caribbean-American community.
Thankfully, all things typically work together for good and
the protests of an outraged broadcaster, published on the
popular internet-based CaribbeanWorldNews.com, may have
brought greater attention to the conference and energized
the public relations agency in question to ramp up their
communications activities, judging from the flurry of 11th
hour media advisories that followed this critical article.
Notably, another critical story appeared in the Miami Herald
on the conference's opening day.
While accompanying a delegate to the meeting on Thursday, a
diplomat expressed a measure of disgust with the Caribbean
World News article. As a champion for reversing the inverted
prejudice from numerous Caribbean government and private
sector organizations against Diaspora professionals, I had
to distance myself from the boycott call, but nevertheless
point out that decision makers consistently show contempt
towards Black, Hispanic and Caribbean professionals in the
marketplace.
This is a topic about which I have extensively written and
discussed on air over the years and a subject that was fully
ventilated at last month's Caribbean Media Exchange on
Sustainable Tourism (CMEx), held in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Admittedly some progress has been made, but too little to
write about, except to say that the island of Jamaica is a
shining light within CARICOM (Caribbean Community) when it
comes to securing the services of the Diaspora, while still
falling short of an acceptable standard.
Speaking at a recent Diaspora conference in Jamaica, Prime
Minister Bruce Golding is reported to have said that often
when the country needed an expert to solve a problem the
tendency was to look everywhere except among "our Jamaican
people." He said more needed to be done in order to open a
line so that the government can know who is overseas, and
who is "here in Jamaica" that has an interest in helping, as
well as the ability to help. He said the Diaspora has a
spirit of goodwill that is powerful, on which a value could
not be placed and was something that Jamaica should take
advantage of.
My conversation with the New York-based diplomat
surprisingly revealed - or maybe not so surprisingly - that
our region's representatives in Manhattan were unaware of
any Caribbean public relations firms who could communicate
to their own people and whose services could be retained for
the Caribbean conference.
What a shame, I thought, underscoring the pervasive
ignorance across the region and in the marketplace about the
professional skills within our expatriate communities - an
ignorance that perpetuates the barrel mentality - perhaps
that's what Caribbean-Americans are limited to contributing
in their eyes.
Sadly, those leaders and organizations who are aware of the
depth of talent in the Diaspora still remain attracted to
the Madison Avenue mindset which rewards companies, some of
which burn more energy and resources on pitching clients and
on overhead expenditure than they do on meeting client needs
once the lucrative contracts have been inked.
Will we ever see a change to this affront to Caribbean
identity and independence? My fervent prayer is that we will
sooner than later.
It starts with communication. Maybe there is a silver lining
in all of this.
The dialogue will surely continue.
Bevan Springer, the Director of Counterpart International's
Caribbean Media Exchange on Sustainable Tourism (CMEx), is a
journalist and communications advisor.
