Chairman/Editor-in-chief:
Rovan G. Locke, Ph.D.,
Consulting Editors:
Professor Ali A. Mazrui and
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Pesident:
Malik E. Locke
Senior V.P. Operations/
Finance:
Reichland Anderson,
Senior V.P. Marketing and Sales:
Carolyn Kenedy,
V.P. Informational Systems:
Leona Minto,
V. P.  of Marketing:
Leroy A. Gordon -Jamaica;
Paula Powell: Editorial Consultant and Sanchia Allen-Sports/Public Affairs,
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Need To See A Lawyer On Immigration Matter and Concerns? JNBS Provides The Service Of An Immigration Lawyer FREE OF COST To Our Customers. On The Third Friday Of Each Month Commencing FEBRUARY 20, 2004 The Representative Office 5039 N. State Rd. 7 (Sunshine Plaza) Call 1-800-390-7850 or    954-485-0444

Greater Caribbean Chamber of Commerce Elects 
                Banking Executive Lisa Narcisse as New President

By: Business Analyst 
                   
(Photos by Leona Minto)

    At its most recent Annual General Meeting this embryonic Business Association elevated its first Vice President to the top position. This quiet and efficient Bank United Executive has a difficult task confronting her in the efforts to make her Association a powerful lobbying force in the State of Florida. Unlike other ethnic oriented based Business Groups with umbilical bonds outside of America, the Lisa Narcisse Chamber of Commerce has not been embraced by its Corporate giants at home and by South Florida¹s Caribbean successful entrepreneurs. In spite of its categorization, this Business Association is predominantly of Jamaican Membership as is the case of the Kiwanis Club of Lauderdale Lakes and West Sunrise. It is a Broward County instead of a Tri-County focused business entity, and this has impeded its recruitment drive. 

    It must be borne in mind that a majority of the successful Jamaican entrepreneurs in South Florida, are in a cruel sense, political ³refugees² from the 1970¹s Michael ³Joshua² Manley¹s heroic socialistic experimentations. They were hostile to the radical restructuring of their society and they fled to the southwestern region of Metropolitan Dade County. On a tragic note, most of these White; Indian and Chinese ethnic minorities have not relinquished their vulgar, class and caste biases to the Black majority at home and in the Tri-County of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach. How many of their children have dated or married the sons and daughters of successful Black Jamaican entrepreneurs and professionals within the region? Indeed, a majority of them belong to Roman Catholic religious institutions and they continue to belong to their exclusive business and voluntary organizations. The time is long overdue for rigorous intellectual analyses of these Jamaican ³political² rather than economic refugees within our midst. These ethnic minorities, then and now have a false sense of ³racial superiority² and they do not want to be a part of the Broward County¹s based Greater Caribbean-American Chamber of Commerce. 

         

    Intriguingly, the Jamaican Consul-General Ricardo Allicock genuinely believes he will be able to get these ethnic minorities to join his initiated Florida-Jamaican Chamber of Commerce. Is he forgetting that these South-West Miami Dade entrepreneurs are racially and economically exploitive oriented towards the Black majority at home and abroad? In the past twenty years, unlike the South-Florida¹s Eastern Caribbean entrepreneurs, they on the other hand, have not done anything to become equal partners with Jamaicans nor any other of Caricom¹s Black majority living in the Tri-County to build a vibrant and less racialist and caste stratified Caribbean Community.  

    Another ugly feature of the business people that the Jamaican Consul-General will be targeting is that "dying" group of Jamaican Colonials or Afro-Saxons who do not own anything besides their mortgaged homes and relish their positions as middle men or buying agents for the Conglomerates at home. 

    Are we to believe that these hostile Michael Manley¹s ethnic business people are going to become enthusiastic members of the Florida-Jamaican Chamber of Commerce? Who is fooling who about the good intentions of these Jamaican ethnic minority entrepreneurs who are experts in the flight of Capital from Jamaica? Why did they run from Jamaica in the 1970¹s and still continue to use their homes and businesses in Jamaica to get bank loans, which they convert into US dollars and deposit, in their offshore bank accounts?

