September 2011


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A tribute to hard work

The UWI will formally recognise the contributions that 20 Caribbean icons have made to regional development when it confers honorary degrees at the annual Graduation Ceremonies to be held across its four campuses in the months of October and November.

From October 27 to 29, the celebrations will be at the St. Augustine Campus in Trinidad, where the honorary LLD will be conferred on Mrs. Helen Bhagwansingh, Professor Anantanand Rambachan, Mr. Reginald Dumas, Sir Fenton H. Ramsahoye, Mr. Brian Lara and Ambassador Kamaluddin Mohammed, while Mr. Donald ‘Jackie’ Hinkson and Mr. Roy Cape will receive the honorary DLitt.

The ceremonies begin on October 15th with the Open Campus Graduation to be hosted this year in Antigua, where Dame Pearlette Louisy, Governor-General of St. Lucia and Mr. Alwin Bully, Cultural Administrator will receive the honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD) and Doctor of Letters (DLitt) degrees respectively. Graduation ceremonies at the Cave Hill Campus in Barbados will claim the spotlight on October 22nd, when The Most Rev. Dr. The Hon. John W. D. Holder and Professor Compton Bourne receive the honorary LLD and Professor Kwesi Prah, Professor Emeritus Keith A. P. Sandiford the honorary DLitt and Dr. Shirley Brathwaite the honorary Doctor of Sciences (DSc) degree.

Finally, on November 4th and 5th, the Mona Campus in Jamaica will host the closing set of graduation ceremonies. At Mona, Ms. Minna Israel, Mr. Earl Jarrett and The Hon. Usain Bolt, OJ will all receive the Honorary LLD while Professor Lenworth Jacobs and Dr. Erna Brodber will receive the DSc and DLitt respectively.

Anna Walcott-Hardy, editor of STAN magazine, asked three of the eight St. Augustine awardees how they felt about being conferred this honorary degree.

	Mr. Kamaluddin Mohammed: “Well I feel very humbled about it… I feel greatly honoured that the university authorities have recognised my contribution and following on the granting of the highest award of the country, which was the [Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago], which I got last year… I feel very humbled but very gratified that they have recognized the work and I would say it is a tribute not to me, but to the people who contributed to my success.”
	Mrs. Helen Bhagwansingh: “I feel very honoured. It shows that when you work hard it helps and you could be rewarded for it.” Why did you decide to support Diabetes research by investing substantially in the Diabetes Education, Research and Prevention Institute (DERPI) at UWI? “Because Diabetes is spreading a lot now and a lot of people have diabetes, a lot of kids, and it’s a silent killer. And with Diabetes I think you can help, you can help somebody a lot, you can change their diet from when they’re young, give them medicine instead of… amputating a lung or giving a kidney [instead] you can go to the schools and educate the [children] from young …you can tell the parents what they should eat and shouldn’t eat and whoever we have found with Diabetes we follow-up…once we diagnose a child with diabetes we go to their home and we check every member of the family…I think it’s a marvelous thing, the [Foundation] and the research is doing so well.”
	Mr. Donald “Jackie” Hinkson: “I am grateful. I appreciate the honour. It’s always nice to be honoured. But any artist, particularly of a fairly advanced age, like where I am now, is acutely conscious of the need to focus on his work, is increasingly aware that peripheral things like awards and honours are just that, peripheral things. But I am very happy to receive this honour in particular since it is possibly the only one that I respect. In fact, over the past few years I have been telling my family that I do not want them to accept honours on my behalf. But one or two persuasive friends have convinced me that awards are not only about the recipient, they also have meaning for the wider public. It is an argument that I could not refute. So in the end I am happy.”