Hello hello. Hello hello. Can you hear me? Hello? No. Hello, Justin, Justin. Yeah, that's all. Everything? Too much tape. What do we have to do? Put the tape right there. You see that ball of tape? The tape was in front of it, but it didn't like it. I don't like it. I don't like it. I don't like to get into nothing. I don't like to raise it. People are always not commenting and getting out of there. Do I have to hold this mic? Yes, you have to hold it. Otherwise, they won't hear you. I think you have to stay there so I can hold my mic. And all the people as well. Good evening ladies and gentlemen, can you please stand for the playing of the National Anthem. Thank you for joining us. Thank you, let us pray. Heavenly Father, the God of all wisdom and knowledge and understanding. We come into your presence today and thank you for this wonderful opportunity to gather here. We thank you for your mercies towards us. We thank you for your favoring. We thank you tonight that we have the opportunity to be able to get some words of wisdom and insight and deep understanding into what we as a people need to do, what has been done and what has been done as a region. Father, you're the God who gives wisdom to your people. The wisest man who lived Solomon said that we should get wisdom. We should get knowledge. We should get understanding. The Father tonight, we just ask for your presence on the speaker tonight. We ask you to bless Dr. Alexis as he delivers this message to us. Father, we ask you to open our minds not just those of us who are here but those who are tuning in remotely. The clarity of thought and it will be presented in a logical manner that we understand. Father, as we face challenges ahead, especially with things like artificial intelligence that will redefine and is redefining who we are as a people that is disrupting societies and that will disrupt us in ways more positive and negatively. Father, we need to come together as a region and we need to re-strategize. We need to really think of who we are. Father, this presentation is very timely tonight. So give us attentive heads that we may understand, especially what CARACOM is doing and what we need to do as individual member states and as individuals to get ourselves in alignment to be able to take advantage of the opportunities that are ahead and to be able to mitigate against the challenges that we face. So bless all of us, Father, and we pray that you guide us and direct us that we get back home safely tonight. We thank you, Jesus, and we pray. Amen. Councillor Rosa, may I have your seat? Dame Collette Boise, former Governor-General of St. Fuchsia. Minister Alba Baptiste, Minister for Foreign Affairs. Senator Lisa Jovair. Dr. Armstrong Alexis, Mrs. Alexis and family. Honourable Claudius Francis, Speaker of the House of Assembly. Ambassador for the Republic of China on Taiwan. Ambassador Peter Chen and Mrs. Chen. Senator George Goddard. Deputy Councilor of the Taiwanese Embassy. Maya Huang. Mayor Castries, her Worship, Geraldine Lendo of Gabriel. Mayor Grosjele, his Worship, Egbert Hussien and Mrs. Hussien. Councilors and staff of the Grosjele Constituency Council. Chairperson of the Babylon Constituency Council, Mrs. Gasper. Specialy and routinely invited guests, ladies and gentlemen, good evening. I want to begin by saying thank you for being patient during our technical difficulties. Thank you for joining us in person and virtually as we broadcast from the Vladimir Lucian Theatre at the Grosjele Human Resource Development Centre. It's Friday, August 4, 2023, and we have congregated to commemorate the 50th anniversary of CARICOM. The Caribbean Community CARICOM is a grouping of 20 developing countries. It comprises 15 member states and five associate members. It comprises a multilingual, predominantly youthful population of about 16 million citizens. We span from Bahamas in the north to Guyana Suriname in the south. CARICOM is the oldest surviving or longest surviving integration movement in the developing world. Its populace for regional integration included economic integration, foreign policy coordination, human and social development, and security. Our coordinated foreign policies and single market functions have resulted in several regional successes in health, education, culture, and security. On July 4, 1973, the Treaty of Chagoramas was signed and that established CARICOM. So, about a month ago, the member states vibrantly celebrated CARICOM and original observations continued to date. I am La Mourne Wood and Daisy and I am your mistress of ceremony. This evening, our lecture is themed with a CARICOM, 50 years of service to ordinary Caribbean citizens. The lecture will be delivered by a progressive, respected and traveled son of Rosalie. But before he is introduced, please join me in welcoming Mayor Egbert Prussian to the lectern to issue the official welcome remarks. I would like to thank the Minister of Foreign Affairs, our distinguished presenter of the Armstrong Alexis, Honorable Kenson Kazeme, District Representative and Minister for Youth and Sports, Senator Lisa Jawahir, Ambassador Peter Chen, Mayor, Ambassador Peter Chen of the Republic of Taiwan, Mrs. Maher Wang, Deputy Councilor at the Taiwanese Embassy, Honorable Claudia Sprancis, Speaker of the House of Assembly, Senator George Bordard, Mayor of Kacharis, Worship Geraldine Lendo Gabriel, Chairperson of the Barbano-Constituent Council, Mrs. Caspar. I take particular pleasure in bidding all of you welcome in what promises to be a very special evening. I know many of you are still in a celebratory mood as this is the time of year when we celebrate a very important event in the history of our people, that of emancipation. This year, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Chagras, which gave hope to the regional organization known as CARICOM. Some of you in the audience were not yet born when CARICOM came into being. Some of us, we take its existence and the rule that it plays in the region for granted. Some of us believe in question its relevance to the well-being of our region and its people. Tonight, our esteemed presenter Dr. Armstrong Alexis, the Deputy Secretary General for CARICOM, takes us on a journey that promises to be insightful and provocative, and will hopefully answer some of those annoying questions and disabuses of some of our unflattering notions of that august institution. Dr. Armstrong Alexis is no stranger to us here in grocery. He is in fact a son of this soil and has for many years been actively involved in the community. We are proud of his accomplishments and are happy to share him with the region and indeed the world. As tempting as it is, as it may be for me to offer a few words about Dr. Alexis, on this particular occasion I must be told to one who by virtue of the familial relationship with Dr. Alexis is more worthy than I and who has very fittingly been designated the honor and privilege of that role. I thank you all for joining us here this evening, and once again, I bid you all a very special welcome to our celebrated town of Bruzile, and to this important and timely lecture as we as a people look towards charting our destiny. Thank you very much. Thank you Mayor Lucille. You said many things and the comments about some of us who have been born before CARICOM resonates with me, but yes, yes. Thank you for the welcome, Mr. Lucille, Mayor Lucille. So ladies and gentlemen, I hope that you're comfortable. I want to acknowledge the presence of Mr. Vincent Fasen, who has a mentor representative for Bruzile and Minister of Development and Sports. I hope that you're comfortable and ready for some mental stimulation and in our transition to the most anticipated part of the program. And I solicit the assistance of Mr. Janai Alexis. So he formally introduced us here. Good evening, everyone. My name is Janai Alexis, son of Armstrong Alexis. Justin's handsome. I was just telling you that. As we stand, as we sit here today, we've got to think and ask ourselves, what are the odds? What are the odds that a young man that was born right here in Bruzile that did common entrance and unlike some of us in here, did not pass for college, but passed for current and then finished off at SDA. What are the odds that that same man moves along and gets his first degree from UAE? What are the odds that that guy also gets his master's from UAE? Then goes and says, I need a little more and gets an MBA from the Rome University in the UK and then adds doctor in front of his name and gets his doctoral in business administration from one of the universities. What are the odds that that same man that was rooted in this community and did so much work in this community goes on and helps found NYC? What are the odds that that same man that when is in UAE is the head of the guild? What are the odds that this young man that started teaching right across the street at 17 years old, teaching 14 years old, so he had kids in his class that were 14, they were 17, they were teaching his partners basically? What are the odds that that young man becomes the director of youth and sports? What are the odds that that young man moves on and becomes a regional director of CYP? What are the odds that that young man moves into UAE and just starts to stack on the wings? He becomes the operations manager of UNDP in Bahamina deputy country director and as an interim head special operations advisor in Nigeria functional deputy to the resident rep in Samoa coordinator of program and operations at UNDP in Fiji the deputy rep in Suriname the deputy res rep again in Namibia and now in his current post as the deputy secretary general Dr. Alexis oversees the corporate services and functional management at the secretariat. Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome Dr. Alexis, the man I love the most the only man that I look back to I want to be exactly like Dr. Armstrong Alexis. Thank you for asking me questions all week and I did not realize why these questions were being asked. With protocols already established and given the fact that we're starting a bit late this permit me to simply say good evening to all of our dignitaries, our members of parliament speaker, my family, friends and all those who are interested in this topic ladies and gentlemen it really is a distinct pleasure for me as an original Chiapasili to be addressing you in the heart of our beloved district Roseli has produced outstanding citizens for many of us and for many of us coming back and contributing to the upliftment of our village that raised its children is nothing short of a humble recognition of our love for our hometown and fully cognizant that I address you tonight within the hallowed walls of the Vladimir Lucien Theatre named after a young Jerusalem who has placed the trails of scholastic brilliance artistic excellence outstanding literary competence to become one of the Caribbean's most recognized and accomplished literary icons of our modern Caribbean civilization we stand on the shoulders of giants in our community of Roseli who had shaped the early years of fomentation of a Roseli identity community leaders such as Ignatius Felicien some were the Lucien Augustine Alexis outstanding sports personalities such as Tony Stone, Faisal, Candice Lui and Karen Boyce entrepreneurs such as Willie Balny, Scotty and Jerome Copac Montoud and religious leaders who our parents oftentimes sent us to their homes to pray have all contributed towards a Roseli that today stands tall as the most progressive district in the entire of this country I therefore feel privileged and with the deepest sense of humanity and sincerity I wish to thank the Roseli Constituency Council for inviting me to share some thoughts with you this evening thanks to all of you in the audience and online for taking time to be a part of this rather auspicious event tonight I want to start by asking whether anyone in the audience can recall July 3rd, 1973 this was a day that four leaders in the Caribbean Prime Minister Eruvvaro Morvellis Prime Minister Forbes Burnham of British Diana Prime Minister Michael Manley of Jamaica and the host Prime Minister every Williams of Trinidad and Jumejo all immortalized as founding fathers of regionalism met in the town of Chagoramas in Trinidad to sign a treaty of Chagoramas which gave both to the Caribbean community and the common market and which we fondly now refer to as Caribbean having announced the withdrawal of this country Trinidad and Jumejo from the 1958 Establish Federation Prime Minister Eric Williams of Trinidad and President Bebo proposed at the time the creation of the Caribbean community he subsequently convened a meeting of leaders of Barbados, British Diana and Jamaica which gave both to the Caribbean Prime Minister and on July 3rd, 1973 the Treaty of Chagoramas was signed thereby establishing the Caribbean community and the common market whilst we often overload the significance of the full title of the Caribbean community and the common market it is important to recognize that up to today we have one member state that is a member of the Caribbean community but not a member of the common market given that the purpose of this lecture is not to go into the bosom of the nuances of membership of the Caribbean I am only stating here that as a community we represent sovereign states whilst espousing the benefits of working collaboratively to address pressing needs to capitalize on economies of scale and to promote one Caribbean identity In Article 6 of the Treaty which establishes Caricor and its subsequent 2001 revision it is stated that the objectives of Caricor are to improve the standards of living and work to achieve full employment of labour and other factors of production to accelerate, coordinate and sustain economic development and convergence to expand trade and economic relations with the states to organize for increased production and productivity to achieve a greater measure of economic leverage and effectiveness of member states in dealing with the third states or with third states with groups of states and entities of any description to enhance coordination of member states foreign and foreign economic policies to enhance functional cooperation including the achievement of efficient operations of common services and activities for the benefit of its people the promotion of greater understanding among its people and the advancement of the social, cultural and technological development and the intensification of activities in areas such as health, education and transport and telecommunications I am certain you will agree with me that any critical review of the accomplishments of Caricor will result in mixed propositions but there will be a significant preponderance of opinion favoring the view that the community has not achieved all that it was set out to accomplish In his 2015 lecture titled Delivered or Denied the Dividends of Intervention Dr. Kenyantini, former Prime Minister of St. Louis and Prime Minister at the time when the statement was made indicated that the Caribbean is the Caribbean is and has for too long been stalled at the crossroads of indecision stalled for so long that we are in danger of becoming anachronistic literally out of time and out of step with the rest of the world on board Once being interviewed by Oscar Rabjit in 2010 the 20th century regionalist Sir Shridha Ramfa is reputed to have said and I quote the heads of government and Caricor have to recapture the vision that led the generation of Caribbean leaders to the understanding that we have to have functional unity if we are to meet the challenges of the 21st century we have seemed to have lost our way in governance at the regional level in economic integration which is a heartbeat of Caricor we have lost our inspiration within the developing world and perhaps worst of all the people of the Caribbean or Caribbean people are losing their faith in the political leadership of the region This would avoid Sir Shridha Ramfa Before I delve into the meat of my presentation I should remind you of Sir Shridha Ramfa's three pillars as providing the framework for Caricor regional integration The first one is full economic integration and that is to be achieved through the implementation of the Caribbean single market economy and the CSME Functional cooperation which embraces working together in several areas such as health and patient sports culture etc that contribute to the enhancement of the quality of life of our Caribbean peoples and thirdly the coordination of foreign policy and external economic relations which seek to find common ground on individual national positions and on a myriad of hemispherical international issues of great importance to the community and in 2017 the heads added a fourth pillar is crime and security and that was added by the heads of government to provide for a multilateral response to crime and security priorities in the region In order to give relevance to the theme of this lecture I have to firstly define ordinary citizen I use the Cambridge dictionary which defines ordinary as not different or special or unexpected in any way and citizen as a person who is a member of a particular country and who has rights because of being born there or because of being given those rights An ordinary citizen therefore is a person who is a member of a particular country and in this case the region who is not different or special in any way but who has rights because of being born in the region or because of being given those rights I apply this definition of course to the citizens of the Caribbean community how therefore has Caribbean served the ordinary citizen over its 50 a lifespan To answer this question or the answer to this question can first be found in the revised Treaty of Chagoramas the document that establishes Caribbean the positions of the treaty the provisions rather of the treaty secure for ordinary Caribbean citizens rights such as being able to move freely within the community the right to establish businesses the right to live and work in any of the member states of Caribbean and the right to engage in non-wage activities in any member state of the community it is important however for citizens to be seized with both the knowledge of and familiarity with the provisions of the treaty that guarantees them these and other rights you see ladies and gentlemen Caribbean cannot be of service to the ordinary citizen if the ordinary citizen is not aware the rights that he or she possesses and that he or she does not even attempt to exercise these rights we therefore stumble upon a major challenge that of communication and public education which is critical yet woefully inadequate if we are to ensure that the ordinary citizen understands the benefits of Caribbean community or her Caribbean has been under a bushel hidden from the sight of the ordinary citizen for far too long I'd like to think of regional integration as a journey and not a destination based on that prison integration is never complete if we accept regional integration as a journey then we can accept that the right to stay for a period of six months is a solid foundation to build on which is encapsulated in the slogan of the 50th anniversary of Caricom which is 50 years strong a solid foundation to build on I am sure you are aware that at the just concluded 45th conference of the Caricom Heads of Government that in Trinidad from July 3rd to 5th 2023 heads agreed to hold free movement by March 2024 I will be returning to that in a while notwithstanding the paucity of information to educate the public how the ordinary citizen stands to benefit from Caricom the governments of the member states of Caricom have in some measure facilitated the exercising of the rights of the ordinary citizen by putting some measures in place for these rights to have meaning I shall focus on a few examples that I am certain go readily in existence it based the consciousness of the ordinary citizen let us start by extending the definition of the ordinary citizen to nationals of Caricom member states who travel the region and then we will see that those rights that these citizens are appalled in through some practical arrangements that have been put in place to facilitate them as a result of a decision by the Heads of Government and that is where we start all Caricom nationals every single one of us have the right to enter another Caricom member state for an automatic stay of six months irrespective of the reasons for their visit insignificant as this may seem it is a critical benefit particularly for ordinary citizens who may have family ties in other countries of the region and who from time to time may have reason to enter an extended stay in the sister nation in our region when you travel my brothers and sisters as Caricom citizens you will receive an automatic six month stamp even if you are already going to go out with us for your visa for a day and a half so just check out your stamp so you realize that it is never less than six months there is something called a CCJ did I say it correctly and just as my friend minister has always warned me sometimes technology fails us please just give me a quick second perhaps the greatest value of the regional integration effort is free movement of people this is the barometer often used by ordinary citizens in the assessment of how well we have done as a region and the public sentiment around how far we have come is often times the pivot for other considerations about Caricom and its development I really have to stop here for a quick second my computer has just frozen on me perhaps the greatest value of the regional integration effort is free movement of people this is the barometer often used by ordinary citizens in the assessment of how well we have done as a region and public sentiment around how far we have come is often times the pivot for other considerations about Caricom's success we can all recall the legal matter of Sineq Mairi versus the state of Barbados I'm sure you can all remember here in which Miss Mairi a Jamaican citizen claimed that on March 14th, 2011 her right to enter Barbados was violated Miss Mairi contended that one, the treatment she was subjected to by water officials upon arriving at the Barbados airport and her denial of entry into Barbados amounted to a serious breach of her right to free movement under Article 45 of the revised Treaty of Shabaramas and a decision of the conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean