Digicel Essay Writing Competition launched

The art of crafting perfect sentences and perfect paragraphs has been lost and we are in a time when even college graduates have not mastered the fundamentals of the English language.{{more}}

This is the belief of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Com-merce Sir Louis Straker, which he expressed as he addressed the opening ceremony of the 2016 Digicel Essay Writing Competition last Friday at the ministry’s conference room.

“I am amazed that even some folks who have gone to college, have degrees behind their name do not communicate well, do not write well, do not speak well and do not even have the rudiments of the English language in the way they communicate,” Straker stated.

The Deputy Prime Minister said that the competition was developed as a part of the Public Diplomacy Programme, which was launched under the former Minister of Foreign Affairs Camillo Gonsalves.

“The purpose of the Public Diplomacy Programme is to drive home the point of what we are doing here in foreign affairs and to enlighten the general public on the roles and functions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”

Straker noted that it was his hope that from this competition, participants would be able to enlighten the public on work done by the ministry.

“I trust that the essay competition would really enlighten the public, enlighten our minds and we can continue with this programme and show that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Commerce is a very significant ministry in the Government,” he stated.

According to Straker, his ministry is the fulcrum on which the whole government turns and he hopes that the essays would tell stories of what is being done.

“The essays would be able to tell the stories of what we are doing or what we can do in order to promote ourselves here in the ministry and the Gover-nment and the country of St Vincent and the Grenadines.”

Also speaking at the launch, Digicel’s marketing manager Danielle Cupid stated that good writing is a must to get the message across.

“The ability to be able to write clearly and effectively is the “key to good communication. This set of skills should not be limited to journalists or professional authors, but should be mastered by anyone with a story to tell,” Cupid said.

She also noted that communication should be as effective as music, which is believed to be the greatest form of communication in the world.

“Even if people don’t understand the language you are singing, they still know good music when they hear it, you know you’ve achieved your objective.”

Cupid stated that since communication is at the heart of the work done at Digicel, they were proud to support initiatives such as these.

She went on to congratulate the organizers for hosting the event and for choosing such timely topics for discussion.

“Temperature change, for example, has potential to be an existential issue for us living on a small island. By asking persons to write on these topics, it forces them to think them through and be versed with their implications as to inform their peers and wider community,” Cupid noted.

Entries to the competition must be handed in by the 15 June.

Topics on which persons are invited to write include: ‘Human Trafficking’, ‘Human Rights’ and ‘The impact on tourism from the increasing impact of climate change on small island developing states’.

Persons interested in participating in the competition should visit the ministry’s Facebook page for more information. (CM)