carizine-2014-1-12

www.aggreypedia.org.jm/html/

VOL. 2

INSIDE: Tribute to Professor Aggrey Brown The Makings of CARIMAC Aggrey Brown Distinguished Lecture 2014 Q&A with prominent past students One-on-One with current students excelling outside of CARIMAC

Media & Tourism:

A Fi Wi Business?!

Business!?

CARIZINE Magazine

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production team C.A.R.E. would like to thank the following persons from Interlinc Communications for the design of the second issue of CARIZINE: Marcel Robinson President & CEO Interlinc Communications 5 Oxford Park Avenue Kingston 5, Jamaica WI Telephone: +1 (416) 628-2921 Mobile: +1 (876) 774-6469 Customer Service: +1 (876) 6550768 Alternate Number: +1 (876) 6552474 MarcelRobinson@ interlinccommunications.net www.interlinccommunications. com

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Craig Purkiss Web & Graphic Designer Interlinc Communications 5 Oxford Park Avenue Kingston 5, Jamaica WI Telephone: +1 (416) 628-2921 Mobile: Customer Service: +1 (876) 6550768 Alternate Number: +1 (876) 6552474 CPurkiss@ interlinccommunications.net www.interlinccommunications. com

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The third staging of the CARIMAC Aggrey Brown Distinguished Lecture (CABDL) saw the introduction of its new online component called CARIZINE. This is an e-magazine geared at promoting the image and services of CARIMAC by showcasing the progressive steps of development witnessed by the institution.

table of contents april 2014

This initiative was undertaken by a group of students in the final year, Communication, Analysis and Planning II (CAP II) class, called Digital and Online Media Solutions (DOMS).

This year, a subgroup of the 2014 CAP II cohort called the CARIMAC Giveback’s and Aggreypedia’s Revamping for new Expressions (CARE), has sought to further this initiative by publishing the second issue of this e-magaizine.

This issue functions to highlight the makings of the 4th staging of CABDL, under the topic “Media and Tourism: A Fi Wi Business?!” Furthermore, it features both current and past CARIMAC students who have managed to utilize lessons learnt at CARIMAC to pilot personal and professional pursuits, respectively.

Photos by: CARIMAC

cover story

in this issue

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The Makings of CABDL

Director’s Message Professor Hopeton S. Dunn, PhD Director, CARIMAC

features

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Tribute to Prof

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Letters to the Editor

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Highlights

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One-on-One - Kyesha Randall - Michael Lewis - Dorian Graham

Q&A - Paula-Ann Porter - Adrian Brown - Ruthlyn Johnson - Steffon Campbell

-Nova Gordon-Bell, Ph.D.

-Re-energise youths for Tourism!

-Tolerance Can Erase Nation’s Debt

-$1.2B for Cultural and

Economic Preservation

-Ambassadorial Corps CAP Project - Animation Celebration

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DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE

Photo by: CARIMAC

CARZINE Endorsement

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ARIMAC is pleased to welcome the establishment of yet another outlet for the creative talents of our students.

The launch of the second issue of the online magazine called CARIZINE is a welcome addition to our portfolio of training and new media publications. Professor Brown would be pleased at this creative endeavour, as I am.

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commend the initiative of our students in Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) for this valuable initiative and CARIMAC will make every effort to ensure its continuity.

- Professor Hopeton S. Dunn, PhD. Director, CARIMAC.

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hat it is associated with the already established archive called Aggreypedia, commemorating one of our former Directors, Professor Aggrey Brown is an asset.

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SHOWCASE

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CARIZINE Magazine

Photo by: CARIMAC CARIZINE Magazine

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Tribute to Prof Brown by

Nova Gordon-Bell, Ph.D

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here was a time when the earth was flat, until the paradigms shifted. After the reciprocal transference of meaning between intelligences, Professor Aggrey Brown’s students never saw the world in the same way again. From the first class with Aggrey, our world began dripping with dialectics and our epistemologies were reshaped.Aggrey’s students learnt early that there is no such thing as objectivity, so we can only strive to be fair. So, it is fair to say that Professor Aggrey Brown stimulated, motivated or terrified us into critical thought. He relished opposition. He invited contradiction and sometimes we could not help but feel that in each class he looked forward to yanking us out of the box, to compelling us to redefine the definitions, to be creators of history, “… the sum total of our interaction with our environment.”

