Media’s educational commitment

PANAMA. Having read the Panama Star article “Panama among leading cities in region (May 7, 2009) I wonder, how does Panama’s diaspora compare within the United States to the diasporas of other Central American countries, relative to an active trans-nationality on both sides?

By coincidence, the Washington-based think tank Inter-American Dialogue studies Diasporas from various regions. To date, there is no study on Panama’s Diaspora and issues like: social communication, commercial and cultural exchange, voting from abroad, remittances, frequency of holiday pilgrimages..

I hope the abovementioned points and the following help introduce to Panamanian media Manuel Orozco, from the Inter-American Dialogue. Manuel is considered one of the experts when it comes to trans-nationality of Central American and Caribbean immigrants living in the United States. In a 17-pages study titled “The Nicaraguan Diaspora, trends and opportunities for Diaspora” Orozco says:

“As for trans-nationality, there’s a need to learn from the experiences of other countries. It is necessary to develop the contacts and relationships to promote participation. These practices are makers of social and cultural identity.” Let’s take the case of the lack of contemporary literature, perhaps at the mercy of donations from tourists, faced by libraries like the library of the Afro-Antillean Museum of Panama.

In cases like this, projects surge in the country with the potential of national and trans-national participation, such as the Exedra bookstore, which links an association within or outside the country with a local benefactor, for the acquisition of online literature or in person to donate to a charity institution.

Additionally, the saying that the homeland cannot be loved without knowing it still holds true. I would encourage other libraries and literary circles in the country to “channel” their works not only to the US markets with the biggest Latin American presence, but to the markets with the most presence of Panamanians.

Commercially and culturally, it seems the author, the books, the sponsor, the charity institution, and the donor all win and make a big cultural leap.

Of course, the media would be called to support this initiative, by showing its readers Manuel Orozco’s work on the subject of trans-nationality, and thus showing an educational commitment both nationally and internationally.