CaribDirect.com is pleased to announce its second public seminar as part of its CaribDirect Seminar Series on the topic The Caribbean and You – Doing business with or in the Caribbean?
As we have introduced all of the five panelists we are pleased to introduce the esteemed moderator, Ron Belgrave.
Ron has worked in both the public and private sectors in the UK having spent over 25 years in local and regional government and now having established his own media business (Sankofa Televisual)..
His career and activity has covered many fields including immigration, youth work, oral history, equalities, housing, transport and crime where, for some years, he was the most senior Black public official working on crime reduction policy for London.
Noting the alienation of young Black people in British society from the 1970s onwards and the growing violence amongst the youth since the 1990s, Ron has been concerned about how the community sees itself, how young people develop their identity and the messages permeating through all forms of the media.
He ran the Southampton branch of the national year-long Caribbean Focus initiative in 1986, taught an adult education course in Caribbean history, was active on the board of the Kente organisation to build capacity in the Black voluntary sector and served as a governor of one of the largest primary schools in London.
In 2012 Ron also conducted the first ever nationwide (online) British Caribbean Television Survey where 98% of respondents wanted Caribbean programmes on TV in the UK, 80% felt that young people needed such programmes and 70% wanted a Caribbean TV station in Britain.
Passionate about the Caribbean and the progress of Black people at home and abroad – particularly economic strength – Ron is developing an infrastructure for helping TV programmes (especially dramas and other stories) from the Caribbean to be visible in other regions of the world.
This is because “you are what you watch” and “what you see is what you want” but also “what others see of you shapes how they judge you”!
We look forward to Ron’s skilled management of the panel’s delivery to the audience.
For details of this event taking place at the Jamaica High Commission on Thursday 30th May 2013, please click The Caribbean and You seminar. See profiles of panelists, Dr Christopher A. Johnson, Nathaniel Peat, H.E Garvin Nicholas, Amanda Rooney and Laurence Jones.
Over the coming weeks the panelists and moderator will be giving interviews on Colourful Radio, London and New Style Radio in Birmingham. Dates will be published in due course.
