Cultural and professional cross fertilisationas a basis for open PR in the Euro-Med area

Roberto Zangrandi, CERP President

A matter of points of view

► Perception of MENA* countries:

partners or developing countries?

► Geopolitical implications:

►post-colonial heritage►post-colonial heritage

► recent history

► cultural clash

► religious fundamentalism

►democracy at work

► Professional development of

communication and toolkit to foster

dialogue: another clash?

*MENA – Middle-East and North African

One of the main problems involving general

Points of view generate stereotypes

One of the main problems involving general

evolution of MENA countries in a shared Euro-

Mediterranean communication context

►MENA countries are

usually perceived as natural

resources basin

►The region is economically

Economic diversity and divides

►The region is economically

diverse and includes both

the gas or oil-rich

economies in North Africa

and those countries that

are resource-scarce in

relation to population,

such as Egypt, Morocco

►About 23 % of the 300 million people in the Middle East

and North Africa living on less than $2 a day; empowering

poor people constitutes an important strategy for fighting

poverty

Behind the figures

poverty

►The region’s economic fortunes over much of the past

quarter century have been heavily influenced by two factors:

► the price of oil and the generated revenues

► the legacy of economic policies and structures that had

emphasized a leading role for the state

World Bank data

The North Mediterranean vision

►No acceptance as interactive partners – From both sides…

►Developing countries still far away from evolved modernized away from evolved modernized market – according to “western” standards…

►No professional parity and evolution pattern possible in the near future…

►Difficulties… in focusing priorities in any cooperation process…

►The region’s image as a permanent crisis area

►The manifold territorial and border disputes (Israel and

Palestine, Syria, Lebanon; Greece and Turkey, Turkey and Syria,

In the news

Palestine, Syria, Lebanon; Greece and Turkey, Turkey and Syria,

Egypt and Sudan)

►Ethnic and religious rivalries (Cyprus question, Kurdish

question, Algerian civil strife)

►Weapons proliferation

►General political instability; threats of violent civil wars

►Missile technological capacity

►Potential for massive migratory movements

These topics

might well also

become ground

A way out

for an enhanced

communication

effort towards

basic

stakeholders on

the “both sides”

Start point, the differences

► Social systems and

worldviews

►Understandings of the role

and responsibilities of ‘civil and responsibilities of ‘civil

society’

►Different degrees of

democratization and

readiness to democratize

►Violation of human rights

►Migration

►A precondition to cooperation in the social and

cultural dimensions in the region is the acceptance and

respect of cultural and religious diversities, which entails

recognizing and emphasizing their potentials and not

Not easy, but feasible

recognizing and emphasizing their potentials and not

their dividing lines

►Taking into consideration the cultural division

between modernism and traditionalism the

communication approach should be oriented on

countering intolerance and prejudice based on religion,

race or ethnic grouping as well as on integration and

dialogue on the regional level

►Strong orientation towards

the cultural contribution PR

professionals could provide

for these countries

Priorities of professional interaction

for these countries

►Exchange of experiences,

best practices and tools to

improve mutual

understanding and

acceptance in the public

relations industry

►The Global Alliance of Public Relations is the best level

playing ground where confrontation and growth of

professionals is granted through an open exchange of best

practices and ideas – and a first step to integrate with the

Aggregate, share, join

practices and ideas – and a first step to integrate with the

most unbiased network of PR professionals

►Thinking of a more stable cooperation with PR

representative bodies, professionals and scholars as a way

to share approaches and mutually fine-tune the

communication process in the Mediterranean area

Thank youThank you

cerp.info@yahoo.com