Thursday, April 07, 2005

LAC - where's the Caribbean in this?

I have found that the English speaking Caribbean (ESC) is particularly left out of the LAC events, maybe because we don't attend, or because we don't speak Spanish... not sure why. But as the region is becoming a larger force, we really should take advantage of the opportunities existent to be able to have a voice in the regional activities.
This is not limited to Internet or WSIS activities. I've been straddling the line for a while, as a Portuguese-speaking Brasilian-educated Trinidadian, so I get info on LAC events that may not be widely disseminated to the ESC community. But even so, I have some issues, as many of the events are purely in Spanish or Spanish and Portuguese. There are some 13 English speaking countries in LAC, and one French (independent) country - Haiti.
LAC needs to start taking into account the needs and opinions of ALL of the regions participants. It may require a particular effort on the part of the larger LA countries and organisations to remember us but it needs to be done.
On our part, bilingualism is not easy, but it will help.

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