We are focused on bringing a sense of new solidarity with innovative, relevant, cohesive and impacting perspectives to our two Afro-Panamanian communities in the U.S. and Panama. In essence, we wish to develop a common civic and historic environment with the hope of building a consensus and a more solid Black (Afro) Panamanian identity. It is our belief, that the most threatening and damaging distance between our two communities is accountability and creativity. On this premise, our main objective/vision is to create an environment whereby we can attribute our success to our intelligence and skills in making a difference towards a better future for all. The challenge, at this time, is to improve the quality of life and standards in the community and, most importantly, encourage each community’s best and brightest scholars/leaders to be accountable, to coalesce, to share dialogue in order to unleash our creative potentials. Our focus is to encourage visual thinking (looking at the bigger picture) and to stimulate creativity, imagination and progressive ideas. Our aim is to attempt to change a stagnant mindset, to combat complacency, mediocrity and apathy in the communities. We must begin the process of creating visionary ideas leaning towards an enlightened, self-governing and self-sustaining Afro-Panamanian community. We must understand, embrace, appreciate, see/identify ourselves with the positive contributions and experiences of our long history in Panama. We must endeavor to move forward with pride in our race and heritage and to stand proudly on the basis of our hyphenated racial identity and uniqueness. |