community taken at the 28th meeting in 2007 she also contended that the body cavity search to which she was subjected violated her fundamental rights and freedoms and thirdly she claimed that she was singled out and treated less favorably than other nationalists based on her Jamaican nationality contrary to Article 7 and Article 8 of the revised Treaty of Shabaramas the court the CCG found that Barbados had breached Miss Mairi's right to enter Barbados and ordered that she be paid pecuniary and non pecuniary damages in other words Miss Mairi won the case against the state of Barbados now that's a lesson there right away because for many people especially young people we keep saying how the system is so big that we can't challenge the system and we surrender our rights many times and here it is that a Jamaican woman challenged the system and won and that has become a fundamental part of regional integration because thereafter every member state understood that the Caribbean Court of Justice would not play around when it comes to the rights of ordinary citizens as enshrined in the revised Treaty of Shabaramas we are a region of entrepreneurial ethos and many of the businesses that operate in the Caribbean are indigenous Caribbean-owned managed and operated enterprises we are all too familiar with company names such as Sio Williams, Massey Rituals Coffee House and Surgical Financial Cooperation which operate across many Caribbean states under Article 32 of the revised Treaty of Shabaramas nationals of member states of the Caribbean community have the right to establish companies set up agencies open branches and have subsidiary agents in the territory of another member state in other words in the territory where that individual does not originate so if you're a Canadian you have that right to establish a branch of your business in Dominican region of a Caribbean member state who established a business in his or her whole country is entitled to business expansion in other Caribbean member states with guaranteed Treaty protections such as the right to establish a business or in other words the right to create and manage economic enterprises the right to provide services and the right to move capital you will note that Article 33 of the revised Treaty states and I quote subject to the provisions of Article 221 and 222 these are two articles dealing with matters being run before the Caribbean call of justice the member states shall remove restrictions on all the rights of establishment of national member states in the territory of another member state any hindrance that exist this particular Article 33 calls on member states to remove any hindrance that might exist it is also not worthy that businesses are protected against double taxation effectively permitting the non payment of a regime of taxes to another member state in order to facilitate the free movement of capital establishment of businesses in another territory but why do we need a treaty to allow us to move freely and to establish businesses if we so wish in the region I'm sure that's the question going through your mind have we not always moved freely from one territory to another why is it that before the Caribbean in every one of the islands of the Caribbean we have always known national of other Caribbean countries working in our own country I remember the days going up in Bruce Lee and there was a guy we called Beige he became Uncle Beige Mr. Beige, cousin Beige where did the name Beige come from because he was from the Beige so why do we need Caribbean, why do we need CSMA if we have always been moving all the time I doubt it would be considered unreasonable but one more to ask whether the institutionalization of an organic practice such as cross-territorial existence has helped or hindered the free movement of citizens of the Caribbean in his inaugural speech to a curriculum conference of heads of government in March 2000 the late Rosie Douglas then Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Dominicum his fellow heads and stated and very quickly this is a pretty long quote firstly it does not require a rocket scientist to determine that individual microstates in the Caribbean stand little chance of achieving the aspirations of their people if they stand alone and operate like levitational monads locked up in themselves and incapable of relating to others Caribbean leaders have talked of union and its benefits to the entire region from the Halcyon days of the Caribbean Labour Congress in 1947 over a half century later our leaders were still dearly repeating the same clenches about unity the sole difference being that these statements are now dressed up in the bureaucratic jargon that seems to be a fashion of the new millennium take for example this is Rosie Douglas continuing take for example the freedom of movement of persons in 1957 at the pre-federal conference in Trinidad and Tobago this matter was hotly debated by the leaders of our region who agreed that it was a synchron for regional integration Rosie continues at that time the vocabulary used was that of a federal union that has been done by way of positive governmental action looking at the Caribbean today ordinary men and women have been moving from island to island on their own volition in the majority of circumstances illegally they have been living, working loving, marrying persons from other islands and are happily integrated this aspect of integration is taking place in spite of the ineffectiveness of the leaders of this region in taking the necessary steps to bring it into fruition our leaders must not be obstacles to what ordinary men and women in the Caribbean want that is to be associated with each other at work and at work we must take the necessary steps to legally effectuate this reality it is fundamental that governments exist to serve human beings and not to deal in abstractions Rosie continues let us release the energies of the people of this region in this ever expanding world of trade liberalization and globalization by freeing them to live and work wherever they choose end of war given diagnosis at volition and what we know to be the natural predisposition of Caribbean people our sense of regionalism remain a solid part of our fiber whilst we know that as far as nation would what Anthony paid refers to as a simultaneous stamp of integration and fragmentation this is particularly so since the era of political independence from our respected colonial oppressors and no colonization did not have conscience certainly not a conscience certainly not a conscience that sought to liberate the oppressed in the pedagogy of the oppressed the Brazilian educator Paolo Freire reminds us that oppression and by extension colonialism is dehumanizing but then again Freire advised that only the oppressed can save themselves from the oppressor only the oppressed can save themselves and the oppressor from oppression and liberation must come with the oppressed who must work their way through thoughts of a critical understanding of reality which leads to action but I have to admit I digress so Rosy Douglas's prevalent desire for the formalization of what of that which has been occurring organically is about to be delivered in delivering the decision of the of the heads of government in July 2023 the prime minister of Dominica chairman of the conference of heads stated and I quote we believe that this is a fundamental part of the integration architecture and at 50 we could not live Trinidad and Tobago and not speak about the poor original integration movement that is people's ability to move freely within the Caribbean community the heads of government have indeed now made the decision and is yet to be seen in terms of its own implementation that effective the end of March 2024 we shall be able to what this means is that the single community space which was the that which was the desire of the founding fathers of the curriculum all those many years of will finally be achieved and ordinary citizens will be able to move freely without the limitations of how much time one can spend in another state of the community attendant to full free movement will be factors such as access to services as guaranteed for example through guaranteed secondary education primary health care and other social services we all wait with baited breath for that day when a simple photo ID will be all that we need to move within our Caribbean space Caribbean citizens share a keen sense of community that is anchored in the social psychological understanding of what it is to be Caribbean or West Indian although I have to admit that our recent performance as a West Indies team is causing some of us to give up on our long held spirit of dominance and standard superiority it can therefore be argued that this sense of Caribbeanness recedes the formalizing of the Caribbean project and in fact it is its origin and the reason why the political movement was hatched in full recognition of the grassroots bottom-up movement of people-propelled regionalism in an interesting twist where the people seem to have learned the leaders we can agree ladies and gentlemen but much of the operational and treaty obligatory undertakings of Caricom do not register on the minds of the ordinary citizen who goes along his daily life and this can be the result of many coexisting things when I asked a group of friends only last week what does Caricom mean to you as an ordinary citizen one person responded by saying and I quote Caricom means my island world is part of a group together with the wider region I think the group led to transformation within the economic and education sectors while some of the decisions made by leaders have impacted my nation I am not fully aware of what it means to belong to that group how does it affect me as an individual I recall conversations about a common market and free movement of people however I go about my business daily totally oblivious of how I am at all impact as an individual first I must conclude that I have very little understanding of what the organization does for us as a people and I intend to correct that as soon as possible if I don't then Caricom will just continue to be a name which I know but with which I have no I cannot readily identify a name which I can't claim affinity to a name to which a name to which does not readily arouse loyalty or ownership and that's the response I got from a friend in this response from my friend lies two objective realities A despite its achievements Caricom means little unless we are able to connect our daily lives with the work of the organization the work that the organization does on behalf of the citizens of the community and B we are ineffective in communicating with the public what we do and how our service benefits them some cost correction is therefore required and no better way to do that than to articulate some tangible areas in which Caricom has served and continues to serve every citizens of Caricom let's start with a daily and rather routine activity that households, members of households engage in on a daily basis on a weekly basis perhaps and that is going to the supermarket and purchasing items of the shelf given the revised treaty tariffs are placed