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May 2011
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  By Professor E. Nigel Harris,
While there is ample reason for alarm about the regional movement on the political front, one must reflect on other regional sectors within the Anglophone Caribbean that have withstood the test of time and brought value in ways that would not have been possible separately. These are usually assembled under the banner of functional cooperation and include education and training, health, sports, meteorological services, disaster and emergency management, shipping and air transport, among others. It is true that the achievements of some of these areas are questionable (West Indian cricket remains the most notable example) but the value that many of these collective groupings bring cannot be disputed. In my association with three regional organisations as Vice Chancellor of The University of the West Indies, and Chairman of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) and the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (CAREC), I have had the opportunity to see both the triumphs and challenges of these entities. The University of the West Indies began as a fledging College of the University of London in 1948 and in the course of its 62 years, has grown into an enterprise with 46,000 students (having doubled in size in the last decade), and an academic and administrative staff of a few thousand drawn from all parts of the Caribbean. There are in excess of 100,000 alumni who comprise a significant portion of the leadership and educated workforce of all sectors of Caribbean society and among this “bounty” are 60 Rhodes scholars, 18 prime ministers and a Nobel Prize winner. The institution accounts for an overwhelming proportion of research and scholarly publications emanating from the Caribbean and many of its academics serve on various statutory and corporate boards in the countries where they reside. In one ranking system of 12,000 of the world’s universities, The UWI ranks within the top 10%. Of course, this recitation of accomplishments does not detract from some of the same concerns voiced by Sir Shridath. The UWI is in many ways a collection of campuses in Jamaica (Mona), Barbados (Cave Hill) and Trinidad and Tobago (St. Augustine) – each with an overwhelming number of students from the countries in which the campuses are located, each funded largely by their host Governments and each with varying degrees of development depending on the fortunes of their host Governments. This three “national” campus circumstance resulted over the years in the marginalisation of the 12 countries without campuses and raised legitimate questions about the “regionality” of The UWI. It was to address this tremendous challenge that a fourth campus, the Open Campus, was established to address the educational and development needs of the 12 “non-campus” (now referred to as the UWI-12 because the term “non-campus” may have come to mean “none-campus”) countries. Despite the challenges mentioned, most of the constituents of The UWI if questioned, would subscribe to the tenets of regionalism. Unquestionably, there has been progress in terms of cross-campus collaboration in the context of our 2007-2012 Strategic Plan, but fragmentation along national lines has been so considerable that out student leaders joined in a call to re-examine the “regionalism” of the University. This has led to the formation of a Task Force to address this question and to suggest ways to redress the “perceived drift” apart. In my view the UWI can only be regional if its constituents are truly imbued with a culture of regionalism so that they automatically seek alliances with counterparts on sister campuses to address problems whether these are regional or national. While I have not addressed the question frontally, the rise of national universities is increasingly challenging the value of a regional university and it is in this context that we have argued that there should be a regional and even national tertiary education policies that recognise differences between tertiary institutions and rationalises them according to their varying missions – teaching at undergraduate levels; provision of postgraduate education in broad areas; research and outreach. The Caribbean Examinations Council is certainly another success of the Caribbean integration movement. First formed in 1972, it is now the major examining body for high school students at the 10th and 12th grade levels throughout most of the Caribbean. In 2010, CXC administered 34 CSEC subjects to 208,313 students and 24 subjects at CAPE to 25,766 students. By establishing syllabi for the various subjects, CXC has a profound influence on what West Indian students learn and this has resulted in an infusion of Caribbean material into the content of nearly all its offered courses. An unrecognised benefit is that the preparation of syllabi and marking of exams brings together university and high school teachers from across the West Indies, thus building a regional collective, a university without walls that strengthens and enriches that sense of “West Indian-ness.” The CXC has benefited from exceptional leaders at the helm, the current Registrar, Dr. Didacus Jules, preceded by Dr. Lucy Steward, who in turn was preceded by Ms. Irene Walter, all distinguished educators and thinkers who have overseen the progressive growth of this remarkable body. Despite its achievements, CXC has not escaped the pull of nationalism and it is not uncommon that one or other of our “family of nations” threatens to pull out of CXC, choosing to return to the UK for one or other of