WACC-Caribe Assembly

WACC-Caribe celebrates its Third Regional Assembly in the midst of Hurricane Isidore. Pictured from left to right: Allison Bidaisee, Gotson Pierre, Maximiliano Dueñas-Guzmán, Suecia Méndez.

For the next three years WACC-Caribe has agreed to focus on programmes that facilitate the promotion of people’s right to communicate. At its Third Regional Assembly which took place at the First Presbyterian Church, WACC members from the English, Dutch, Creole and Spanish speaking countries of the Caribbean approved a strategic programme which also aims to create greater access to all information and communication technologies and develop a culture of communication and networking. During the Assembly, the members reviewed the community radio-focused programme of the last three years which, according to outgoing president Msgr. Patrick Anthony, was not implemented due among other things to the “fragile political situation in Haiti”.

Members elected a new Regional Executive Committee which includes the Haitian development worker and grassroots communicator Gotson Pierre as President and Suecia Méndez, from Cuba, as Vice-President. Other members of the committee are Maximiliano Dueñas-Guzmán, from Puerto Rico, Treasurer; Allison Bidaisee, from Trinidad and Tobago, Secretary; and Suzanne Francis Brown, from Jamaica, and Antonious Waterburg from Surinam.

Gotson Pierre was nominated as president of the Caribbean Regional Executive Committee.

The participants paid tribute to the outgoing President Msgr. Patrick Anthony and Vice President Candida Gonzalez-López both of whom have served on the Executive Committee since the formation of WACC-Caribe in 1996. Until then the Caribbean was part of the Latin American Regional Association. Msgr. Patrick Anthony, Paba as he is affectionately known throughout the Caribbean, was unable to attend the assembly due to health reasons.

The Assembly was preceded by a two-day regional seminar on the theme of “Democratisation of Communication in the Caribbean: Confronting the Information Society”. The opening of the seminar was attended by a number of representatives from the state, the Cuban Churches and the University of Cuba. Caridad Diego, Director of the Office for Religious Affairs of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party, in her address to the gathering, thanked WACC for choosing Cuba as the venue for the assembly while Maria Yi, Vice-President of the Council of Churches of Cuba welcomed participants to Havana and expressed the Cuban Churches’ support for the event.

During the event participants debated a number of issues including culture and new technologies, the challenges posed to popular communication, issues of access, women and new information technologies.

Dr José Ramón Vidal, Co-ordinator of the Popular Communications Programme of the Martin Luther King Jr. Centre of Cuba and lecturer at the School of Communication, highlighted the importance for social movements of developing strategies to appropriate information and communication technologies (ICTs) in a complex world. He went on to add that the cultural dimension of the technological revolution resides in the fact that it has made knowledge and information a central factor in today’s dominant economic model. However, he reminded the audience that only 4% of the resources of ICTs are located in Latin America and the Caribbean. Joseph George, Director of the Societe d’Animation e de Communication Sociale (SAKS) Haiti, developed the argument further indicating that new technologies can be instrumental in breaking the isolation of the Caribbean nations. This means that ensuring access to new technologies by all sectors of societies is crucial for the region’s grassroots and social movements. Chris Engel from Curacao and Suzanne Francis Brown from Jamaica addressed issues concerning Internet access and uses in the Caribbean, gender, content and the information society.

By Embert Charles

More information: http://www.pancaribbean.com/wacaribe/index.htm