on goods that originate from outside the Caricom region in other words in order to safeguard the promotion of regionally produced goods and goods originating from a non-Caricom country goods originating from a non-Caricom country is subject to a special tariff such a tariff is designed to ensure that the regional demand is first satisfied through Caribbean products whenever the market can be satisfied from Caricom produced products merchants are not allowed to import from outside the region now where a product is not being produced in the community or where the quantity of the product being produced in the community does not satisfy the regional demand or where the quality of the product with the product being produced in the community is below the community standard Caricom may authorize the importation from outside the community with such arrangements particularly now that the challenges being experienced with global supply chains items produced within the region is more likely to benefit from more responsive and shorter distribution chains not to mention of course the assumption that regionally produced goods should theoretically be cheaper than those produced internationally and I'm saying theoretically that economies of scale can disrupt those factors so an interesting thing that happens on a weekly basis an important may apply through his ministry of trade may apply for the importation of bananas that request is submitted by the receiving ministry of trade to the Caricom Secretariat there is a till around time of I think 5 days the Caricom Secretariat then sends that information to every member state of Caricom through a saving ground saying that important acts from country Y has applied for the importation of bananas from outside the region Member states will then respond by saying there are no known suppliers in the region or there are suppliers in the region and we can supply or might say we have suppliers but we have orders and therefore we cannot meet that particular order and some countries will simply not respond a non-response is considered a response in that case and what happens then is the Secretariat will then sign an exemption and inform the ministry of trade who then informs the applicant that you can, you may or may not import from overseas so when we go to the supermarkets and we see goods on the shelves and we always say but we see so many foreign goods on the shelves there is a process it is either that the quantity there is actually no supplier from the region countries did not respond or a number of other another example of service to ordinary citizens is in the realm of telecommunications and in particular roaming course I know many of you would be very interested in that one it is a source of constant frustration to ordinary curriculum citizens that exorbitant roaming fees are charged where one travels from one Caribbean territory to another the same companies that charge an unacceptably high fee to roam within the region have established companies in Europe for example and European citizens can navigate the entire European space without having to pay a roaming fee and you have to ask yourself why there is a theory about blacklisting I think it was the prime minister of Bahamas that says that blacklisting seems to be the listing of countries around my blacklisting so the very company that allows the European citizens to move around Europe which is a larger geographic space and certainly a larger population then the Caribbean will not charge roaming fees to move from France to Belgium and Germany to Portugal that may be my local call but if you move from St. Lucia to St. Vincent St. Lucia to Barbados you pay roaming fees and we argue that this is not right equally an American who has traveled to St. Croix an island in the Caribbean there is no roaming fees from the United States or from mainland United States but if you travel from St. Lucia or any other Caribbean country to St. Croix you are burdened by the costs that are simply unjustifiable in a modern e-based interconnected world you may ask why is that happening but through the regional institution of telecommunications the Caribbean telecommunications union the community has successfully negotiated better roaming rates with two major providers in the Caribbean namely Kavanaugh wireless and DigiSend which was signed in Grenada in February 2022 requires the telecommunications companies to recognize that the unpredictable cost of mobile roaming serves as a deterrent for caricum citizens who use their mobile phones as they travel through the region the declaration also recognizes that caricum citizens sometimes suffer what is called bill shop you get a bill and you shop that bill caricum citizens sometimes suffer bill shop at the end of a caricum trip thirdly, roaming charges could be more transparent and affordable because you just get a charge we don't know what it is based on you know so that needs to be more transparent and fourthly the ability to roam among Caribbean states at reasonable cost is an essential characteristic in the promotion in promoting greater connectivity within the caricum single ICT space and caricum single market and in the corner the minister I will take your am I roaming from Guyana? I will back top them so they can talk to you the declaration which was signed in St. George's Mimera in February 2022 also secured the commitment of the companies to implement the new roaming model which will be set out in the respective proposals that the companies are to submit the companies are also to honor the principles and conditions contained in the proposals they need to implement those they were required to implement those proposals by the end of 2022 and to provide semi annual documents in relation to the status of implementation of their proposals they were also required to advise the caricum team on any subsequent intelligent changes to their proposals in a timely manner now if you travel the region you probably recognize that your roaming fees are indeed a bit lower now the intention is to eliminate roaming altogether but as the good diplomats will tell you everything is a negotiated process so there is an end in sight but we have started with demanding lower roaming rates these measures serve to benefit ordinary citizens all made those who travel the region in a major and significant way those of you in the arts and I'm moving to another example those of you in the arts will be familiar with the biennial hosting of the Caribbean's biggest cultural festival called Carifesta since the 1970s caricum has provided an unparalleled space for creatives to place their artistic prowess on display for many cultural performing visual and literary artists across the Caribbean their first opportunity to perform before a substantive appreciative audience was at the Carifesta solution creatives for example have benefited from these unique opportunities and many have had their talents recognized by partners outside the region for many creatives sometimes it was even the first time traveling overseas the plays and dramatic presentations of Carifesta put the best among us on display and has become a pillar of our unique Caribbean cultural identity the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic however has derailed us a bit and the Carifesta has not been here in a few years we are hoping however to stage another edition of this iconic cultural festival in the coming year or two if I was asked to identify one glaring unambiguous example of our Caribbean identity being shaped by our collective conscience and sense of forward march I would have to settle on our home grown education system that bold step was made in the 1970s to do away with the Cambridge examination and introduce the Caribbean examination council it was a show of confidence in ourselves and a liberation from the stronger world of an education system that was culturally biased and incapable of shaping the scholastic advancement of our region today decades later hundreds of thousands of ordinary Caribbean citizens including myself have gone on to make the mark in a number of spheres within the region and externally with the CACs as the cornerstone of their academic prowess that is something that we must be proud of when we say what has Caricom done for me this is certainly one I think we can point to as something that perhaps every family has been touched on whilst these serve as vivid examples and gentlemen too the service meted out by Caricom to its citizens the journey continues and delivering on the promise of a broadened and deepened integration must continue to be our mantra our own Prime Minister remains us in his remarks delivered at the 43rd meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of Caricom in Suriname last year and I quote we must not allow our enforced vital to dull our memories of the reasons why our past leaders pursued the establishment of the Caricom since the market and economy and why they saw it as the most optimum answer to the question of what is the next stage of Caricom development in light of all the global changes that have taken place in the decades since the initial treaty which established Caricom Prime Minister Philippines we are continues at the center of the thinking behind the CSME was the need to create the conditions for the free movement of people you see how many times free movement of people is coming up by the leaders sometimes we ask why the free movement of people on capital and the need to establish a single economy as a unified space for joint growth and development for Caribbean businesses and more importantly for the improvement of the quality of life of Caribbean citizens Prime Minister Pierre went on to further state that my quote St. Lucia will always be less than it can be without Caricom so ladies and gentlemen if you want to put this differently and expand and expand it to reflect the whole of Caricom we are stronger together and the unity that defines us is the bedrock upon which the Caribbean we want can be built so of what service has Caricom been to the ordinary citizens of the Caribbean community I am certain you will agree with me you will agree and with the examples shared this evening that Caricom has served as well but not optimally there is still a lot to be accomplished there is still a lot to do I want us to as I stated earlier view regional integration as a journey and not a destination as I close I invite you to consider three broad questions what would the Caribbean be without Caricom in other words, does Caricom matter our very own Minister of External Affairs Honorable Alba Baptiste is on record as saying at Caricom meeting if you believe Caricom is not working try a Caribbean without Caricom these are the words of Minister Baptiste how do we, the second question to me is how do we broaden the platform to both inform the public about and be guided by the desires of the ordinary citizens on the impact that Caricom has had is having and can potentially have on the citizens of our community this is really a last I leave this with you how do we move from rhetoric to reality on the many lofty ideals of the Caribbean or Caribbean unity which are enshrined in the treaty shaping one Caribbean