Rebuild, Reposition and Re-energize

by it's true

A month or so ago, myself and the Cuso volunteers were sitting have a drink after a meeting. Sitting right next to us was Ontario Lieutenant Governor David Onley and a whole delegation of American and Canadian folk. Apparently they were in town to talk about a plan to “rebuild, reposition and re-energize” the Sir John Golding Rehabilitation Centre. One of my favourite Toronto Star columnists, Royson James, was there and his piece on the Golding Centre project was featured on the cover of the Star this morning. I know this because my ever-observant mother made a point of telling me. I should mention that my mother is an advocate for people with disabilities (she’s on the board of directors of the amazing Together We Rock! and is a major admirer of David Onley).

I’m going to be starting some new research soon on diaspora involvement in Jamaica and Ethiopia, so this little quotation from Onley at the end of James’s article was particularly interesting to me:

“There is such a significant Jamaica diaspora here in the GTA and a large Caribbean contingent with a fair amount of resources at their disposal. I feel that if they knew about the state of affairs they would do something to improve it.”

My previous research has looked specifically at Rastafari in Ethiopia–their work as a diaspora population is not a small part of what I’ve been investigating. I’m excited about the fact that my new topic is worthy of front page news.

(above photo by Royson James from the Toronto Star)