bout de papier, Vol. 29, No. 2 (2016), pp. 24–25
The 1985 musical phenomenon “We Are The World” marked a watershed moment in global musical history and in public diplomacy – hundreds of artists coming together around the world to raise consciousness about the serious plight of east Africans facing severe drought and poverty and call governments around the world to action.
This concert and campaign motivated me – an amateur songwriter, performer and professional Canadian diplomat – to use my talent to do something for the children of Peru, where I was sent on temporary duty to the Canadian Embassy that summer.
Thirty years ago the owner of Lima’s Radio Miraflores told me that Peruvian artists had tried to do something similar for the poor children of that country, but had failed to come up with a song. He told me “write it, and we will produce it.” My ambassador – Keith Bezanson – said, “If they produce it, the Embassy will donate 2000 records for sale to raise funds for the charity of your choice”.
I wrote and recorded the song – Somos Perú (We Are Peru) and decided to donate the proceeds to the children’s charity run by Peru’s First Lady, Pilar Norres de Garcia. The record came out, and the video played every night on the pop video channel (in those days Lima’s Channel 27). It achieved a certain popularity – indeed, six months later I was walking on the Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich when a couple of young Peruvians stopped me on the street and asked if I was the Canadian singing diplomat. Canada was on the map!
Back in Lima, we found out from a sympathetic contact in the President’s office that the First Lady, a committed pro-Cuban leftist who loathed what she considered “western hegemony”, in fact was going to try to bury the song. No way was the support of a capitalist diplomat going to be accepted!
We then withdrew support for the First Lady’s charity and donated the rights to the song and the proceeds to the Hospital San Juan de Dios – a group of hospitals in many Latin America capitals that performs major corrective surgery on children free of charge. I performed the song on the Hospital’s National Telethon, the record sold, and funds were raised. Canada’s image in Peru created an enthusiastic response among Peruvians who were impressed that an Embassy could take a novel approach to send a message of solidarity and hope for young children. Canada was seen as an excellent partner for this country whose flag colours (red side bars with a white centre) we share.
A few months later I was transferred to the Canadian Embassy in Guatemala, then in the throes of a civil war pitting a civilian government that had just replaced decades of military dictatorship against a left-wing revolutionary group. The violence was especially brutal for the country’s indigenous people often caught in the ideological crossfire.
Ambassador André Potvin found out about my recording career in Lima, as did the President of the Aldeas Infantiles SOS Maria Luisa Chattareli (affiliated with SOS Kinderdorf, a non-governmental organization that takes in young orphaned victims of violence and provides them with a home and a solid education until they graduate from university). They encouraged me to write a song to support their cause, and the result was Poco A Poco (Little By Little).
Bob Porter, then Guatemala’s finest musical arranger, and father of Emmy award winning producer KC Porter, arranged and produced the record. The Embassy provided the funding for 2000 records that were sold through a major supermarket chain as well as record stores. The video aired every night for a few months, and both Canada and the Aldeas Infantiles SOS came onto the map of young and not so young Guatemalans.
The song called on all to support the youth of the country and end the violence that was claiming so many lives. Needless to say it did not sit well with the extreme right, whose leader, Mario Sandoval Alarcon, was angered that a foreigner would come to his country to call them out.
In those days, one did not annoy him or his followers. Fortunately, his niece was a good friend of mine who told him I was a non-political young Canadian diplomat whose message was merely in support of poor orphans. Sandoval then focused elsewhere, and I was perhaps spared the kind of violence that had affected my immediate predecessor, who had been fired upon in his car in front of his home by a death squad (he escaped unharmed, but the bullet holes in the garage door were still there when I moved into the house).
Once again, Canadian public diplomacy made its mark and sent a series of messages of hope and solidarity to a country that desperately needed it.
Public diplomacy today need not be anywhere near as expensive or complicated to achieve concrete results as it was just a few decades ago. Indeed, what used to cost thousands of dollars can be achieved today for little or no capital outlay and reach far wider audiences. Today’s technology allows us all to be broadcasters through YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other media simply by using our imaginations and our smartphones in an effective manner.
Many Foreign Service Officers have talent and creativity, and can develop innovative ways to send out Canada’s messages and share Canadian values in their countries of accreditation.
It is up to their political masters to harness these talents and use them judiciously.
Both songs are available for listening at https://soundcloud.com/search?q=eduardo del Buey
Eduardo del Buey served as a Foreign Service Officer for 37 years, including postings in Iran, Venezuela, Peru, Guatemala, Spain and Mexico. In addition, he served as Director for Strategic Communications at and Spokesperson for the Secretaries General of the OAS in Washington and the Commonwealth in London, and as Deputy Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. He is the author of Spokespersonry and Guerrilla Communications in English and Comunicologia Audaz in Spanish, as well as numerous articles on strategic communications in various publications.
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 29, No. 2 (2016), pp. 24–25. Read the rest of this issue →