is not the sole responsibility of Government let me say that again shaping one Caribbean is not the sole responsibility of Government it is a collective imperative that must be pursued by all but for which the formal structure of public governance of governance have to provide impetus there are many loose ends that if allowed to continue hanging individually will not paint the full picture but banded together will tell a wonderful story of the strides we have made as a community as immortalized in the words of the song of the late Black Stalin of Trinidad and Tebevo if we only wrap two people and tell them like me there is one race from the same place that made the same trip on the same ship so we must push for one intention for one common intention is for a better life in the region for women and children that little gentleman will be the ambition of the Caribbean the Caribbean man thank you Dr. Alexis you spoke about the history of Caricom the services of Caricom the provisions of the treaty our rights and obligations are citizens to make best of it you definitely brought to the fore things that we take for granted that are as a result of Caricom and so that I do not dominate the rest of this session we have one mic one floating mic we don't have a stand for it so we are going to have to pass it around so the suggestion is that if you have a question a suggestion that you come to the victim and Dr. Alexis will respond so yes probably we could come around this side of the room exit around here in random water come around here thank you Dr. Alexis for one good presentation I'm impressed and it takes a lot to impress me trust me my main concern has to do especially if you break down the answer or whatever and you know I have a Caribbean man who have traveled the region and to see that after all these years that we could end up in a situation like that you know it's really I can't wrap my head around it and you know I was having a discussion with some guys a few weeks ago and I was making a suggestion and I hope the minister is there I hope he's listening that we have a situation where aviation fuel is available in Trinidad at below market rates right now that's the latest that I know I don't want to show you that has changed right so we have about four or five fledgling airlines in the Caribbean and clearly whatever is they're doing is not working out of this world of costs just to hide, scheduling is bad people are having to overnight it won't be the worst our way of the worst of problems so I was thinking why don't we approach the Prime Minister of Trinidad as a region and say you have Caribbean airlines right why don't we use that as our flagship carrier and you can the Caribbean can invest in the model where we can invest in Caribbean airlines where they would be able to get the main ingredient in terms of cost which is the aviation fuel at your cost every station in the Caribbean at the airline lands will get that aviation fuel at that cost if you want the headquarters that's fine it doesn't matter to me what we're at right to run or if you want to call it replace Liat in terms of the schedule I'm just wondering why can't we think of something like that as a region I mean you have the aviation religion which is a cost and we can put the thing together and try to get this product in stock I mean we have had all the brains and we have had two local laureates we have had all sorts of brilliant minds over the years and I can't see why we can't do it at least if you can help I would like to your suggestions I feel like I should pass that question on to the other audience and see an invasion but I haven't said that you know as I have heard those two kinds of comments before it has to be that the challenge is greater than what means that they can it has to be Minister Baptiste is here Minister Baptiste attends the council of foreign and community relations he attends with the Prime Minister he has been a part of the conversation he attends focus meetings that I don't attend and I'm sure he will tell you that there is no lack of commitment by our leaders to rise up to the point of anger because they are frustrated with the challenges of regional transport I really don't know what the immediate answer is other than to say to you that that I am often times in the room when conversations about regional transport is going on and there are barriers that the heads are grappling with the fuel is not the only challenge it is a major one but it is certainly not the only challenge the issue with the act had a lot to do as many of you would know with just the kinds of arrangements that were in place with personnel and unions and that sort of thing and in order for us to solve the problem of regional transport we also have to go beyond air transport maritime transport it is the same way that the majority of citizens can swim it is the same problem we have when we talk transport we hardly ever factor in that it is probably quicker to get to castries from Rosalie if we have an efficient ferry service it is probably quicker to get to St.Ferris in London if we have an efficient ferry service all of those matters are currently being discussed there is actually a CDP study that has been undertaken and the results should be available anytime soon on the issue of regional transport which covers maritime and air transport there is the the MASA it is an arrangement for civil aviation and that has been in place and many of the countries are committed to ensuring the implementation of the MASA so steps have been taken I hear in your question or your remarks that we need to step up and move much quicker I simply agree with you but I want to reassure you that based on the discussions that are going on now efforts are being made to address the issue of regional transport and the companies are also playing their part so you would recognize that Kyren started traveling up to New Orleans I think they just introduced flights to the kids last week so more and more it is beginning to unfold but a more comprehensive picture would have been taken in the coming months I think I saw Mr.Shalma his hand up as well yes I must say this lecture was exactly what I expected very well presented and I just want to refocus on something that you said earlier about communication and education I know a lot of people in the region are not just here when you tell them about carry bomb the answer is carry bomb no carry bomb in terms of it is a question of perception of what people think on the ground you know probably what I am saying might make sense but if you go by the market now or you do a crystal ball and kind of program and you step outside of a building and you ask people about carry bomb 9 out of 10 might ask you what you have after even talking about because they don't really know their perception is that it has not really advanced our position so my question basically my premise is what is being done at the level of your institution in terms of changing that perception because in my personal view carry bomb is a great thing and it can achieve great things but for now people do not feel that it is doing what it is supposed to do for the ordinary citizen so my question to you is basically how are you guys going to go about changing that perception of what people think about carry bomb you know I attempted to raise that in my presentation communication is a big problem it is one of those things where we show up for work everyday we do all work everyday the reality is that it is not and therefore one of the things that the secretary general has put in place a great first communication we are actually in the process as you speak of hiring a communications manager program manager to help the communication department we have started producing some programs to educate persons on carry bomb one of the problems is distribution so we are actually looking into the possibility of sharing with the various GIS around the region because these are all government and therefore programs are not produced by carry bomb we will be able to be shared with the respected public information GIS is around the region and that becomes part of your local content as GIS so you don't have to be going around searching for local content carry bomb can help provide some of that information another aspect of the work that we do as well is that whenever officials of carry bomb travel to the extent that time permits we try to have public gatherings like this so I was really happy with them when the constituency council agreed to do this from the direction the secretary general when she travels she visits schools she works very closely with the carry bomb youth ambassador in the respective member states two carry bomb youth ambassadors appointed by the government so those efforts are mainly are they enough? probably not but we also have to recognize that some of the issues that carry bomb deals with whilst they impact the lives of the ordinary person they don't necessarily occupy the of the ordinary personnel on a daily basis so whilst we are visiting with roaming charges for example it is only when it happens and we go to the communities and we say if you travel especially we have students who are moving from St. Lucia going to the respective territories for higher education we have people who travel from work I had a friend and Mrs. Charmaine knows that friend very well who traveled from St. Lucia to Diana and I made a big shock was a serious issue we were talking about tens of thousands of dollars and the company never said to the individual or customer what is really going on here your bill is getting out of work and the bill was just submitted you don't do that that's not acceptable and like I said those very companies when they go to Europe they allow the Europeans to travel across Europe and they don't charge them room in peace so why are those things happening in the region and we are committed to changing that we have to be able to communicate those things to the people in a language that they understand you know we have to put down all of the technical jargon around what Caricum does and speak to people so that they understand what we're doing so George I'll answer to your question is that attempts are being made and also welcome ideas from the public as to how best we like us to engage you so that it's more and more of that kind of activity I think this an engagement I see a hand up here and a hand up across it good I know I won't need to add more compliments at my point in terms of I have just a suggestion to the education part because for example in many schools languages are mandatory at the end of your school life and provide lessons on readiness for work etc these are opportunities that will also be taken where it is a mandatory thing for students to learn I mean Spanish is mandatory but you don't know about your own specific environment so that may be something that we explore to make sure all students or young people know about Caricum and this kind of opportunity that they have to go beyond just the country of origin in terms of what is happening nowadays that everybody is online so you have to do a new company social media is free so you don't have social media can't be many people don't