Andria Hall Communications Scholarship Announced: Foundation offers awards to US and Caribbean students

United States and Caribbean nationals interested in pursuing studies in media, broadcasting or public speaking are being offered scholarship awards in the memory of Christian communications professional and former CNN news anchor, Andria Hall.

The SpeakEasy M.E.D.I.A. Foundation has opened the application process for two grants which will be awarded to a high school student from the United States and another from the Caribbean region where Andria Hall featured at many inspiring tourism and media conferences.

Each grant will total US$2,000 and will be awarded to individuals pursing media-related studies at the college or university of their choice.

In addition, each winner will receive a fellowship to attend an upcoming edition of the Caribbean Media Exchange on Sustainable Tourism (CMEx) - which Andria helped to produce - or another media event in the US or Caribbean.

This is the second part of the address delivered by former Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur at Rotary World Understanding Day Dinner at the Pegasus Hotel, Georgetown Guyana on Friday 27tht February.  

  The Caribbean faces an even greater peril.

  A Caribbean solution to an economic problem which is global in source and scope clearly will depend in large measure upon the strength and soundness of the response by the international community.  

If that response is not sound, to the extent that it is not rooted in analysis of the crisis that is realistic and meaningful, and if it is not strong and all encompassing in the scope of its proposed solutions, then countries such as the Caribbean will be left dangerously adrift.

The evidence thus far is that the response of those most capable of determining global policy has not been analytically sound as regards their explanation of the sources of the contemporary global disorder.

  It is even more distressing that the proposed solutions which are focused on corporate bail outs and conventional macro-economic stimulus programs are hardly likely to get the job done.

This week we’ll share with you’re the first part of an address delivered by former Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur at Rotary World Understanding Day Dinner at the Pegasus Hotel, Georgetown Guyana on Friday 27th February.  

 

  In reflecting on his very many crises, Richard Nixon was moved to observe that: “You do not become the finest steel, until you have gone through the hottest fires.”

 

  The response of the Caribbean to the enormous challenge with which it is confronted as a result of the dangerous instability in the global economy will very much determine whether that outcome becomes the region’s destiny.

 

  Crisis is no stranger to the Caribbean. Our small societies have always lived a difficult and hazardous existence. In our crisis-ridden history, we have had to endure the trauma of slavery and indentured servitude, colonial domination and exploitation, private pillage, and, for long periods, the effects and the consequences of war.

 

 

A press conference at the recent Caribbean Marketplace travel event in St. Lucia inspired me to reflect on the contributions of two journalists who have made a positive contribution to Caribbean tourism through their work.

Reacting to a British journalist who implored his fellow media colleagues during the question and answer segment of the press conference to ask, not what the Caribbean can do for journalists, but what they can do for the Caribbean, inspired me to reflect on the work, firstly of Jamaican scribe and entrepreneur Janet Silvera who coordinates Hospitality Jamaica - a Gleaner publication.

Janet, a senior writer with a youthful outlook and refreshing disposition, has kept tourism, the region's bread winner, on the news and business pages of one of Jamaica's premier publications, and in so doing has helped connect the Jamaican people to an industry that many across the region consider as patronizing and subservient.

Her stories are well researched and her topics captivating as she thoughtfully breaks the news and drives newspaper sales with her exclusive stories which cover the length and breadth of the local tourism landscape as well as the regional tourism environment.