Sir George Alleyne, Chancellor of the Universirty of the West Indies, presents the Degree of Doctor of Laws , Honoris Causa to Ambassador Havelock Brewster at the UWI Mona, Campus on November 7, 2008. Following is Ambassador Brewster’s address to the Graduating Class.
Forty years ago, (the work of UWI social scientists) was greeted not as the ” first port of call for regional leadership”, but with unprecedented hostility. The authors were hounded as communists, Marxists revolutionaries, conspirators with Fidel Castro, at best lunatics. The would-be reformers had passports seized, some expelled from the country, fired, threatened, and one assassinated…
Citation for Havelock’s Honorary Doctorate
For a functioning, participatory, Caribbean Democracy Stabroek News 17/11/08
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On November 17, in the ‘In the Diaspora’ Column in Guyana’s Stabroek News, we featured most of the text of Havelock Brewster’s speech at the convocation ceremonies at UWI. It is fitting that his remarks have been published and reported upon so widely across the Caribbean. The speech threw into sharp relief the hostility from some quarters which greeted those who have been critical in one way or the other of the EPA. It also raised difficult questions, but in a spirit of collegiality and conversation. Several others have at times asked for clarification or disagreed on key issues, without sacrificing a civil tone towards each other across our divisions and disagreements. This is what should inspire a younger generation as we continue to struggle for Caribbean futures we can truly all have a stake in.
Thanks, Havelock!
D. Alissa Trotz
Director, Caribbean Studies,
University of Toronto
Dear Havelock,
I congratulate you most warmly on the superb address at the ceremony awarding you the very richly deserved honorary doctorate. I hope it has had the widest possible circulation. You and others like Norman and Vaughan Lewis and Sonny and Clive deserve the thanks of all West Indians for your devoted and expert work for the good of us all and for West Indian nationhood.
For many years I experienced at first hand the bullying bad faith of the EU Commission in respect of sugar, bananas, rice , rum and trade and development in general. The EPA was the culmination of a long and devious process of ruthless manipulation and misrepresentation.
You are absolutely right in pointing out that ” we are hitching our wagon to the collapsing stars of the economic universe ” — or, to use another metaphor, however hard you run in the corridors it will end in grief if the train you have been bullied into boarding is going in the wrong direction. As the months and years go by I believe the EPA will be recognised as one of the biggest collective mistakes in our long West Indian saga.
I share the revulsion felt by Alissa and many others at the disgraceful, not to say poisonous, reaction of some “true believers” to opposing views offered by fellow West Indians — not only personally abusive but counter to the consensus – seeking our Community needs.
Many congratulations again and all best wishes,
Ian McDonald
Dear Havelock,
I also want to endorse the sentiments expressed by Alissa ““ I can”™t explain how absolutely disappointed I am in the region”™s leaders (political and technocrats) Those persons in whom we should be able to have some faith in, really let us down. I am not convinced that the CF EPA was the best deal available.
The clarity with which you spoke on the most critical issues was very instructive. You reminded us of a similarly ugly period in our history, but in an absolutely statesman like manner, and with humility which in itself sent a very powerful message about where our priorities should be as Caribbean peoples, how we should relate to each other, the kinds of personal and working relations we should be able to maintain ““ in the interest of the region”™s future.
As we say in Ja, nuff thanks and nuff respect.
Judith Wedderburn
I agree with Dr. Brewster that the agreement is flawed. I beg to differ though, that the EPA is a ” free trade agreement”. It is managed trade. Nor is it a representation of the ” free market” as alluded to.
Did Dr. Brewster state which political system is best? That would be interesting to find out.
Finally, the law should protect the minority but where/what are the benefits from consensus-building? Maybe he addressed these points in the entire address?
Richard (Rick) Lowe
http://www.nassauinstitute.org