have access you just talk about the cost of mobile and central communication many people don't have access to we are still like everybody has a phone I'm on my phone here but I'm not online I'm using it for my notes who said I have money for land we consider our traditional media the talk shows those kind of things and these opportunities like for example we have this big drama on our passports why not use this opportunity to remind people that when you travel from a very different country you're going to constantly have your passport stamped because you know in this situation etc you can move just have your passport stamped for a period of time so it's a thing that we can consider to do that education aspect of it and the question that I really want to answer is when it comes to free movement we have the CIP citizens by investment we have the format well how are all these things taken into consideration to level them in between people from smaller countries who have limited resources I include education I include empowerment not just actual resources but finances your opportunities for education and your sense of how you exist in the world and your ability to go in the world people from bigger countries have a different sense when they walk, want to treat that they walk or generally can walk they might have a different way of seeing themselves in the world and somebody comes in and says who do you learn from a small island so that may not apply to all citizens but how do we manage all that movement and see it's free movement but we have kind of an advantage of that how many people are free movement let me play the play of free movement research has been conducted that does not necessarily show that caravan people are moving in roads to another caravan migration in the caravan is largely migration immigration and it's countries outside of the region yes we do have we do have persons coming from some countries to others but that is not necessarily going to be created a major problem one of the issues that we have and it really is an interesting debate because we continue to hear about the high rates of unemployment but there is a serious shortage of people in a lot of the member states of caravan I have not been able to spend enough time studying it myself as to why that is so why on the one hand have higher unemployment and in the same country talking about the shortage of skills and therefore the movement of skills of one country to the next is going to be one of the things that will influence that decision CIP I am not aware that at this stage there has been any major consideration for how citizenship by investment is going to impact on the free movement discussion I think this is something for the heads that the heads have not yet articulated fully on but I am certain that they will come and on the question of common world that is also a different debate because even in the common world to travel to many common world countries we need reasons so there is no automatic way there is no automatic entry as we have in caricum at least we started by ensuring that every caricum citizen has an automatic six month state there is no such thing across the common world there are no standards no necessary access a lot of it is bilateral and if there is a bilateral agreement between Central Motion and Namibia at Namibia and Central Motion they will vote on reciprocity terms remove their visas so it is not coordinated in any way and there is no common market position on that so I do hope that the movement of people and mind you it is not movement of skills because many people already have their skills certificate so if you one of those courses that fall under the many categories that were developed you can get your skill certificate and move to another country we are now talking about three movement of people there will be no category of skills that will be determined there may be there may be a list of persons who at some point might come as a list of persons who may not be allowed to travel for various reasons the movement of people come March is expected to be open to every citizen of the region I see Ambassador and I see Mr. Goddard nice to see you Chancellor friends it is a subject that troubled me a lot that lack of knowledge of what Kharikon is about and in many of my writings I have been informed I have tried to address the matter the main problem doctor why people are not adequately informed about Kharikon is that we are not bothered to institute what we can call Kharikon and Kharikon regional studies from the primary school level people have a habit of thinking that is when you go to secondary school you begin to think and analyze there is no big analysis in matters of understanding Kharikon and its origins and I want to propose that from primary school our children, our young children should be introduced to what Kharikon is I wanted a Kharikon secretariat for 11 years in fact I almost had the pleasure of welcoming my comrade when he was about to come he arrived soon after I left so maybe I left a space for you there comrade we have to take ourselves a little more seriously and think of introducing something I can double Kharikon and Kharikon integration studies from the primary school level let's begin to put our primary school kids to think to think about matters of integration even before they entered secondary school and I wanted to show that challenge out tonight I wanted to give a little bit of expertise to Hemi but he's gone I'll tell him I'll tell him tomorrow morning because he's a man of much influence but he's big over home sit here and he's bigger than before from one in this country and they've molested him and our time on his ambassador we have to take this matter seriously and institute from the primary school level Kharikon studies in the curriculum thank you and I think that is a matter that simply can't come on at the level of council for human and social development I did not go into the structures of Kharikon and the council and so on I didn't want to bore you with all of that but there are councils where ministers meet to discuss certain issues and make certain decisions and if that matter is brought up at the level of the council that it will be taken seriously Mr. Wale? Good evening we have we have heard a lot of talk over the years of the single market and economy and while a lot of stress has been placed perhaps on trade and the market I do not think that we have placed sufficient emphasis on the larger issue of the economy actually developing our economy within the region as a single market and the economy now it has been noted here that from time immemorial there has been the movement of capital in the region there has been time immemorial perhaps preceding Kharikon and we can only talk of some of the big names that we may see etc etc however the movement of capital it appears to me has to be coupled with the movement of labour and skills now this has been touched on here but I get the feeling that there has not been enough attention given because while we talk about free movement you can go into another country spend six months Trinidad six months Barbada six months St. Vincent six months but the serious issue of the movement of labour the movement of labour the movement of skills we have not given that serious enough attention because from what I can gather from my standpoint as a trade unionist that one was practised in the industrial relations there still seems to me in various territories that protective and perhaps the biggest idea that I am protecting my little labour market within my little 238 square miles I don't know Dr Alexis if you want to shed a few thoughts on that I've been in so many conversations where I see the people on politics is vocal and the politics of students and the politics of labour so it is perhaps really it builds our political leaders to remain broad minded on those issues because sometimes the local political pressures you know can bring problems I am I imagine the movement of labour in the I think it's something that has to be done the Congress of the World is a partner who attends the current government meeting as part of civil society and there have been a lot of conversations with them until the point of better manage which is why when the skills certificates were being conceptualised there were a number of categories of skills where individuals could gain the character skills certificate in civil areas so that has been in practice I think it suffers from what was mentioned earlier there continues to be a lack of information around those things and who applies for a character of skills certificate there are some categories that are underserved you know and part of it is because they probably simply don't know and therefore we have a responsibility member states and the sanitary area we have a responsibility to inform the ordinary citizens of what exists as I said in the address it's pointless saying that we have rights and we have the responsibility to inform the ordinary citizens it's pointless saying that we have rights if we don't even know that we do have rights so there must be that education that public education must form part when that happens I think we will do another part the other part of what is happening that you might be interested in is the heads as part of establishing the quasi cabinet have now established a new role on industrialization and the president of Suriname has been given the quasi cabinet responsibility for industrialization so we are now in the process of putting together an industrialization policy for the country another interesting thing that is happening because we have to know how it's going to impact the labour how it's going to impact our labour force our populations discussing and on the establishment of a carry-on population commission to be able to study the population study the dynamics of the population population growth the movement of the population the UN Aircraft reports that suggest that by 2037 our population will begin to decrease in the country do you believe that our population will begin to increase we are already plateauing in some countries so that information is necessary for us to be able to to plan effectively going forward I see the mayor of Cass Street I see councillor there and I also see I mean okay I would have to thank you thank you just to remind you of a song which is even closer to us as Shanty when he said I know we swim together all the time I think that one it recognizes carry-on in a very powerful way and something that we must not forget I speak though of fact that for us carry-on too to be seen as important the only shock equity in the whole carry-on framework has been given some level of focus and importantly I remember a particular Caribbean leader indicating that that particular country was not the ATM or the countries yet we forget that the shell yes a prime minister there's another prime minister you have to say sir alright so I remember that very very clearly but what I'm actually saying is that when we look at the the supermarket shelves of our small small islands it is actually flooded with the goods of other countries while the goods of the very small islands do not start a