[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 31 (Tuesday, February 26, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E241-E242]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    ENDORSING THE IDEA THAT THE PAPERS OF CARIBBEAN LEADERS BE MADE 
     PUBLICALLY AVAILABLE THROUGH THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 26, 2008

  Mr. RANGEL. Madam Speaker, I rise today to call attention to the 
University of the West Indies and its recent push to make publicly 
available those official papers penned by some of the Caribbean's 
greatest leaders. These papers shed invaluable insight into the area's 
national and regional public policy, and their availability would grant 
a host of students, citizens, and political analysts knowledge of their 
governments' inner workings. The New York CARIB News article, ``Give Us 
Your Papers, They Would Help Future Generations,'' published on Feb. 5, 
makes the case.

University of the West Indies to Former Caribbean Leaders: Give Us Your 
               Papers, They Would Help Future Generations

       ``Give us your official papers that deal with both national 
     and regional public policy.''
       That appeal to former leaders of several CARICOM nations, 
     from P.J. Patterson of Jamaica, Dr. Kenny Anthony of St. 
     Lucia and James ``Son'' Mitchell of St. Vincent to Owen 
     Arthur and Sir Lloyd Sandiford of Barbados has come from Dr. 
     Nigel Harris, Vice Chancellor of the University of West 
     Indies. He told the Carib News in New York yesterday that 
     such papers would enhance the ability of future generations 
     of students, political scientists and researchers to 
     understand the development of the region's public policies.
       ``First of all such donations would be a service to the 
     region as a whole,'' Dr. Harris said. ``Secondly, it gives 
     enduring value to the University that this is a place that 
     our leaders see as being vitally important; understand its 
     enduring value; and in that context have a sense of comfort, 
     if you will that what they leave, that part of their life 
     that they are leaving to the University, will be preserved. 
     It will serve to inform future generations of our peoples 
     and our scholars.''
       Dr. Harris was in New York for the glitzy annual awards 
     gala of the American Foundation for the University of the 
     West Indies. Almost 400 guests attended the Black Tie dinner 
     at the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan where more than a dozen 
     people were honored for their contribution to the development 
     of the Caribbean or the societies in which they now live and 
     work.
       So far Edward Seaga, a former Prime Minister of Jamaica has 
     donated his papers to the UWI's Mona campus; the papers of 
     the late Dr. Eric Williams, the father of Trinidad and 
     Tobago's independence, who helped to create CARICOM, are now 
     housed at the St. Augustine campus in Trinidad; while those 
     of Sir Shridath Ramphal, a former Commonwealth Secretary who 
     later became the University's Chancellor, are at the Cave 
     Hill campus in Barbados.
       ``We in the Caribbean need a place that scholars, students 
     and others can go to understand, read and learn about public 
     policy,'' Dr. Harris said. ``Such collections shouldn't be 
     stored in a willy-nilly fashion.'' The Vice Chancellor thinks 
     the papers of Patterson and Arthur would be vital to an 
     understanding of their approach to regionalism and to the 
     policies affecting people in Jamaica, Barbados and the rest 
     of the region.
       In Arthur's case, he spent almost 14 years as the head of 
     the government with lead responsibility for the launching of 
     the Caribbean Single Market and Economy and Dr. Harris said 
     his papers were an ``extremely valuable'' source of 
     information and guidance for future generations.
       ``Owen Arthur has been one of the thought leaders, if you 
     will, with respect to the implementation of the CSME,'' 
     Harris said. ``It was a charge that he took on. He was 
     engaged in a number of meetings and conferences, some of our 
     university people were there, in terms of thinking through 
     the CSME, the integration of the Caribbean and I think we can 
     learn a lot from that in the short term. We can also learn a 
     lot in the long-term in terms of the journey that we took, so 
     to speak, when it comes to Barbados' development at this 
     point in time and the journey we are going through right now

[[Page E242]]

     to achieve the Caribbean Single Market and Economy.''
       Interestingly enough, Dr. Harris said that technological 
     development was making it easier to store and gain easier 
     access to the papers than ever before and that should be an 
     attraction to the donors and the users of such documents.
       ``Now that we can digitize material, which is what Mr. 
     Seaga is doing with his papers, digitizing hundreds of 
     thousands of pages, it is going to make it so easily 
     accessible and acceptable to scholars in years and decades to 
     come,'' was the way he put it. ``Just plain folks who are 
     interested throughout the region would be able to come in and 
     examine them and learn about how decisions were made and 
     positions taken. We have methods already that can readily 
     assemble and store masses of information in ways that would 
     be able to access easily.'' The UWI is celebrating its 60th 
     anniversary and many of honorees who received awards on 
     evening were hailed for their work in the Caribbean or the 
     United States. ``It was a very highly successful event,'' Dr. 
     Harris said. ``The American Foundation of the University for 
     the West Indies plays a vital role in our University's 
     continuing expansion.''
       Sir George Alleyne, UWI Chancellor, described the gala as a 
     ``special event'' one that was particularly true as ``our 
     university celebrates'' an important milestone in its 
     history. ``In a young institution like ours we must mark this 
     early milestone and use them not only to review what we have 
     done, but to see what else we may do and how much we can do 
     better when we are doing.''
       During the gala awards were presented to Denis O'Brienm, 
     founder of Digicel; Dr. John Agard, senior lecturer in the 
     UWI's faculty of science and agriculture at St. Augustine; 
     Prof. Anthony Chen, professor of applied physics at Mona; Dr. 
     Leonard Nurse, a senior lecturer in the Center for Resource 
     Management and Environmental Studies at Cave Hill; Kenneth 
     DeGhetto, a former member of the Foundation's Board of 
     Trustees; Reggie Canal, first vice president of African 
     Heritage Banking at HSBC; Raymond Goulbourne, BET's Executive 
     Vice President; Noel Hankin, Senior Vice President of Multi-
     Cultural Relations at Moet Hennessy USA; Roy Hastick, founder 
     and chief executive officer of the Caribbean American Chamber 
     of Commerce and Industry in Brooklyn; Marc Morial, a former 
     Mayor of New Orleans who is the President of the National 
     Urban League; Colbert Narcisse, chief administrative officer 
     of Global Investment Bank and the chief operating officer of 
     the Americas Investment Bank at Merrill Lynch; Paul Altman, 
     Managing Director of Altman Real Estate, the Caribbean's 
     leading real estate company; Winston Bayley, UWI's chief 
     financial officer; Dr. Rollin Bertrand, CEO of the TCL Group; 
     Stephen Cozier, Managing Director of ScotiaBank's Eastern 
     Caribbean operations; Vincent Hosang, founder of Caribbean 
     Food Delights and Royal Caribbean Bakery; and Minna Israel, 
     Managing Director for RBTT Bank Jamaica Limited.
       Harry Belafonte, world famous entertainer and civil rights 
     activist, was also honored. Susan Taylor of Essence Magazine 
     accepted the award for him in his absence. Brenda Blackmon of 
     WWOR-TV, My 9; and Maurice Dubois of WCBS-TV were the gala's 
     hosts. The Rt. Rev. E. Don Taylor, Episcopal Vicar Bishop of 
     New York City delivered the invocation.
       ``We salute the immense contributions of our luminaries and 
     other awardees,'' said Karl Rodney, New York Carib News 
     publisher, chairman of the dinner committee. Michael 
     Flanagan, the Foundation's Chairman, said that the event and 
     the Foundation continue to ``focus on supporting the 
     University so that the institution can continue to expand and 
     meet demands and remain relevant to the societies it 
     serves.''

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