SUNDAY 1 JULY, 2018 – UWI TODAY
5
SCIENCE & ENGINEERING
Medicine, he helped to build up the Mona Faculty, at
a time when it was UWI’s sole full-fledged provider of
medical education and oversaw the clinical teaching
being carried out in Trinidad and Barbados.
The second half of the book deals with Sir George’s
“international odyssey”, beginning when he leftMona
in 1981. He felt the time had come to take on new
challenges. So began his eventful career with PAHO in
Washington, as (in succession) Head of the Research
Coordinating Unit, Director of Health Programmes,
Assistant Director, and finally Director for two terms
(1995-2003). (He had to acquire Spanish in a hurry,
and here the Latin helped).
A lifewell lived
UWI STUDENTS IN CHINA:
Five UWI students were recently in China on a two-week Huawei-sponsored work-study programme called Telecom Seeds for the Future. The programme develops skills and talents
in the information, communications and technology field. The UWI students were: Nicholas Mitchell, Qarun Bissoondial, Tristan Sankar, Rachel Peters and David Orr. Photo shows students meeting with Prime Minister
Rowley and other officials on Saturday, May 19 at Huawei Headquarters in Shenzhen, China.
Back Row
(from left): Zhaobo, General Manager, Huawei Technologies (T&T) Ltd; Song Yumin, Ambassador of the People’s
Republic of China to the Republic of T&T; Stephen Ma, CEO Huawei Caribbean region; Detlef Eckert, Huawei Global Government Affairs Dept; Dennis Moses, Minister of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs; Keith Rowley,
Prime Minister; Stuart Young; StevenYi Xiang, Huawei Member of the Supervisory; Steven Seedansingh Jr, Ambassador of the Republic of T&T to China; Commodore Hayden Pritchard, T&T Chief of Defence Staff; Wang
Chunxiang, Vice President of Latin America and Caribbean Public Affairs and Communication.
Front Row:
Students from UWI and UTT.
Continued from
page 4
In this section of the book (chapters 6 to 10), he
discusses the challenges of working out the relations
between the CARICOM Health Desk, Caribbean
governments, and PAHO, which was the inter-
American arm of the WHO. Chapter 7 includes
a frank account of the diplomacy, politicking and
intrigue involved in the campaign that led to his
election as PAHO Director, the first non-Latin,
English-speaking, black person to hold the post.
Chapter 11 is well titled “the myth of retirement”.
He went on to be the UN Secretary-General’s Special
Envoy for HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean and a driving
force behind PANCAP. He is possibly best known
in the region for his tireless campaigns against the
“lifestyle” or non-communicable diseases (NCDs)
and their impact on human development in the
region. His advocacy helped to bring about the 2007
CARICOM Summit on NCDs in Port of Spain, for
which he gives credit to former PM Patrick Manning
and Eddie Greene of CARICOM. He participated
in the Special UN General Assembly on NCDs in
2011, and continues to be very active in the region
and globally through his many presentations on the
NCD crisis.
He became Chancellor of The UWI from 2003 to
2017. He will always be remembered for his inspiring
graduation addresses, different each year for each
campus, and for his insistence on shaking hands with
every single graduate, which is someaningful for them
and their family.
When he became Chancellor, overall enrollment
was 22,577 (2002/03); by 2015/15, it was just over
49,000.
This is a record of a life well and usefully lived.