chance on the shelves of those other countries and I believe that we have to pre-keep that some level of focus because without doing that we are not going to be moving together and I believe that it is that level of inequity in the relationship with Liat which also contributed to the downfall of Liat so we need to look at it and we need to ensure that in our entire dialogue that level of equity need to be in that relationship otherwise it is going to start with the local kind of problems the treaty has provisions but unless we give those provisions legs because there are provisions in the treaty for protection of the smaller countries less developed economies but we have to give those legs we have to work to ensure that those provisions in the treaty those rights are guaranteed in the treaty are made practical unless we do that again which is why I spoke towards it about moving from rhetoric to reality because the rhetoric can be what is enshrined in the treaty but if we don't pay attention and if we only allow the goods coming from the middle what the treaty recognizes as more developed countries the treaty does talk about more developed countries and less developed countries I won't comment on that but unless we do that we simply going to allow ourselves to be in economics there is a big call of the price stickers we just seem to be good stickers because the goods come on to our shelves that we have no way of placing our goods on the shelves so it's an important point I think one that we should pay attention to I know the government generally marries us so forgive me I have to ask Dr Muzie to speak to anybody else I just wanted to make a point of why are we talking about education and information I think the failure is perhaps lies on our own door we know for example an ambassador who carried on but the ambassador I have to admit I'm not quite sure what the ambassador who carried on in other words we have heads taking decisions and heads conferences but at the national level we must come back what is in today's for that information this recommendation to be disseminated to the general public I mean it's true you have to learn from it you introduce curriculum, integration so in schools we learn the structures then the council base but the decisions are actually taken for example when how many solutions actually know what those decisions were and what is the structure within the government to ensure there should be a department of government who would disseminate the information who would do the public education so unless we have something you know that structure at the national level in every member state the implementation rate of curriculum which has always been described as woeful will remain so so it's one thing to have an ambassador to curriculum but you know what do we get what is the information what is the public education you know the skills you talked about every now and then you know your CVQs and all that you'll be able to travel but what exactly who pushes it I know that the ambassador to curriculum she probably has two members of staff but I mean you know how do they interface with the general public in other words what is the education at the national level because I'm sure you probably see in all universities so I think maybe that is a requirement that that governments in each member state set up an department whichever ministry I mean it could be the first one right now the ambassador to curriculum is the official prime minister but it could be public education public ministry of education all you need but you need some some structure from the unit that would then communicate character of secretary people of central or central that's all I just wanted to make that point very very with me you know it has to be it has the entire chain has to ensure that the links are strong enough because the secretariat cannot do it alone member states have responsibility the structures that we put in place we have curriculum ambassadors we have curriculum youth ambassadors whose role is to connect curriculum to the young population of the region and I don't know how well that I think the more you might have been a curriculum youth ambassador at some point or your husband was a curriculum youth ambassador so we have curriculum youth ambassadors I was told by the moderator that we can only take two more questions and I saw Mr.Satne and Mr.Mussien oh and Jim we'll take three just very quickly two diverse points and one of them is the failed industry and we see within curriculum the failed industries virtually dead and in the 17th Jamaica had a very vibrant failed industry but look it's a Lucia Trinidad and Jamaica itself is an opportunity to be immediately at one point she would promise now what really brought up to the fore was with the strike of the writers in Hollywood when I heard the numbers it was to me so alarming 160,000 writers now we know our industry will not be able to compete with the US but I'm saying I think it would fall on the responsibility of curriculum because of its position to really give the failed industry in the Caribbean the heads up we've seen Nigeria we see where India is there's a lot of money to be made there but there's a lot of exposure of young people harnessing their talents and as far as it exists right now it's a dense zone of films in the Caribbean and I think something could be done but it would take a sort of organization like curriculum to show and to take the lead on them but very briefly a little small point the aim of and it's the super current of the Atlantic last week the scientists confirmed that their initial prediction that the aim of would possibly collapse by 2095 is wrong and there's a possibility that it may collapse as early as 2025 that's two years from now and that would have disastrous consequences for the whole world but particularly for the region and I'm surprised that I had nothing from anyone on the region on the aim of and the sort of impact it's going to have on our lives and all of the things we talk about will be there in the future thank you thank you so much let me just say that as much as you know it seems you've been taking notes this entire session it's been recorded I really like the point about the film industry there is something that we will certainly take back to the office along with all the other recommendations that we made so that's a very, very important point and there are opportunities in the solution not recently we're in a major award and was awarded an honorary doctorate because of the film industry so we have talent in the region we have talent right there in the solution so we have to make better use of it so that's what I think the standard issue of climate change again I have not a specific comment there is a huge huge debate through the five C's the coming up center for climate change which is based in Belize that's where most of our much of our world of climate change is being coordinated and there is also the Prime Ministerial Task Force various task forces that deal with issues of climate change just to inform you in public education St. Lucia holds the Caricom quasi-carbonate responsibility for sustainable development and climate change St. Lucia holds the Caricom quasi-carbonate responsibility for sustainable development and climate change remember I just mentioned the industrial policy I told you it was the president of Suriname climate change and sustainable development is our own practice just in peace now we did say two more but I saw Mr. Sartney, Mr. Montu and Jim Jim first then Mr. Sartney after thank you very good presentation useful about industrialization I think two questions and you mentioned it in your presentation I don't know if many people realize but we are in the fourth stage of what is called the industrial revolution a very disruptive stage just like the previous iterations the first one when we moved to steam engines from manual labour then we moved to the use of telephones and electricity and then in the 80's we had a commercial computer and the internet now artificial intelligence and robotics but you have the blurring of the lines between what is basically human machines a fusion of that and there's rapid advancement in that there have been major disruptions they've put it we spoke about education but the education sector as we know it has been impacted forever in terms of the way we disseminate information in the way we understand the process information that artificial intelligence is changing things to the extent what Stanley spoke about the writer strike and today I was doing a workshop on artificial intelligence yesterday and today where I was doing training for some business managers including legal professionals and the use of artificial intelligence is changing everything or has changed everything as we know it and there have been major disruptions in terms of employment in terms of the way business is conducted Europe has enacted a drug artificial intelligence policy and they are moving ahead in terms of big data and all that and putting systems in place because they understand what is coming I'm not hearing from regional perspective from a local perspective I'm not hearing anything from our elected officials from a national perspective in terms of our readiness and preparation for not what's coming but what is there and we have serious impact on the lives and livelihoods of our people both positively and negatively it seems that we are comatose we are unaware of the potential of this technology and how disruptive it is and somehow we are just waiting and hoping that it's going to go away I think it's imperative that organizations like yourself seriously start to consider the impact of artificial intelligence and robotics because it will affect our people and just like Stanley Lucian was saying we are in a unique position where we can be pioneers and take the initiative and we can start developing ourselves to be able to take advantage of the opportunities and to put systems in place to mitigate the risks that we are not going to face but are facing and it's not something that is five years away it is two years it is one year away in the next two years you will have to ask yourself what is the relevance of a PhD you will have to ask yourself what is the relevance of a college because in advent of things like chat, GPT and today for the past few weeks I have been doing lectures and workshops and every single session that I have President's mouth have just dropped when I have shown them what the technology can do and the question they ask themselves is what is my relevance something that will take you three weeks to do it does it for you in two seconds and through the sessions I've been speaking to them and explained to them how they need to upscale themselves and retool themselves and to look at it differently in terms of their responsibility in terms of their roles and by the end of the session everybody is like oh yeah I am really excited about this because now I can really focus on what is really important but it is very important that we start having that discussion before it is too late and time is of the essence what is Gary Bowman doing let me start by telling you that I wrote my lecture it was