Thousands of us living here in the US, as well as many more talented individuals in Panama, fled the oppressive atmosphere of Colon. Others, had their talents and skills ground down by years of frustration and lack of recognition. The “brain drain” obviously affected the Colon community in particular--leaving those behind with a sense of truncated culture, loss of identity and lost opportunities. Culture is defined as the measure of civilization. Without culture, there is no proof or evidence that a people existed. Many of our children today were born in Panama and that’s all they know. Ironically, some don’t even know that they were born into a proud immigrant heritage.
We, so-called Afro-Panamanians, need to take this situation seriously and rededicate ourselves to empowering our children with cultural responsibility, accountability and pride, as well as taking measures to improving Colon and other affected communities in Panama by creating opportunities for those in need--either by donating money, giving and sharing time, energy or expertise. Our first neighborhood commitment should be that of a long-term renaissance philosophy/vision for Colon. After all, this is where the people of West Indian descent and culture found their way to advancement and notoriety. The answer to improving poverty and breaking down the barriers of inequality can’t be from turning our backs and walking away from people. It, obviously, has proven to be a grave mistake on our part. There is an immense problem of inequality in Panama as well as in other parts of the world. The gap is widening and it is getting worse, not better. It cannot be solved entirely by tax policy, and it certainly cannot be solved by any monetary policy in of itself. It needs an extensive and aggressive overhauling!
The task is not easy, the challenge is humongous! For starters, there is a laundry list of social problems to confront. No one community can or should do it in isolation, therefore, we propose to focus on leveraging relationships and promoting working partnerships between our two Afro-Panamanian communities in Panama and the US. Our aim is to capitalize on the talent pool of both communities in building mechanisms to foster creative thinking for a stronger, more compassionate environment as science and technology advances rapidly in today’s global economy. We realize that there are a number of individuals and organizations attempting to do what they can to help remedy the situation. However, we urgently need to bring all of our resources to bear in unifying community voices and leadership in a shared mission with a well-conceived coordinated/targeted effort to tackle the problems we are to face. In other words, transfer skills/talents and knowledge by sharing project development and management, tapping into creativity, innovation, organizational and administrative skills of individuals, expertise in finance and commerce as well as education, within the affected communities; running the gamut from individual and team volunteerism to serving on Boards. A commission will set the criterions regarding the selection process in this regard.
Our goal is to work in tandem as a community in building vibrant and viable communities that benefit not only the people today, but for generations to come. We need to begin investing in programs that will enable/inspire people to live, learn and thrive to help enhance the quality of life in the communities we are to serve. When caring, successful adults come into most children’s lives, the transition can be magical and you are usually able to foster educational discipline, ambition and positive self image. It is really time for us to stop begging others for a place in society and begin to earn our rightful place in Panama‘s society.
Passion and vision are only part of the job description. To accomplish our objectives, it would require serious commitment and we need to fully understand the ascendance of accountability. We are determined to promote and inspire a culture of accountability and personal pride and responsibility in our communities. These components, in particular, are not considered to be operating and functioning as they should. Our hope and intention is to raise awareness of the critical role organizational management must play in the success of our community involvement.
Effective and ethical management practices will enable us to fulfill our missions. There are new demands/requirements for tight management and accountability, for having a solid business/program plan and a laser-like focus on the mission of community-based, non-profit organizations. As such, we must establish governance that moves the organization forward; maintain strong, transparent and accountable financial management; demonstrate inclusive and diverse organizational practices; wisely manage human and technological resources; communicate effectively with key players, ethically and effectively raise needed funds and other resources; and must deliver and demonstrate results in pursuit of our missions.
Governance is another crucial issue, a code of conduct, bylaws and independent audits. This may seem complicated and time-consuming, especially for a small organization, but it is essential as we grow and ultimately expand. Everyone who commits needs to stay focused on the organization’s missions, therefore, those with personal agendas we should steer clear from and would avoid like the plague!
Proven effective management is really about cultivating true leadership and about helping to define a clear-cut direction for the organization. Managing well is about managing a process of changes and encouraging growth and evolution. If we can show that we have the ability to do these things and make a difference in the communities, you will be surprised at how much easier it will be for raising funds. A vibrant and well-managed nonprofit organization is fundamental to the work of philanthropy. Our plans are ambitious, far-reaching, and will be entirely focused on drastic changes in the community in meaningful, measurable and sustainable ways.
The problems we are facing are tough and complicated. We are challenged with an environment laden not only with substance abuse but environmental and family dysfunction, public health crises, generational illiteracy and, in almost all cases, abject poverty. With issues like these, there are no easy solutions: progress usually comes in small, snail-likened increments. Nonetheless, we must be able to document, verify and communicate our purpose, and celebrate our accomplishments and successes. Therefore, the real key is incorporating evaluations up front as part of the program's design. The real promise of data and evaluation is to help us sort through what works and what doesn’t--or what works in one situation, but not in another. It’s a vital part of laying the ground work for marking measurable progress. We believe, however, that we need to concentrate on values and not get into too many structural or demographic explanations as some scholars tend to do (too many counter examples).
