Saturday, May 31, 2014

Buzzwords ...


As I compile, for my sins (which are many), the Public Diplomacy Review, I become more and whore aware of buzzwords. Here's a recent public-diplomacy related item, containing words that are, in government announcements and the semi-official press, repeated over and over again, repeated to the point of meaning nothing. They are highlighted in the below:

Workshop on Generation Change Entrepreneurial Skills ends - businessghana.com

News Date: 30th May 2014
A select group of public workers, representatives of non-governmental organizations, and students have undergone a two-day Generation Change Entrepreneurial Skills Training Workshop to harness their skills to manage businesses.
The workshop, which ended in Tamale on Wednesday, formed part of the Global Management Challenge facilitated by Sankofa Worldwide Limited with sponsorship from the United States Embassy in Accra with the aim to empower participants to start their own businesses and manage them (businesses) effectively for success.
It was facilitated using the Generation Simulation Training module, which allowed participants to make immediate management decisions under given scenarios to maximise profit or increase their companies' share price.


Mr Anani Yao Kuwornu, Public Diplomacy Officer at the U.S Embassy in Accra, said the training was to empower participants with entrepreneurial and managerial skills to enable them to take critical management decisions to sustain and improve the profitability of their companies in the current highly competitive business environment.
This is, I'd venture to say, the "generic," official model explaining how people got money from the USG to meet other people and (let's hope) have a good time ... Of course, nothing wrong with that.

I must say, at the risk of sounding linguistically pretentious that, of the words highlighted above, the ones I am most inclined to despise are:


workshop
facilitate
training
empower

BTW, one of my favorite songs is, "WDIANA ROSS and THE SUPREMES what the world needs now (is love sweet love)

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