Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding in his recent visit to South Florida thanked members of the Jamaican Diaspora at a Town Hall meeting for “keeping hope alive in Jamaica.” However, the prime minister also pointed out that the “Diaspora needs to be more structured,” and that they were certain elements that have allowed the work of the Diaspora to be “stalled or derailed.”

Golding’s observation statement is very relevant, because one gets the distinct impression that the Diaspora movement, especially here in South Florida, has definitely stalled. Although there is no overt evidence of those elements (as stated by the prime minister) responsible for the work of the Diaspora to have stalled, it is apparent that Jamaicans living in Florida are either not interested in being part of a structured system, or whatever system that exists is not really reaching them.

From the inception of the initiatives taken in 2004 to have a formalized structure representing Jamaicans in the United States, Britain and Canada, one sensed a lukewarm response from most of these Jamaicans. In fact, as has been ascertained from surveys undertaken on behalf of this newspaper, not many Jamaicans knew what the Diaspora actually meant, and as a result were not relating to the attempts at creating a structure.

At the first formal meeting of the Jamaican Diaspora in Jamaica in June 2004, there was high excitement among the gathering of Jamaicans residing overseas and those on the island that a strong, meaningful, formal structure was being established to link Jamaicans overseas to their homeland, and that there would be a two way flow of communication that would make this structure realistically functional. A Diaspora Foundation was established and regional representatives elected to an Advisory Board. South Florida is represented by an advisory board member whose responsibilities cover the Southern US region – the Jamaican Diaspora Southern US.

However, despite several appeals and suggestions, the established structure remains extremely frail. The former Jamaican government placed responsibility for the Jamaican Diaspora under the portfolio of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and assigned responsibility to a Minister of State in that Ministry. However, the line functions between the Ministry, the Jamaica Diaspora Foundation, and the overseas representatives were blurred, to say the least. One of the most important missing elements in the structure was a centralized budget to be utilized in providing financial assistance to the respective regional communities, as well as the administration in Jamaica.

There has never been a formal site housing the Jamaica Diaspora Southern US office in South Florida despite calls to place a Diaspora desk in the offices of the Jamaican Consulate; neither has there been any formal source of funding to assist the representative office here to meet even the basic expense. As a result, since 2004 both Jamaican Diaspora Advisory Board Members (the first elected in 2004, and the other in 2006) have essentially been given a huge basket to carry water. The board members basically have been left to their own unique initiatives to make their administration effective.

The lack of a formalized structure and a central site from which to operate, have among other factors, contributed to dull the efforts to fulfill the mission of the Jamaican Diaspora Southern US. This mission is to unite and galvanize all Jamaicans and Jamaican organizations, their talents, resources, and potential throughout the Southern United States for the benefit of their local communities and the future development and support of Jamaica.

Jamaicans living overseas, including those in South Florida, especially in recent months, are beset with domestic problems to which they seek immediate solutions. Often these problems override the interests that they have in and for Jamaica. It has been borne out that these Jamaicans, like their Cuban and Haitian counterparts, are seeking a structured organization to assist them to address and solve these domestic problems. The majority has little interest in an organization that seems alien to them, since it does not and cannot address their collective problems here in the Diaspora. As a result of this alienation some, unfortunately, regard the formalized efforts of the Jamaican Diaspora as being elitist.

On the other hand, there are vast numbers of Jamaicans who desperately and genuinely want to play a part in the development and governance of Jamaica, either through investing; altruistic donations, offering solutions to social and economic problems, participating in the political process or returning to Jamaica to work. Most of these people continue to be frustrated as there are relatively few formal points of contact between the Diaspora and Jamaica where reliable information can be obtained or channeled.

Now that Prime Minister Golding has admitted that the Jamaican Diaspora needs to be more structured, it is anticipated that he and his Cabinet will take serious efforts to initiate the establishment of this structure. The Jamaican Diaspora must be structured under the of either the Office of the Prime Minister or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and a formal organizational system, including a budgetary system, established to ensure the effective operation of the Jamaican Diaspora Foundation in Jamaica, and the overseas representative offices.

It absolutely makes no sense to keep on promulgating this continuous lip service about a Jamaican Diaspora movement, without a formal, structured engine to drive this movement. The subject of an effective Diaspora structure and organization must be the core of the agenda for the Jamaica Diaspora Conference to be held in Jamaica next June. Without such a structure the Jamaica Diaspora movement is in danger of dissolving into a myth.