not AI my lecture was not AI let me just start there but all I can say GPT the conversation has started I know that there has been there has been at least one meeting with our ICT on the issue of the impact of artificial intelligence I don't have the latest information on how far that has gone but it definitely has started and certainly will be rolling out in a bigger way as we go forward I have raised it myself but at the second environment level that we need to be aware of the impact of AI on our existence in the country so it is happening this is Saturday if you want then you can take over Good evening Gave commendations for my lecture I think Jim and Dave started the process which I wanted and to sit next to him Ambassador and that is somehow I mean many months ago I had some associations when I was in the proper service and today if I was to go back into the service and still deal with the current problem I wouldn't see a big difference and that's my own observation here the reason why I'm saying so is because I have not seen a significant and appreciation of the global pressures that are taking place around us and the dynamics of the geopolitics that is taking place and other spectrums and it's not for you to kind of respond it's just ready points that I think are the people who need to be aware of for example all the high level of protectionism protectionist policies that are taking place among OECD and more advanced and undeveloped countries particularly I'll just use one example the immigration policies if you realize they are rapidly trying to have a significant victory of our skills and our human resources whose living other skills young people in Canada has work and study programs the UK look at what is happening so we need to begin to appreciate the impact of these things not just for now but for the next 10-15 years and what is going to have on the development of the Caribbean and what implications it has for the very CSME that we speak of that is just one the other issue I wanted to note and I will not but areas such as health security regional and national security the issue you may based on the issue of the climate change but again not just climate change for climate change but its implications on food security food and nutrition security these are the issues that we need we need to begin to really challenge ourselves about how these things it is one thing dealing with the theoretical issues and what it is all about but how does it impact the grassroots the person in countries the person in Swazel the person in Soufre how these things are going to impact on those people has to reach and that is where I think can we come on its own as a group and national governments on their own also need to begin to we need to ask ourselves those those kind of questions and my second take point is going forward I think we need to begin to figure out how do we democratize the sky reform right to get people I think we started by saying we need to teach kids at primary school level about what is sky reform and who will issue a question history and the development of our people but I think the EU has done something similar in the last 5-10 years what they have done is they have a special program in which they they try to get to all local communities whether it be scientific whether it be schools whether it be NGOs and to encourage them to submit special programs and the needs that they have to solve problems and I think we need to have some section or some unit or organ so that we can begin to do that for example use the organs like carding food security issues and so on we need to promote backyard gardening and all those kinds of things so that is the sort of level I am talking about so we need to democratize so that it gets to the level at the ground to the people who are going to be affected by it thank you thank you Mr. Sandi as I call Mr. Monitou let me just say very quickly on the issue of democratizing there is a curriculum chart of civil society the Secretary General has just appointed someone in her office to give life to that treaty so again you are going to be hearing a little more on that to bring non-state actors into some kind of role within curriculum so that is going to happen I am sure many of you have learned 25x25 I am sure many of you have learned that the Caribbean community is aiming to reduce its food import bill by 25% by the year 2025 it is called the 25x25 initiative and it has to go with food security it has to go with finding ways to reduce the cost of imports into food and ensuring that our income survives in this region thank you Mr. Demi I am a Secretary General of the Caribbean I want to share your experience when you put step in the office and definitely chairman share your experience with the crowd I am trying to get rid of emotional living I can share my experience having entered the Caribbean and I think in the introduction the young Mr. Alex probably would have played really well because for me it was about what are the odds when I was in Europe I had no idea what I was going to do with my life that I would have ended up in that position and when I joined the Secretary General I met so many solutions including Mr. Munti's son who works with Carcom with the CSF the CSF office I also reflected on the fact that when we give our citizens opportunities to shine and perform you know that is the only way in which you can tell what metal we are made of you know anybody could have missed me as you know doesn't spend a lot of money we already know what he is doing you know there is that we are in trouble there and so on but that's what helps ship me and that's what helps ship a lot of the young people and made a master who worked with the Carcom Secretary for 11 years 11 years and you see people come and go all the time what is important is that we all have a contribution to make this year believe that the best way to develop the human capital of this region is to give people an opportunity we tend to be I remember making the point at the Carcom Secretary that perhaps we were more youth friendly in the Carcom Secretary 20-30 years ago the very Secretary General today was appointed Secretary General at age 36 or 37 and I ask myself if at 35 36-year-old shows up today you know wouldn't we take that chance on a 30-year-old today that our society took on a 30-year-old 30 years ago and as somebody who grew out of the youth movement who grew today and in seclusion my passion is to see that we give our young people more opportunities and those who have done well professionally those who continue to show their talents in the creative arts etc there is no better gift that we can give to the citizens of the Thara but a chance to reach the higher heights that the students set and the education can allow them to reach that's as much as I want to say thank you everybody for your contributions and now call on Councilor Linda Charles Ambrose to do the photo plans I would like to recognize the protocol which has already been established but I would like to recognize a few people we are here tonight Speaker of the House of Assembly Honorable Claudia Strasse Senate of Lisa I'm here from a Governor General David Poletuisi Ambassador for the Republic of China on tiny one His Excellency Peter Chan and Mrs. Chan and other members of your mission other members of the diplomatic corps including Ambassador Peter Lansyko Mayor of Grosvenay Constituency His Worship Admiral Lucian Mayor of Castries Worship Chairperson of the Barberal Constituency Council Mrs. Lucy Kasper Other distinguished guests Ladies and Gentlemen Ladies and Gentlemen My task this evening is to thank our very distinguished lecturer from the Grosvenay Soil in case you all didn't know and I'll say the A.A. and explain that later so the Deputy Senator General of Carycon who is now based in Diana Dr. Armstrong Dr. Armstrong Alexis His initials are A.A. and you know what A stands for and excellence So this gentleman over there the son of Grosvenay Soil he was born to be great some have greatness thrust upon them and this greatness has been thrust upon him by the Carycon Secretariat now this is some are born great was he born great I think so his initials are A.A. so every time you say A.A. if you miss a call and you say A.A. think of our Deputy is right over there okay some achieve greatness and I know he won't be very proud to be when he is today did you know he was an educator as well I'm not talking about an educator who says tell him so but he was an educator and he taught my son imagine that you remember that you remember okay he did now on the theme of Emancipation Bob Marley talked about ourselves from mental slavery none but ourselves can free our minds has that happened sadly no not 100% but thankfully we have somebody right here in our midst based at the Carycon Secretariat who will help us in the Carycon Region to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery so your task your task is huge Dr.A.A is huge remember that okay so I would like to thank some other people who made this lecture this evening possible and the first one I would like to thank is your son Master Alexis who did a great introduction of his father I am sure you are thinking this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased right you need to tell him that so I would also like to thank members of the grossly constituency council who made this possible GIS you came here to cover this event thank you very much the music gentleman over there and I would like to thank all of you here who took the time off from the street party down the road where you can get the spirit of Saint Lucia and those of you who ask very relevant questions thank you very much you made the evening even more enjoyable so without further ado I would like to say good evening everyone please remember to enjoy yourself at the street party it's just down the road thank you just to see you have noticed that so everybody is still alert but yes I would like to acknowledge the presence of our cabinet secretary with us also by a slight extension I would like to thank each of you for joining and for engaging this more or less sums up all of our plans for you this evening we encourage you to join us in some life refreshments to the back we hope that this evening allowed for some good thought some good perspective and it is the start of some very important conversation so please get home safely you can even visit Friday night and just before I end we have a surprise for Dr. Alexis so Dr. Alexis if you join me to the front your eyes close somehow without any difficulty walking into the table we have something to give you good evening everyone it is with great humbling honour that we have this token on behalf of the parliamentary representative and the constituency council this token of appreciation to you Dr. Armstrong Alexis for this very educational informative lecture on carry-on I know not one person here would be leaving without some form of information that he didn't know thank you thank you very much it is a token of our appreciation of our profound gratitude Dr. Armstrong Alexis presenter of the fifth year parliamentary carry-on lecture the constituency council with today's date thank you very much