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hank you, Aggrey.

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caution though—As we created history, we had to be careful not to make grammatical errors for Aggrey’s scores on our essays could go below zero into negative quantities. Aggrey disliked grammatical errors as much as he disliked prosaic and superficial thought.No student left Aggrey’s class without a major overhaul of our vocabulary. After all, if we were to understand the meaning of meaning, meaning must be meaningful to those who create meaning. One brave student had the nerve to ask Aggrey to explain to the class the meanings of many of the new and unusual words he used in his lectures. The rest of us held our breaths. We held on to our chairs. We waited for the inevitable… but there was no explosion. Aggrey smiled. Aggrey smiled his sweetest smile and then he said, “For those of you who agree that the words I use are unfamiliar, I give you, The Oxford Dictionary.”

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rofessor Brown warned us that we should not ignore the power of words. Words were important. For example, when personnel departments became human resource departments, people stopped being persons and became resources. Because people have become resources and are no longer persons, it means people can be easily downsized and rightsized and kicked outside. Personnel, Aggrey said, was a perfectly good word, and every student of Aggrey Brown knows, “We are persons and not d** resources.”

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hink! Aggrey warned us to think before we simply babble repetitiously the buzz words and clichés of our day.

Like this thing about “sustainable development.” Sustainable what? If it is not sustainable, it is NOT development. Why talk about sustainable development? As for development, development is not about GDP. Development is not about money and things. Development, Aggrey taught us, must be about people, “the reciprocal process between people and their environment which leads to the actualization of their full potential and the protection of the environment as they make history.” Again, on the matter of history, if you were Aggrey Brown’s student, you knew there were no world wars, just a First and Second North Atlantic War in which the rest of the world was simply dragged along.

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ducation for Aggrey involved the engagement of his students in a search for redefinitions. We needed to be empowered to name our world and to redefine self. For this reason, the words of a Native American, Chief Seattle, would find its way into our reading list alongside the tomes of traditional and not so traditional scholars.

After we had spent a semester exchanging thoughts, ideas, perspectives and Professor Brown had determined that our minds had been stretched and expanded with a variety of spot tests, book reviews, presentations and annotated bibliographies, he despaired that “only the vestige of a slavish colonial system should demand that you write exams.”

Not only did Aggrey redefine the meaning of communication, he redefined a university experience for so many of us.

The totality of his contribution to our engagement with the world is summed up in the invitation that almost always concluded his lectures and presentations: “Questions? Comments? Observations?” Today our world has shape and colour and immense possibilities. Thank you, Aggrey.

Photo by: The Aggrey Brown Family CARIZINE Magazine

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The Makings of CABDL

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he CARIMAC/Aggrey Brown Distinguished Lecture (CABDL) is an initiative of CARIMAC final year students, studying the course ‘Communication Analysis and Planning’ under the guidance of lecturer Ms. Charmaine Henry. Now in its fourth staging, the discussion explores the possibilities of partnership between media and other industries to achieve national development. Since it’s conception in 2010, the relationship between media and other cultural domains such as sports, and the arts have been presented.This year’s theme “Media, Communication and Tourism: A Fi Wi Business?!” is centered on raising the awareness of, and interest in tourism product among Jamaicans. In addition to the lecture, an interactive exposition dubbed “Tourism Village” will be used as a medium to showcase the possibilities of a relationship between media and tourism.

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he event is aptly named after the late Professor Aggrey Brown, who taught at CARIMAC for many years, proceeded to be Director of CARIMAC and later on the Dean of the faculty of Humanities and Education, all the while imparting his knowledge, seemingly boundless to those who encountered him.

Affectionately called ‘Prof’, he was a great influence on his students; always urging them to think “outside of the box” and to explore the unexplored. His many studies include (but were not limited to) works on communication, culture, technology, paradigm shifts and development.

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rom conceputalisation to execution, the responsibilities of the project are divided among the final year students who are tasked with various roles depending on their respective departments. The three groups responsible for the planning of the 2014 CABDL are; the Tourism Village, Marketing and Communications, and Entertainment and Production.

