Dear Editor,
I was at a function on Tuesday evening and during the course of ‘cocktail chatter’ took the opportunity to inform a group of influential Americans, including the editor of a major cultural publication, about Carifesta X and the fact that my country of birth is the proud host of this significant event for the second time.
I used the opportunity to ‘big up’ this event to such an extent that the editor of this internationally respected cultural publication asked that I forward to her some information since it might be something the publication would wish to cover.
As soon as I got home I ventured to the Carifesta X website’s news section, only to be overwhelmed with disappointment at the poor quality of the press releases posted. The poor quality has to do not only with news content but also with many grammatical errors.
Here are just two examples from a single press release:
“The minister also said ‘adequate transportation have already been finalized to accommodate the delegates.’”
“The 20 million Amerindian Village project have already been handed over to the Ministry and preparation are currently going on to host the Amerindian Village Exhibition.”
Another release says, Director Dr Paloma Mohamed “have been working…”
I could provide at least another dozen examples of errors and countless more of poor sentence construction. In short, these press releases are poorly written and are an embarrassment to the country and the Carifesta Secretariat.
It is a shame that what appears to be very hard work being put into the planning of this significant regional extravaganza could be negatively impacted by this poor display of public/press relations material.
Please let’s have some professionally crafted releases henceforth.
Yours faithfully,
Wesley Kirton
