Tuesday, September 29 2009
By Gary J. Arzt
Nick Perdomo, cigar maker, is also, Nick Perdomo, Miami Lakes Commissioner. Yes, Nick was elected in his home town of Miami Lakes, FL, last year.
Recently, Perdomo, the Commissioner, not the cigar maker, managed to put his foot in his mouth with regard to a racial reference and what they call, sexual harassment.
The Nick Perdomo I know is a first class gentleman, but, we all use 'shorthand' references at times; and we all lose our patience at time. I know I do, but then I'm not a Commissioner. The remarks were certainly ill advised, as you can see in this video from WPLG Channel 10.
I ran into Nicaragua's Counsel General in Miami, Hon. Luis Martinez, yesterday afternoon, and he told me he had had forty-four telephone calls regarding the comment about "Nicaraguan hotties." Luis, himself, was fairly upset.
The problem as I see it, Political Correctness aside, is that when this link is sent by people here in Miami, and other parts of the States – the Internet will have the comments all over the world by now – people will send them to their friends in Nicaragua; and people picketing the Perdomo plant; workers walking out of the plant or staging a ‘sit down' in the plant, wouldn't be much of a surprise.
Is it good or bad that remarks made a couple of decades ago would have been laughed off are now remarks that become serious issues?
We'll have to wait and see how far this goes and what, if any damage it does to Tabacalera Perdomo/Nick's Cigars' business. (_[ca]__{{{
