Tough-talking EU head - Ambassador Marco Mazzocchi Alemanni
Published:Sunday | August 28, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer
"I am very proud to have contributed towards helping Jamaica in taking very important steps," declared head of the Delegation of European Union (EU) in Jamaica, Ambassador Marco Mazzocchi Alemanni, just after news broke that the diminutive Italian had copped an honorary award.
But the little man, always flexing his muscle for Jamaica's poverty-alleviation thrust, is not your typical portrait of an international diplomat.
Like a chameleon whose colour changes depending on the environment, Alemanni personifies contrasting features that have endeared some and alienated others.
However, no one can challenge his passion for his job and none whatsoever can question that his sharp tongue can be quite biting for a diplomat.
The EU ambassador is to be presented with the national honorary award - the Order of Distinction on Heroes Day in October - a month before his three-year tenure in Jamaica comes to an end.
Honorary awards are usually conferred on non-Jamaicans who have helped to advance the cause of the country in a significant way.
Alemanni is not your typical diplomat - he can be quite feisty. Perhaps it's this characteristic that really qualifies him to be an honorary Jamaican.
He oozes charm at a moment's notice and candour the next - he is cool this second and very cross the next.
Needless to say, Alemanni is a man who does not mince words.
Recently, he was peeved by comments he claimed had been made in the public domain. As is expected, Alemanni did not dodge the perceived verbal blows by retreating under his diplomatic façade.
"We have always tried to select a number of your priorities that we would support and we would put our terms of financial budgetary support, so that when one of your own targets was achieved, we release a part of your budgetary support into your Treasury," he ranted.
He complained
However, he complained that he had seen a number of remarks/criticisms over the past few days claiming that Jamaica "bends over backwards to accommodate foreign priorities".
Alemanni challenged government members to state whether the EU ever propose a conditionality that was not on Government of Jamaica programme itself?
In doing so, the diplomat stressed that this had always been the case under his watch.
"I don't know how to interpret comments ... to be kind, it seems to me that sometimes they come from people who are not well informed or has a chip on their shoulder," he commented.
Main representative
Guided by the plethora of acerbic comments over the past three years that he has lived in Jamaica as the EU main representative, Alemanni has a take on the economy, crime; other social issues and just about any other matter on which he is challenged.
This is what he said of an issue that many regard as the bane of Jamaica's existence. "Addressing crime and violence and in particular its underlying causes is an issue of the highest priority and is rightly regarded as the most pressing problem facing the country."
He diagnoses that the crime woes affect Jamaica's potential for economic development and affect the entire population.
Alemanni will just as eagerly engage a Jamaican on aspects of the economy, as he did in relation to the Jamaica Debt Exchange programme as he will about the Manatt, Phelps & Phillips saga.
"Data suggest that Jamaica could boost economic growth per capita of over five per cent per year if it was able to bring homicide rates down to the levels of, for instance, Costa Rica, declared Alemanni, making him sound (albeit with a foreign accent) like Dr Omar Davies or Audley Shaw, the former and the current finance minister.
Alemanni's passion in ensuring that Jamaica benefits from the EU under his watch seems always to bubble near the surface.
"The EU is actively supporting the (Jamaican) Government with a total amount of $J6.8 billion by placing the fight against crime and violence as one of its top two strategic priorities, the other being debt reduction," explained Alemanni. "Most of what we do to fight crime and enhance justice in Jamaica, we do it by Budget support, not loans."