The Tourism Village, subthemed: “Brand JAMAICA, See it, Feel it, Taste it,” under the distinct patronage of the Spanish Ambassador Celsa Nuno, was tasked with showcasing aspects of our Jamaican culture in relation to the development of our tourism industry. The Village is also intended to serve as a medium through which valuable information can be gathered, and meaningful discussion can be engaged to broadcast the use of media as a vehicle to drive tourism. It will feature booth displays populated by hoteliers, local attractions, craft makers, artistes and food manufacturers. The Village will be open to the public from 10:00a.m. - 6:00p.m.

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arketing and Communications, in short “MarComm Inc.” was tasked with meeting the objective of “making marketing and communications simple, succinct and sociable”. In addition to the main goal of promoting the event, raising awareness on issues related to this year’s theme was also an assigned task. The team worked closely with traditional media as well as social media and students and staff of the University of the West Indies in order to

boost the involvement of youth in tourism-enhancing activities in Jamaica. The department boasts 12 dedicated members led by the hard-working Ms. Renee Gauntlett, and is comprised of Marketing and Promotions, Communications, Media Relations, Research and Creative divisions.

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ntertainment and Production, abbreviated “EntPro” was accountable for providing acts to compliment the lecture and Tourism Village on the day, as well as ensuring that the technical and logistical areas are on point.

Talents included ‘The University Dance Society’, ‘The Pop Society’, ‘The University Drama Society’, and ‘The Peace Group associated with Preston Hall’. They also sourced students from the St. Aloysius Primary and Infant School to perform a folk dance during the Tourism Village; contacted dancers ‘Famous and Company’, ‘D’Crew’ and ‘Ashe’(performers at last year’s event), popular artistes ‘Gramma Zone’ and ‘Pryce’, and ‘Flashmob’.

The logistics aspect of EntPro’s tasks saw them also sourcing and providing décor, props, lighting, a PA system, and ushers – all CARIMAC students.

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he three departments spent months in deliberation and ‘action mode’ trying to ensure that the fourth annual staging of the CARIMAC Aggrey Brown Distinguished Lecture and accompanying Tourism Village was a success. This could only be judged by whether or not they managed to attract their target audience, communicate the importance of a sustained relationship between media and tourism while stressing the fact that it is indeed ‘fi wi business’, and also manage to sell Jamaica as a destination tourist attraction by having the members of the audience ‘see it’, ‘taste it’ and ‘feel it’.

Letters to the Editor Re-energise youths for

Tolerance can erase

$1.2B for Cultural and

Tourism

Nation’s Debt

Economic Preservation

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ear Editor, I came across a recent article which shared an instance of students at a particular high school being indifferent to the thought of seeking jobs within the tourist industry. For them, the greatest challenge within the sector, was the level of inequality in employment opportunities available. They mentioned the hotel industry specifically, as they hold the view that hotel managers are usually only seeking cheap labour.

Then, there are other groups of young people working within the sector for the sole benefit of having a job. Is this the kind of response that we want our youth to have towards our tourism industry? From these observations we can deduce that when these youngsters think of the tourism sector the response is not, ‘Whew, I get to promote brand Jamaica’ or ‘I can get several opportunities from this.’ Instead they are eagerly looking for the next opportunity. I believe that it is time to really begin to market tourism to the youth. The first stage would be helping them to recognize the beauty of our Island and the value of our culture especially to their daily lives. We want our young people to gravitate to those features that are traditionally ours even as they are bombarded with American and other foreign practices which we see so often of late. Tourists visit countries to have new experiences and I put it to you that if we do not take the time to market these features to our youth, we shall lose elements of our culture and very soon have limited value to attract tourists. My point here is simply this; youth should be involved in tourism and we as Jamaicans should make the issue of youth and tourism our business.

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ear Editor, while conducting an online search of brand Jamaica, I came across an interesting article from Jamaica Travel Vacation & Tourist Guide entitled, “Crime in Jamaica.” It was an informative piece of literature advising potential tourists about the steps to take so as to avoid becoming a victim of crime in Jamaica. The section that got my attention, however, was that which read, “Jamaica is extremely homophobic.”It states that lesbians, gays, bi-sexuals and trans-gendered (LGBT) persons are often victims of assault on the island. I am quite concerned by the message that is being sent to potential visitors to our island. Has our culture become known for violence against persons who live “alternative” lifestyles so much that they are now being advised not to visit our island? As a result of this supposed “homophobic” mentality, Jamaica is missing out on at least a portion of the estimated US$140billion in revenue which represents the annual expenditure of the LGBT group.