    Certainly, there are some serious problems within the Greater Caribbean-American Chamber of Commerce. There is a glaring absence of the Caribbean intelligentsia, unlike the case with the Cuban and other Hispanic Business Organizations. This ³intellectual capital² is a necessary ingredient for the robust exchange of ideas on the economic and political future of the Caribbean Community in South Florida. An albatross around the Greater Caribbean-American Chamber¹s neck is the ³proprietorship² of a handful of its Founders. There is an incestuous culture by these founding members, similarly to the Social Sciences Faculty at the University of The West Indies Campus, which has stifled its growth. Year after year, you see the same faces with the same old ideas about moving this business entity to a level comparable to the Latin Builders Association. Unless there is a very serious attempt at recruiting the Caribbean Professionals at the various South Florida¹s Universities/Colleges, in the Caribbean and T.J. Reddick¹s Bar Associations and The Banks, then this Caribbean Chamber will experience a stunted growth.

A Working Model         

    An inherent structural weakness of this Chamber of Commerce is the one ­year tenureship of its Presidency. There is an urgent need to borrow heavily from the Dorothy Baker¹s Miami-Dade Chamber of Commerce. This predominantly African-American Association has on its Board of Directors and on its Trusteeship almost every major financial institution and car dealership. This eight hundred members Association, hires Ms. Baker as its President/C.E.O. for the past ten years. She reports on a monthly basis to her Board and at the Annual General Meeting she makes available the financial records and audits done by a Certified Tax Consultant.

    On a sad note, this is not the case with the Greater Caribbean-Chamber of Commerce. We need to point out Bank of America provides an entire floor to the Miami-Dade County Chamber of Commerce at its branch in Miami Shores. The first serious piece of business for Ms. Lisa Narcisse is to remove the Association¹s Office from its rented space in the Oriole Shopping Plaza. Perhaps her financial institution can follow in Bank of America¹s footsteps and provide free rental space. Secondly, she needs to hire a Marketing/Sales Director with Solid Corporate credentials. This person must be able to contact the Caribbean Corporate Giants at home and abroad so that they become Trustees at US$10,000 on an annual basis. Indeed it will be another disappointing Presidency, if the incoming Lisa Narcisse is unable to recruit at least ten trustee members.

    Why is it that Air Jamaica, The Gleaner Company, The Observer, Caribbean Cement Company, Bank of Nova Scotia, National Commerce Bank, British West Indies Airways, The Beaches/Sandals Chain, Western Union, Money Gram, Island Car Rental and Budget Car Rental are not members of this Association? A critical factor for their absences is that there has not been any aggressive

 marketing/sales strategy towards these prospective clients.              

    The Jamaican Consul-General is confident in regards to the success of his intended Florida-Jamaica Chamber of Commerce. The above named are some of the potential members for his Association. The President and Board Members of the Greater Caribbean American Chamber of Commerce have an advantage over any intended Florida-Jamaican Chamber of Commerce because it has a broader reach. Every Corporation, which does business with the Caribbean people in the State of Florida, should be encouraged to become a member of the Chamber. How can there be an absence of some of the major financial institutions from the Chamber of Commerce when Caribbean depositors have placed these entities on sound financial footings? What about the car dealerships in the Tri-County? This paper is delivered in some of the most affluent areas of Broward County. A majority of these homes are two cars with S.U.V.¹s in the driveways. The President, if she is serious has to raise the sensitive issue of Caribbean consumers boycotting corporations and car dealerships, which refuse to become members of the Greater Caribbean American Chamber of Commerce etc.

    For a successful recruitment drive, Ms. Narcisse has to cut the umbilical cord between her Association and the Caribbean Democratic Club of Broward County. It is interesting to highlight that one of the Chamber¹s key figures, Mike Aitcheson, is now the President of this Democratic Club. This present relationship is primarily responsible for Caribbean entrepreneurs in South Florida with Republican ties, not becoming members. This should be a non-political association.

    With Eric Hammond¹s newly formed Jamaican-American Foundation the Chamber of Commerce faces another competition to bring in new members. Both the Jamaican Consul-General Ricardo Allicock and Eric Hammond should abandon their efforts to develop competing Associations to the Chamber of Commerce. They should re-direct their energies to the Lisa Narcisse business entity. There should be monthly and quarterly Business Luncheons. This is an easy way to generate working capital to pay its staff and the rent for a nice corporate suite. It is impossible for this Association to go forward even with Ms. Lisa Narcisse, a successful banker, unless the leaders such as Gordon ³Butch² Stewart, John Issa, and Oliver Clarke do not follow in the footsteps of Cyril Dupree and become Trustee Members.

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