Diaspora convention numbers fall

Carl Gilchrist, Gleaner Writer

A lower-than-expected turnout greeted the first day of the Jamaican Diaspora Convention 2011 which got under way yesterday at the Sunset Jamaica Grande Resort and Spa in Ocho Rios, St Ann.

Initial indications were that numbers would have been lower than in previous years because of differences between the Government and members of the Jamaican diaspora communities in England, the United States and Canada.

One member of the US delegation told The Gleaner that there were usually between 100 and 140 representatives from the northeastern states such as Washington, Maryland, Connecticut, New York and Boston, but that number has been reduced to 40 this year.

Convention officials said registration was going smoothly but that they could not give any indication what the final delegate count would be.

Concerns dismissed

However, state minister in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Marlene Malahoo Forte, dismissed concerns about the number of delegates.

"We are not measuring the success of the convention by numbers. We have enough people here to have a successful conference," she told The Gleaner.

Another member of the US delegation, Irwin Clare, said the low turnout was because of several concerns among members of the diaspora community.

"There was talk of political intervention, concern about how we select and appoint our leaders, a lot of issues concerning the fact that we were having a conference and there were those who believed it was being planned for us and we were just attending," he said.

But Clare explained that the issue points to a lack of effective leadership in the northeast region, a matter that he said needs to be addressed.

"There's a leadership concern within our region and that's something we're going to have to take care of; we can't just sit there and blame everybody else, part of it is our fault," he explained.

He argued, however, that any shortfall in overseas delegates should have been made up for by inviting youth participation.

"There are not a lot of youths that are involved in this thing, unfortunately. At a minimum, we should have at least gotten more local persons in; so in the absence of having 200 persons from the United States, we should have 400 youngsters right in here to at least interface, to network, so we could impart some of the things us older folks know," said Clare.

He added: "It's like you're putting on a meet at the stadium and you can't sell the bleachers but you want kids to be involved with what's going on. You open up and allow the kids to come in and observe what's going on. So if we truly have the youths at heart, we would have had kids from the high school inside here in their uniforms. We would have more representative students inside that room. So I'm a bit taken aback by that."

The convention continues today with one of the main items being Finance Minister Audley Shaw's presentation on the topic 'Energising the Diaspora'.