Approximately 20% of this sum could eliminate the nation’s debt which is US$20billion. There are many other Caribbean nations which have recognized the value of income from this supposed ‘forbidden’ group. Countries like St. Lucia and Dominica, with anti-gay laws have welcomed gay cruises. Why is it that Jamaica cannot make use of this opportunity? I would like to inform Jamaicans that tolerance does not mean acceptance. Instead of turning away billions of dollars annually from those who live “alternative” lifestyles, we should examine putting measures in place to attract these persons to vacation on our island.

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ear Editor, The Tourism Ministry has said it will cost at least $1.2 billion over five years to put in place the necessary structure for the promotion of community tourism on the island.

Community Based Tourism is one in which tourists will be hosted by community members themselves.

This would enable villagers to share not only the culture but the environment while profiting from doing so. Is $1.2 billion too much to pay for cultural and environmental preservation which produces financial gains? Can we afford not to invest in Community Tourism? It must be said, however, that this, like the Prime Minister’s much publicised trips, is not a new phenomenon. In 1978, hotelier/ tourism consultant Diana McIntyrePike and former Director of Tourism the late Desmond Henry developed and became the pioneers of the concept. Mrs. Pike owns and operates the Astra Country Inn in Mandeville, Jamaica, which is recognized worldwide as the pioneer hotel in Community Tourism. The Community Tourism programme, developed by Countrystyle, which is responsible for the marketing of this venture and for the Community Tourism and Central and South Tourism Organization (CESTO) targeted the central and south region of the island for development.

Community Tourism is mutually beneficial to foreigners and locals.

Through this medium tourists are given the opportunity to have a genuine taste of the “country life,” while participating locals will have a say in the industry...

Photo by: The Aggrey Brown Full verion of this letter can be found on Aggreypedia under “Student’s Work” CARIZINE Magazine

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One-On-One “I was struggling mentally because I felt like a pageant was there to tell you to know your place. And I felt I knew my place and my place was to never get involved in a pageant, because you know who your typical winners are. They are the long hair, brown skin, half white, right last name, right friends, right social upbringing. I wanted to prove everybody, and the ideal of pageantry, wrong.”- Kyesha Randall, Miss UWI, 2013.

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apturing her reason for entering the Miss UWI Competition, 2013 with that potent statement, current CARIMAC third year Journalism major, Kyesha Randall now boasts the title of Miss University of the West Indies, 2013 and can safely say that she achieved her goal of proving people, and the ideal of pageantry, wrong. From poor and humble beginnings, the past student of Mount Alvernia High School for Girls related that although she had initial fears at entering the competition, so much so that she stalled her entry until the second year of her studies, she was intrinsically motivated. Her journey however, was anything but easy

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Financially, for the type of events that these girls were going to, most of them I didn’t go and it’s not because I didn’t want to,” she stated. “I didn’t have what it took to make me look good… Most of the times I had to ask people or borrow stuff from people to make it to some of these events [but] I didn’t want to be known as the person who kept borrowing stuff from people.

It weighed on me for some time and that is where the emotional challenge came in… I wanted out.”

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owever, she was able to continue with the help of friends to motivate her, her experience with

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radio broadcasting, her training from being a member of Dance and Performing Arts Company in Montego Bay and her teachings from CARIMAC. “When it came onto the question and answer segment, I knew I had to pull on some of my CARIMAC experiences,” Randall laughed. “I had to think very quickly on my feet. I had to structure my answers [and] delve into the question in less than a minute and CARIMAC teaches you that. In terms of current affairs, CARIMAC definitely helped with that.” Randall ended by stating that the most important lesson this competition taught her was the truly believe in yourself.

“Whenever you tell yourself that you’re going to do something, just see it through,” she advised.

“You never know, people might be watching you as motivation… because all of us see ourselves in the underdogs that we so admire and so that competition taught me to just be yourself. Because when you look in the mirror today and look in the mirror tomorrow, you must be able to like what’s looking back at you.”

Because all of us see ourselves in the underdogs that we so admire and so that competition taught me to just be yourself. Because when you look in the mirror today and look in the mirror tomorrow, you must be able to like what’s looking back at you.”