We must develop a mission-driven organization and hold ourselves to high standards and be role models by leading youth development, education and providing family social services including public health concerns as starters. We cannot do everything we need to do in one full sweep, we must prioritize and do things where we may get the biggest “bang for the bucks! “ We further recommend that we concentrate on three, distinct populations as our targets at this time rather than spread efforts across the entire population: young children, young adults and the working poor. A commission should be established for drawing up templates/guidelines for addressing the problems for these three, distinct populations. This obviously will require field work to determine which strategies prove “tried and true” in having the most impact in attacking poverty and illiteracy for the groups.
Let’s face it, the educational system in Panama is considered inefficient, which facts have been officially acknowledged. We need to assist the system into producing more people who can think independently and creatively. To thrive in today’s complex, global environment, emerging young leaders need more than potential. They need to understand different cultures, gain advance capacities and the ability to motivate others to make a difference. We must start by empowering our leaders of tomorrow starting today. Expanding educational activities for children and young adults to include cultural competence and political education; college guidance programs to raise expectations, increase performance and inspire leadership. We need those in the education field to help us come up with a curriculum design to increase our children’s knowledge of our history as well as English/Spanish composition, in particular.
Helping young children and young adults by necessity means helping the working, poor families as well—the trickle down effect! As such, organizing low-income families to use their power to change the system so that all peoples’ lives are valued and is worthwhile. Also, race and class usually dictate where you see parks, swimming pools and other recreational activities for community kids. One should not have to move out of their neighborhoods to live in a better one. Community is not just a place, or group, it’s an activity. It is a responsibility you exercise and an obligation you live up to.
We are not saying that we have the formula for nonprofit excellence in a bottle and are prepared to dispense it; on the contrary, we believe that nonprofit management excellence is a work in progress. There is no one-size fits-all recipe. But we must start a serious and comprehensive program now! We don’t mind hearing the other side of an argument because it’s always the means by which you can focus your own thinking. If you’ve never had your argument tested, you have never refined it. Understanding usually takes more than one perspective.
However, this document, proposal if you will, is to help the community understand fundamental processes and objectives important to nonprofit organizations. If we don’t do the job right the first time, we stand to lose/erase an entire history, our history, and see an entire community disintegrated and torn apart by developments dictated by outside forces. We should not allow our youth to continue to remain illiterate and imprisoned by their surroundings without a voice to speak for/to them. We should not rely on somebody else to provide the services our community/society needs.
We envision a George Westerman Multi-Cultural and Creativity Youth Center, as Colon’s pre-eminent cultural, educational and artistic center. This would be a progressive place of learning and discourse, a place for artistic expression, a testament and example of the goals and aspirations of one man’s hopes and dreams for his people, a place in the community, for and by the community, where all peoples would come together and celebrate their commonality and heritage. The Center would stand as a visible monument of the vision and ideal of George Westerman that all our children are special, deserving, precious and important, that our children are our future and we must protect and guide them! They should have every advantage and opportunity. This is an incredibly unique and important period of time in our collective awareness and potential, to say the least. We should seize the opportunity and not rely on someone else to capitalize on our dreams. We would like to be able to look down the road, twenty/twenty-five years from now and bask and reflect in the knowledge that we did something to affect change and improve the lives of many in the community.
With all that said, it brings us to an important topic of ours-- English--as an outgrowth of British and American colonialism, we strongly feel should be restored as a medium of instruction in private classes for our youths. Due to the fact that we eagerly wanted to fit in/assimilate into Panamanian society, we allowed others to purposely abolish English instructions in both the public and private schools-- and to strictly enforce Spanish as the official and sole medium for our youths in particular.
Moreover, whether or not it was purposely done, the decision has obviously helped serve to eliminate job opportunities and minimize the competitiveness of our youths in the today’s global economy. If our educational leaders would have insisted/concentrated on “English proficiency” instead, perhaps some of our youths could have been major players in the global information technology, and even health care services, and tourism today-- as bi-lingual individuals. A simple and clear example is from a vibrant and competitive overseas workforce. When you should call customer service or technical support of virtually any company today, you most likely would be talking to an individual in India/and other parts of the world where English is spoken, who will attempt to answer your questions or solve your problem in perfect English. They even have English names and somewhat English-sounding accents!
Employers anywhere in the world today have been asking the question: why should we pay Americans to do highly skilled work-- if other people just as well educated, are available in less developed countries to do the work for half the American wages?
Again, we are reaching out to like-minded individuals on both sides of the community to come forward, lend your talents and skills, become part of the “vision” stand up and be accountable to your compatriots. Should you determine you have something of value and interest to contribute to our mission give us the details and we will gladly incorporate it into our plans as deemed, useful and appropriate for servicing the community and/or our mission’s vision and initiatives.
The Editorial Staff.
“Up you mighty race, you can accomplish what you will!” ---Marcus Garvey
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