SVG Diaspora Committee chair seeks collaboration
By Nelson A. King
Sherill-Ann Mason-Haywood,
chairperson of the
Brooklyn-based St. Vincent and
the Grenadines (SVG) Diaspora
Committee of New York, wants
2019 to be a “decisive year of
collaboration” for Vincentians
in the Diaspora.
“Now more than ever, the
powerful saying, ‘United We
Stand, Divided We Fall,’ must
be watch words that immigrant
communities, like the Vincentian
Diaspora, embrace if they
are to survive and thrive,”
writes Mason-Haywood in the
souvenir journal, commemorating
the 36th anniversary of
the Brooklyn-based St. Vincent
and the Grenadines Ex-Teachers
Association of New York.
“This is especially true since,
in recent years, there has been
a resurgence of racist vitriol
and policies that target certain
immigrant communities and
threaten their security,” added
Mason-Haywood, who succeeded
her late husband, Maxwell
Haywood, as chairperson of the
Committee, who succumbed to
cancer. “These threats expose
the vulnerability of communities
that have not fully consolidated
their political and
economic power as a strong
community.”
Mason-Haywood said the
Vincentian Diaspora, like other
Caribbean Diasporas, can be
counted among the vulnerable
communities.
Although present in the
United States, and more specifically
New York, since the
early 1950s, she said that the
Vincentian Diaspora is yet to
establish itself as “a fully unified
community.”
“While one can point to
several successful individuals
who have or are making outstanding
contributions to the
United States, or to numerous
organizations, associations and
groups that have existed, and
still exist, that bring Vincentians
together to raise funds for
philanthropic efforts or to participate
in educational, sporting
or cultural events, there
still remains a void in terms
of lasting collective legacies,”
Mason-Haywood said.
“If we are honest in our
assessment, we will admit that
there are few, if any, receipts
that bear witness to our collective
impact,” she added.
The Diaspora Committee
chair said, while there are
organizations, such as the
umbrella Vincentian group in
the US, the Brooklyn-based
Council of St. Vincent and the
Grenadines Organizations,
U.S.A., Inc. (COSAGO), “that
have been around for decades,
they still have not wielded the
full power of their potential.
“We should, therefore, seek
to strengthen our existing
organizations rather than further
continuously fragment
our relatively small Diaspora
community with a proliferation
of smaller groupings that
compete against each other to
achieve noble goals that are not
dissimilar,” she urged.
Mason-Haywood said the
lack of receipts is also evidenced
by several shortcomings in the
Vincentian Diaspora community,
stating: “We still do not have
a structure, with a well-oiled
mechanism in place that can
quickly mobilize and respond to
disasters that may occur in SVG
or in the Diaspora.
“We still do not have any
real estate that is owned by the
Vincentian community, like a
‘Vincy House,’ which has long
been talked about in many circles,”
she added. “We do not
have any sporting clubs that
have survived and can boast
of the triumphs of the glory
days of Hairoun Sports Club;
no cultural traditions like the
‘95th Street Labor Day festivities’
(in Brooklyn) that were
once a staple in the Caribbean
community.
“We still do not have any
centralized documentation of
our presence and impact in the
USA or the New York area,”
Caribbean L 36 ife, Feb. 22–28, 2019 BQ
Mason-Haywood continued.
“And we still have no real political
power, as evidence by the
lack of our involvement as a
unified community that advocates
for resources in our collective
interests.
“These are among the
receipts that, together, we must
now seek to strategically collect
to consolidate our existence as
a strong, unified community,”
she said. “It is, therefore, imperative
that we urgently come to
the table to pool our collective
intellectual, social, economic
and political resources, if we
are to survive the real threats
that lurk around immigrant
communities.”
She noted that other Diaspora
communities, which have
pooled their resources and consolidated
their existence, “have
shown their resilience and collective
power in pushing back
against real threats to their
existence.”
Moreover, Mason-Haywood
said Diasporas, in recent decades,
have been seen as “a
powerful tool for development,
which is being promoted by
international organizations,
like the United Nations (UN),
International Labor Organization
(ILO) and International
Organization for Migration
(IOM).”
For example, she said, the
economic impact of the individual
remittances sent back to
St. Vincent and the Grenadines
has “significantly contributed
to the buoyancy of the local
economy.
“This, in itself, should
inspire us to do more collectively,
but also to ensure that
we are investing in our adopted
home country to secure our
own well-being as a vibrant
community, with the means of
sustaining our efforts to make
even more impactful contributions,”
she said.
“Hence, we must urgently
find the will and the ways to
bring forth a more unified Vincentian
Diaspora community,”
urged Mason-Haywood, stating
that “the document, ‘SVGUSA
Diaspora Framework for
Action,’ which emerged from
the 2009 Homecoming Conference
and is housed on the website
of the SVG Diaspora Committee
of NY Inc. (http://www.
svgdiasporacommittee.org/
awareness-raising-and-policy.
html), lays out a set of recommendations
that can serve as a
roadmap for our development
as a strong Diaspora community.”
For example, she pointed
to section E of the document,
“Political Participation in Host
Countries or Diaspora Location,”
which recommends,
among other things, that “Vincentians
in the Diaspora should
become more involved in the
political processes of their host
country.”
Section E states that “this
participation in the political
processes of the host country
will allow Vincentians the
opportunity to help in shaping
the conditions under which
they live,” adding that “this
will place Vincentians in the
Diaspora in a position to make
better and more contributions
to St. Vincent and the Grenadines.”
Mason-Haywood said, 10
years after the 2009 Homecoming
Conference, is now “an
opportune time for us to revisit
this outcome document and
swiftly move to implement the
recommendations that provide
a good blueprint for us to
move forward collectively in
the future.
“Therefore, we must
endeavor to make 2019 a
decisive year of change, collaboration
and consolidation
for the Vincentian Diaspora
community,” she stressed.
“We must fully embrace the
motto, ‘United We Stand,
Divided We Fall.’”
Sherrill-Ann Mason-Haywood, chairperson of the Brooklynbased
St. Vincent and the Grenadines Diaspora Committee
of New York. Photo by Nelson A. King
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