Brooklyn, New York – The Caribbean American community’s ability to enhance the island economies of the region remains unrecognized and largely untapped, says Counterpart International president, Lelei LeLaulu. And Medgar Evers College, dubbed the “Caribbean College of North America”, is an institution that is in a unique position to change that.
Counterpart, which is partnering with the Brooklyn college to produce the first Caribbean Media Exchange on Sustainable Tourism (CMEx) held outside the region, on Friday, November 4, believes the meeting and partnership with Medgar Evers might better integrate the Caribbean Diaspora with the region’s tourism industry.
The day-long conference to be held at the college will feature tourism expert and director of Cricket World Cup 2007, St. Lucian Allen Chastanet, change engine consultant Dr. Basil Springer of Barbados and communications specialist Andria Hall, who will be joined by academics, students, the media and business community.
“Not enough attention has been paid by the Caribbean industry to the important and great economic clout wielded by the Diaspora here in Brooklyn,” said LeLaulu on last weekend’s “The Caribbean in Five” radio broadcast on 1190 AM WLIB in New York.
Medgar Evers college, a historically Black college, is one of the few institutions currently harnessing and developing this potential. More than two-thirds of the college’s 6,000 students are either from the Caribbean or of Caribbean heritage. “With 4,000 people tracing their roots to the Caribbean somehow or another, this makes it one of the intellectual powerhouses for the Caribbean region,” LeLaulu said.
LeLaulu hopes Counterpart’s partnership with Medgar Evers College will pave the way for strengthening the input and power of the Caribbean’s Diaspora in improving the affairs of the region. “We’re looking at ways of giving them the tools they need to create wealth for themselves, their communities both here in the Diaspora and within the region itself.”
LeLaulu is optimistic that the conference will help the Caribbean to recognize the power and influence of her communities abroad. “We think that by the end of November 4, we’ll have a wonderful roadmap on how to move forward to bring closer together this important Diaspora with its home nations in the Caribbean itself.”
He congratulated Medgar Evers College and its Dubois-Bunche Center for Public Policy for recognizing that one of the key revivifying factors of the Caribbean tourism industry is centred in the heart of the Diaspora in Brooklyn, New York.
