SUNDAY 9 SEPTEMBER, 2018 – UWI TODAY
3
FROM THE PRINCIPAL
EDITORIAL TEAM
CAMPUS PRINCIPAL
Professor Brian Copeland
DIRECTOR OF MARKETING
AND COMMUNICATIONS
Dr Dawn-Marie De Four-Gill
EDITOR
Vaneisa Baksh
email:
CONTACT US
The UWI Marketing and
Communications Office
Tel: (868) 662-2002, exts. 82013 / 83997
or email:
A s a n a t i o n ,
Tr i n i d a d a nd
Tobago has just
marked 56 years
of independence.
In compar i s on
with many self-
d e t e r m i n e d
nat i ons of t he
world, it is, as the
song says, young
and moving on.
No one wou l d
deny the fact that in many ways we are still inching
our way towards a national identity.
Regionally, a failed attempt at forming a
Federation of Caribbean territories set us off on the
path towards independence from colonial rule in
the two decades following 1962, when Jamaica and
Trinidad and Tobago gained their independence.
That time and that movement defined an epoch
in West Indian development. Indeed, it was in
1962 that The UWI of today took its form with the
establishment of the St Augustine and Cave Hill
Campuses to expand the University College of the
West Indies formed in 1948. Globally, the world
itself was going through revolutionary changes
that would transform world culture, politics and
geography – the Civil Rights movement in the
US which had strong links with the growth of
black awareness and the black power movement
in Trinidad and Tobago, the Cuban missile crisis
and the threat of nuclear warfare, the hippie youth
movement, the space race and the first manned
trip to the moon. In those days, particularly in
the sixties, a sense of idealism and excitement
permeated the region, as visions of the kind of
societies we could build seemed ready to take off
once the colonial mantles were shaken off.
In the post-independence world, however,
many of those dreams seem to have been buried. It
has not turned out quite the way it was imagined.
On the economic front, for example, a March 2018
World Bank Brief reported that in Jamaica “over
the last 30 years real per capita GDP increased at an
average of just one percent per year, making Jamaica
one of the slowest growing developing countries
in the world.” The 2018 CDB outlook for the
Caribbean projects a 1.8% economic growth, still
behind the 3% global projections. Similar economic
challenges across the Caribbean, our vulnerability
to climate change effects exacerbated in part from
environmental abuses, the social malaise of income
inequality and increasing crime rates and concerns
about food sustainability continue to be our greatest
challenges.
There is almost a sense that the region is
operating in neutral, without a clear idea of what
should be done to deliver on the promises rendered
at independence. It is tempting to focus on the
many negative challenges to society and to give up
on the Caribbean as failed states. However, as I said,
we are still quite young as nations go. It is up to us
who populate and govern these territories that make
up the Caribbean to strategically plan, set clear
targets for sustainable growth and development and
then agree on clear action plans to achieve that state
within reasonable time. This would require a vision
for development, strong resolve and courage from
our leaders and many sacrifices on the part of the
ordinary citizen.
Can this be done? Do we as Caribbean peoples
have what it takes to sacrifice traditional practices
and biases to do whatever is necessary to forge
a society that betters the one dreamed of by our
forefathers? Others have. The most commonly
referenced example is Singapore whose economy in
1962 was well behind that of Trinidad and Tobago
and Jamaica, but whose visionary leader, Lee Kuan
Yew, worked hard to impose a strong culture of
detailed planning, intolerance to corruption and
cultural transformation to make it one of the
strongest economies in the world with a GDP of
around USD500 billion, reported as the 3rd largest
per capita. Lee Kuan Yew’s policies were not without
opposition but givenwhere this country came from,
I suspect that only a few Singaporeans would trade,
what many see as a harsh legislative regime, for the
level of prosperity they have achieved.
At the risk of prolonging this thread of thought,
I must make reference to very recent discussions I
held with colleagues on South Korea and Norway.
In 1997 South Korea was facing bankruptcy
and took a US$ 58-billion loan from the IMF
under onerous contingencies. One picket sign by a
displaced worker said it all – “I.M.F. = I’M Fired.”
However, within three short years the country
turned around its economic fortunes and proceeded
to pay back the loan. Underscoring the success
was prudent planning and the sacrifice made by
the South Korean peoples who willingly bought
into the notion of “burden-sharing” and in a clear
demonstration of national pride and patriotism
donated their personal treasured gold belongings
– family heirlooms, rings, medals, trophies and
the like – to be melted down into ingots for
international sale.
I have always admired howNorway has invested
its oil and gas revenues into a Sovereign Fund, on
which the Trinidad and Tobago Heritage Fund is
modelled in part, to take care of future generations.
It is now the largest such fund in the world, sitting
at some USD 1 trillion in 2018. The Norwegians
have crafted a “fiscal rule” that governs how the
fund is used to phase oil and gas revenues into the
immediate economy while ensuring that the fund
capital remains and grows. The Fund is also guided
by an Ethics Council that blacklists investments in
companies associated with severe human rights
violations, gross environmental degradation and
corruption.
Finally, closer to home is the Central American
Republic of Costa Rica which, despite its current
challenges and the fact that it abolished its army
some 70 years ago, has a very stable democratic
government and has fairly successfully diversified
its economy from agriculture. The country has
clearly set its eyes on achieving the UNdevelopment
goals for environmental sustainability. It was
identified by the New Economics Foundation as the
greenest country in the world and plans to become
carbon neutral by 2021. Indeed, by 2016 98% of
the country’s energy from “green” sources, notably
hydro-electric, geothermal, solar and biomass.
To varying extents, these global examples reflect
the importance of having a commitment by all
national stakeholders – Government, the business
sector, NGOs and the ordinary citizen - to the
shaping and execution of detailed and well thought
out national development plans. But this will all
be for naught if the populace is not adequately
motivated to comply. Can we, for example, work
together to improve our food security through
better collaboration between researchers and the
food sector to improve the viability of locally
produced food and through a deliberate action
by our citizens to change their buying habits from
local imports? After a generation or more of craving
Do we as Caribbean
peoples have what it takes
to sacrifice traditional
practices and biases to do
whatever is necessary to
forge a society that betters
the one dreamed of by our
forefathers? Others have.
AVision for Development
Continued on
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