8
UWI TODAY
– SUNDAY 7TH DECEMBER, 2014
First, letme welcome you
to this 2014 graduation ceremony
of the St. Augustine Campus of The University of the West
Indies. For many of us who have visited the campus over
the years, it is always comforting to come back and see the
magnificent samaan trees the green spaces and the beautiful
buildings, the new and the old that are so much a part of
the history and lore of this place.
But on this occasion there is something missing for
me. It is difficult for me to appreciate that I can come to St.
Augustine for our graduation and not see Norman Girvan
somewhere. I did not attend any of the celebrations of his life,
but as this time rolled around I could not help thinking of
him, what he accomplished on somany different stages, how
many people he influenced and his passionate commitment
to Caribbean development. I bracket Dennis Pantin along
with him in that commitment to finding and trying to
articulate ways in which the Caribbean could seek genuine
development of its people. I thought I would refer to three
inter-related topics that would have interested them both.
I thought of them especially after hearing of the results
of the Third International Conference on Small Island
Developing States which your Principal Professor [Clement]
Sankat attended. Much of the discussion there was on the
sustainable development of small island developing states
and how that should be achieved. The conference was
held in Samoa, one of the Pacific Islands which of course
shares one common feature with us. The University of
the Pacific and The University of the West Indies are the
only two multi-island universities in the world and there
ENERGY
UWI GRADUATION CEREMONIES 2014
CHANCELLOR’S ADDRESS – SIR GEORGE ALLEYNE
Sustaining our
Human Development
This is an excerpt from the presentation by Chancellor of The UWI,
Sir George A. O. Alleyne
at the Graduation Ceremonies, St. Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago, October 2014.
is a particular responsibility we have for assisting in the
sustainable development of our constituencies. There are
several aspects that I am sure would have intrigued Norman
and Dennis at this time. First they both questioned the
notion of sustainable development we should embrace,
and second, they would naturally be interested in the role
of our university and how relate that to our students and
graduates.
The concept of sustainable development figures
prominently in the world today, as all eyes are focused on
how the world community will elaborate a set of Sustainable
Development Goals as a framework for how we live and
interact with our social and physical environment after the
year 2015. Economists andothers have debated for yearswhat
development means and what should make it sustainable
and much of the emphasis has been placed on our physical
environment and the need to protect it. We are stewards
of this planet and its resources and should leave them in
good order for generations to come. In small island states
such as we are, there is natural concern for our maritime
environment and climate change for us with the spectre of
rising sea levels is a matter of immediate practical relevance.
Your Professor John Agard is a renowned expert in this
area. But there is general agreement that our concern about
development should embrace not only the environmental
but also the social and economic dimensions.
We have an Institute of Sustainable Development
in the University which does excellent work that deals
predominantly with the environmental and economic
Please visit
youtube.com/uwistaugustine
to see video interviews, speeches and more from the
UWI Graduation Ceremonies 2014
The full text of the Chancellor’s presentation can be found online at
aspects of sustainable development. For example, there is
work on preparation for disasters and we well know the
importance of preparation for hurricanes in this part of the
world. But I continue to emphasize that when we speak of
development it should be clear to all that the real focus of
development and what makes it important is that it must
have people at the centre. I have often quoted Dr. Eric
Williams who said famously “Development is the face of
man,” and Julius Nyerere another huge figure in the struggle
for national progress in his own country, Tanzania, said
pithily “Development is for man, by man and of man.” So
it is human development that we are after and it can only
be made sustainable by the close interlinkage of the social,
economic and environmental dimensions.
What is the role of a university in supporting this
human development? First there is our research which
over the years in our various institutions, faculties and
departments has contributed to a corpus of knowledge
which is sometimes taken for granted and not related
directly to the improvement of the lives of our citizens. I
know well the area of health, where the seminal discoveries
in many areas have shaped our practices and continue to
influence howwe live and see ourselves. There are few areas
of health in which we have not contributed and I can cite
research in areas such as nutrition, and child health and
recent work on dengue, for example, which gives us a basis
for understanding the behavior of new viruses when they
appear in our midst.
