VB: What do you think are the biggest challenges facing West Indian societies currently?

RB: Climate change is probably the most worrisome threat in the sense that you have more severe storms, hurricanes and sea level rise for these small-island states, with very material consequences for people who live there.

How climate change is going to affect food supplies is something that is always on the forefront of my mind because we are small economies and small land masses. By and large, we do not produce the food we consume. We import significant quantities of commodities; things like wheat, corn and grain used to rear chickens, and produce bread and pasta, all the things we take for granted in our diet.

If you look at the bigger picture, what we are seeing develop is a breakdown of the global order which was set up after the Second World War. I think the Bretton Woods Agreement [1944, set up a collective international currency exchange framework that lasted until the 1970s, and originated the IMF and the World Bank] created the environment that led consequently to the independent states that we today call CARICOM. This global order is changing and morphing into something that is quite different and one has to think about what impact the elephants dancing will have upon our small-island states. We could find ourselves in very difficult situations, having to make critical choices as a consequence of the realignment of the powers and the realignment of values, as the world seems to be lurching towards the political right, and how that is going to affect us as small, dependent states.

To me, those are big challenges that we face collectively as CARICOM.

There is concern about the growing violence and criminal activity in all our societies and much of that is driven by our location, so close to Central and South America. A lot of our countries have become transshipment places for drugs and other illicit activities. That will take a huge effort to get under control.

Also connected to the crime issue is the lack of opportunity. We have many young people, and there is inadequate opportunity for all of them, and that leads to them making lifestyle choices, of which crime and criminal activity is one of the options. We have increased crime on one hand, and on the other increased immigration, people going off to the developed countries to seek opportunity, but that is not anything new. West Indians have always travelled abroad to seek their fortunes, but that diminishes our pool of talent, which is unfortunate.

VB: How do you think those can be approached?

RB: I don’t have the answers, but I have thoughts on these issues. We have to start by looking at ourselves and asking where we want to be. The reality is there is very little we can actually do because we are not the ones emitting the gases, with the exception of Trinidad. The rest of the islands don’t produce any significant amount of greenhouse gases. At some point, that matter will have to be addressed, but I don’t believe the world has come to terms with the fact that decisions have to be taken and changes have to be made.

We are very vulnerable as a region, but we don’t have the tools to fix it. There are discussions about making funds available to small-island states, countries that require support, but it is early days yet, and in many cases, even if the funds are made available, these fixes will take a while because they will require people moving from at-risk areas, will require an assessment of what the housing need is from islands that are in the hurricane alley (the area where almost consistently you have hurricanes). So, this risk will be with us for some time before we get funds. They are real and frightening risks in my mind.

We need to consider more educational opportunities, better access to primary, secondary and tertiary education. That is probably the only solution to crime, and it is also the only solution to creating opportunity, because people have to create their own opportunities. We can’t go looking to ask other people to come and create opportunities in our societies. We have to create them ourselves, and to do that, we have to create a better-educated cadre of citizens, and the more that the young people are given the opportunity to have access to technology and modern tools, the greater the chance that they will be successful and be able to create a better and more prosperous society.

Something I feel strongly about is that technology is going to allow us to be part of a greater society. It will allow us to jump over national borders, and work digitally and develop our skills, and also sell our skills on a global basis, which is an opportunity that people my age and people before me did not have. You either had to take a ship or a plane to go to a first-world country. The idea that we can now do that without leaving our homes in the Caribbean is an enormous advantage, and there are many people doing it already.

We need to provide greater skills so more can do it because we have basically talented people. We have the advantage that we are English-speaking, and we are in the same time zone as the United States of America. I believe that we need to use technology to create greater opportunity for the young so that they are able to have options that do not involve crime, and see crime as an undesirable lifestyle.

VB: How do you feel the growing presence of AI will affect livelihoods and lifestyles?

RB: I personally feel that AI presents a huge opportunity. The key is for us to embrace it in these islands, and I go back to the point that I made earlier, that is to give our young people the necessary skills to try and focus on computer sciences, because opportunities are going to be available, and you’re not going to need to be physically there. This allows us to live in the digital world, and these islands are particularly suited to that. A West Indian can have the best of two worlds: work for US dollars while living at home in their natural environment, where they want to be. It’s a huge opportunity, but we have to focus on the young people getting the right tools.

There’s a lot of discussion about whether AI will do away with jobs. I have an optimist’s view. First of all, AI machines are not going to take over the world. We have a great ability to survive. Self-preservation is a human trait. I am confident that humans will manage the risks. Yes, there will be job losses. Technology always brings job losses. But in total, it creates employment. Jobs that are of a particular nature are replaced, but then these technologies create jobs and opportunities that were never there before.

VB: You think it will balance it off?

RB: No, it will be on the positive side. It will create employment: a net employment creator, but very different jobs, and that is why we need to focus on getting the best possible access to skills, particularly these skills around technology.

In my view, technology is going to create access, and it is going to create opportunity, but the reality is opportunity for those who have skills. So, this is where you have to get yourself a toolkit that allows you to live in the new world. Because there’s no point complaining about artificial intelligence. It’s coming. So, you need to focus on what is the tool kit that the young people need in order to prosper in that environment. I am certain and confident that the young people have the aptitude.

VB: What can The UWI do to truly integrate itself into Caribbean development?

RB: The UWI really and truly has an important role to play in all of this. It plays a critical role in developing talent which is going to be the greatest competitive advantage that the region can have. So, The UWI needs to be at the forefront of AI, understanding it, understanding what are the skillsets that young people are going to need in order to exist and prosper. We don’t want young people to just exist, we want them to prosper in this new environment. The UWI, at 75, has to tailor itself to be a tertiary educational institution that is at the cutting edge of developing the tools and the skillsets that are necessary for our young people to prosper. I feel confident that they should be able to do that.