Lecture series features CARICOM scholar
This year, the organisation known as CARICOM is celebrating its thirtieth birthday. Officially created on the fourth of July 1973 in Chagaramas, Trinidad and Tobago, the Caribbean community has survived three decades, overcoming numerous obstacles to achieve significant accomplishments for the benefit of the region. To mark this important milestone, the secretariat has planned several events, one of which is scheduled for tomorrow night in Belize City. In town for the event, Marilyn Trotz of the CARICOM Secretariat, explains the ideology behind the activities.
Marilyn Trotz, Special Advisor, CARICOM Secretariat
“We have a lot to be proud of because CARICOM is one of the oldest surviving integration movements in the world. We have planned activities in all the fifteen member states of CARICOM, as well as the five associate member states. The over-arching theme of the programme of activities is “CARICOM integration: our key to prosperity”. One of the elements of the programme of celebrations is the distinguished lecture series.”
Delivering the lecture in Belize is Dr. Bhoendradatt Tewarie, the Pro-Vice Chancellor and Campus Principal of the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus. Tewarie has worked both as an academic with several teaching positions under his belt, and as a politician, serving as a minister of government in Trinidad and Tobago. Dr. Tewarie will address the topic: Redesigning the Strategy for Caribbean Development in the Age of Globalisation. He contends that for the countries of the Caribbean, education is at the heart of survival.
Bhoendradatt Tewarie, Pro Vice-Chancellor, U.W.I.
“There was time when development was based on land, labour and capital… basically land, labour, capital and the amount of natural resources that you had. Today it’s really based on intellectual capital. It’s based on information, it’s based on the application of knowledge, and it’s based on the research that leads to innovation. So the time for a rethinking of strategy in the context of these new realities, I think, needs to be taken into account.”
“When you look at countries that have developed at a rapid rate, and countries that have not, I think one of the things you are able to identify very quickly is that those countries that are moving ahead very rapidly are countries that place a lot of emphasis and spent the requisite time and energy and money on a sound education at preschool, primary school and secondary school and also expanded tertiary education to such an extent that they could have a work force that was superior to what you would expect for the norm, and that has made a decisive difference.”
Dr. Tewarie’s lecture is scheduled for Wednesday night at seven at the Caracol Room of the Radisson Fort George Hotel. The public is invited to attend.