their exams – this reminiscent of the conundrum of the CCJ alluded to in Sir Shridath’s talk. Perhaps one of the triumphs of recent years has been in the area of collaboration in health, and it is in this context that the “invisible hand” of another Caribbean “giant” Sir George Alleyne, former Director of the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) and current Chancellor of The UWI, has been most influential. In a recent address entitled “Cultivating Caribbean Cultural Regionalism,” Sir George points out that “the Caribbean has a long history of cooperation in health, perhaps longer than in any other area. It has achieved globally recognised success in the elimination of childhood infectious diseases such as poliomyelitis, measles and German measles.” More recently, Caribbean government leaders mobilised themselves to address non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, cancer and chronic respiratory diseases. In an unprecedented move, the Heads of Government of CARICOM held a Summit in Port of Spain in 2007 to discuss approaches to the control of non-communicable diseases and in 2009, issued a declaration on approaches they would take. That these have not been only declarations are manifest by enactment of heavy tobacco taxes in several countries to reduce tobacco use, a major contributor to cardiovascular disease. Sir Shridath alluded to a time when the Caribbean as a collective assumed global leadership roles in struggles to assert the rights of third world peoples and perhaps this is manifest today in the success of the CARICOM Heads of Government in influencing the United Nations to have a high-level meeting on non-communicable diseases. However, even in the field of health there have been challenges, manifest particularly by the diminution of CAREC, which plays a major role in disease surveillance and epidemiology in CARICOM, but which had been withering over the past decade because of lack of resources. These circumstances have changed in the last three years because of a major initiative led by the CARICOM Ministers of Health to merge CAREC with other regional health agencies (CFNI, CHRC, CEHI, CRDTL) to form a Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA). Initial resources have been obtained to launch this enterprise and to provide appropriate facilities. This initiative promises to rebuild regional public health and to expand research and knowledge development in unprecedented ways in the Caribbean – one hopes that this magnificent undertaking will be assured sustainable support from regional governments. In viewing the state of the regional enterprise, it is important to reflect both on the successes and the shortcomings. The distress felt by Sir Shridath and other thought leaders in the Caribbean is well placed because without political and economic collaboration, our chances of fashioning a more thriving economy and social growth will be stymied. Whatever the gains of functional cooperation, if these sectors are not posited on a platform of economic and social growth, they will surely wither on the vine. Prospects for substantial economic growth in the Caribbean remain elusive, the productive base to foster that growth remains narrow and we are beset by the dark horsemen of social deprivation, insufficient educational attainment, crime and gun violence, and susceptibility to natural hazards. These are not problems that can be solved by tiny “nations and principalities” acting individually in their scattered place in the Caribbean Sea. That there can be successes gained when we act regionally are manifest in the examples alluded to above in the areas of health and education – we should not give up on cricket. If we are to prevail, there is an absolute need for recommitment by our leaders and by ourselves to a more unified regional enterprise. The UWI has begun to prepare for its 2012-2017 Strategic Plan. In fashioning that Plan, our leaders have started meeting and discussing how we might forge a path that will better position the University to drive regional integration and regional development – it is a vision in which we shall strive for a community of students, academics and staff committed to a more competitive, sustainable and integrated Caribbean. The creation of a Competitiveness and Innovation Center, funded by the IDB and launched a few weeks ago, will be one of several initiatives to achieve that vision. The initiation two years ago of an Open Campus that can provide access and intellectual growth to students in countries where campuses do not exist, and in rural areas of countries where campuses exist, is another step taken to forge regional identity and social and economic growth. The future of Caribbean integration can only be successful when regional institutions like UWI, CARICOM, CXC and even cricket become robust, meaningful instruments that reaffirm our oneness, even as they provide the ingredients for our societies to flourish. |
Sir Shridath Ramphal’s comprehensive discourse on the uncertain state of the regional integration movement in a talk entitled “Is the West Indies West Indian?” is certainly one of the most powerful, informed, moving and elegantly assembled presentations on this subject. It is true that a number of West Indian statesmen, scholars, newspaper commentators and prominent citizens have written or expressed similar sentiments, but there are few who can match Sir Shridath’s authoritative account of the travails and frustrations of the integration movement over several decades. His dissertation is not a cry of helplessness but a call to arms to all those who understand the value and importance of a united and productive CARICOM.