 In short, this is what I have to say Forget sprites and grudges and concentrates Come let us sit and try to relate Discipline, Tolerance, and nation I say to work in hard Cause you know us well at the nation I say to work together and do something In short, this is what I have to say Let's forget sprites and grudges and concentrates Come let us sit and try to relate To success is work in hard Cause you know us well as I do the old Ever we must show the nation And do something Instead of staying out there and breathing The three event, my name is Jesse Leons and I will be your mistress of ceremony tonight Before all else, let us all assume the posture for the rendition of the National Anthem Thank you very much, Mr. Isman-Lovins, educator and saxophonist You may all remain standing for prayers being delivered now by Mrs. Claudia Henry Good evening, let us pray Holy Spirit, I welcome you here this evening What an honor and privilege it is to be in your presence Because of that sweet presence We feel peace and we feel an inner joy And because of the presence of your accompanying angels Angels that are assigned to protect your children We feel safe and secured Thank you so much for being here Tonight I want to thank you for your beautiful sons and daughters of this great country I thank you for the friends of those beautiful sons and daughters of this great country And tonight, as we sit at the feet of one of those great sons We thank you for the wisdom that you have bestowed upon him And we pray that we will all be inspired Not just to hear, but to do And to do for the betterment of our country As we move forward together, dover assam We thank you that you will continue to inspire each son and daughter here tonight That we will continue to build our nation As we build our trust in you Believing that you are the giver of all good things Thank you Holy Spirit, thank you Jesus, thank you God for being here tonight In Jesus' name I pray Amen Thank you Mrs. Henry, you may all be seated Good evening to you all once again, good evening Good evening, wonderful, I'd like to say a happy independence 43 to all St. Lucians on Ireland and in the diaspora I would like to Acknowledge now our distinguished guests who are present here now We have the Speaker of the House, Honourable Claudius Francis Her Excellency Dame Perlette-Louisi, Governor-General Emerita Ministers of Cabinet Present and their wives, Honourable Joachim Henry And Mrs. Claudius Henry Honourable Dr. Virginia Poyotte We have Senator Lisech Jawa here We have the Excellencies of the Diplomatic Core Present Good evening to you And His Excellency Dr. Didicus Jules From the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States We have his wife as well present, Mrs. Michelle Stevens Jules We have the Cabinet Secretary, Benjamin Emmanuel Darrell Montroup, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of the Public Service Graham Simon, Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs Other government officials, media and ladies and gentlemen, everyone here, good night It has certainly been an anniversary to remember, 43, with an overwhelming demonstration of patriotism in every corner of St. Lucia and every corner of the world And special mention to the delegation over in Dubai, making indelible, I dare say, a chilling impact, even representing our homeland And it brings, again, all the tingles you'd feel from a song from Cessan, from the written word of Sir Derek, and even beholding the Twin Peaks It is a time of year that we get to recall all that we have triumphed in St. Lucia I'm more proud with each and every passing year I'm more proud with each and every passing year Our steadfastness and our resilience in the face of the pandemic is another jewel in our crown of accomplishments What a joyous occasion it is Now after all that climax and that pump of this national milestone in the last few days leading up to the 22nd, you'd think it couldn't get any better But we are here tonight And the Office of the Prime Minister hosts as part of the 2022 Independence Anniversary Calendar of Events The Independence Lecture Delivered by Son of the Soil His Excellency Dr. Diddikus Jules, Director-General of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States He assumed this post in May of 2014 In this capacity, he is responsible for driving the regional integration thrust towards a single economic and social space involving 11 Eastern Caribbean states He serves as a board director for Latin America and the Caribbean on the global partnership for education as well as a current member on the UNESCO board Dr. Jules has had extensive regional and international experience most of it focused on education, social policy, and organizational transformation He served as Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of the Caribbean Examinations Council from 2008 to 2014, leading a thorough modernization of the Council And he has also served as Vice President of the Human Resources of Human Resources at Cable and Wireless St. Lucia between 2005 and 2008 Permanent Secretary for Education and Human Resource Development in St. Lucia from 97 to 2008, as well as Permanent Secretary for Education and Chief Education Officer in the Revolutionary Grenada from 1981 to 1983 He has provided consultancy services to national governments, regional and international organizations in the Caribbean, Africa, Europe, and North America He chaired the World Bank's Vision 2020 Committee on Education in the Caribbean and has served on many private sector educational and philanthropic boards that include the Caribbean Center for Educational Planning of the University of the West Indies, Mona School of Education The CARICOM Task Force for the New Caribbean School in the position of Chair Knowledge, Innovation and Exchange that is the Kicks Program Chancellor's Commission on Governance Reform for the University of the West Indies Campus Council of the University of the West Indies, Five Isles Campus, Antigua and Barbuda Caribbean Climate Accelerator, CARICOM Education Commission, Co-Chair Caribbean Science Foundation, Fortune Global Panel Advisor He holds a bachelor's from the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus and a master's degree in Curriculum and Instruction and a PhD in Educational Policy and Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison as well as an MBA from the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill He has offered numerous articles on educational policy, educational reform and adult education in the Caribbean and in small island states as well as other publications on public sector reform, organizational transformation and cultural studies To deliver the independence lecture on occasion of St. Lucia's 43rd anniversary I call on His Excellency, Dr. Didikus Jules, to present on the theme Building a Nation and Shaping a Society Dr. Jules Hi, and podiums are not good for my mouse Governor, Speaker of the House of Assembly, your Honourable Claudius Francis Governor General Emeritus, Her Excellency didn't put that to Luizy Ministers of Cabinet, the Honourable Joachim Henry and Mrs. Claudia Henry The Honourable Virginia Poyote, Dr. Virginia Poyote, Senator Lisa Jawa here Excellencies of the Diplomatic Quo, Cabinet Secretary, Mr. Benny Manuel Puminent Secretary, Mr. Darren Montrop Acting PS4 and External Affairs, Mr. Guillaume Simon Other government officials and civil society representatives, members of the media Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, present and online And last but absolutely not least, my dear wife Michelle One of the most poignant admonitions of the great African leader, Amelka Cabral At the height of the liberation struggle in Africa was to warn, and I quote That our most fundamental struggle is the battle against our own weaknesses and contradictions It is an easy temptation on an occasion like this To speak platitudes about national progress And to chronicle the difficulties overcome on the long painful journey that is our history In St. Lucia we have cultivated a mythology around the notion of nation and society That provides us with a comfortable cloak that conceals our underlying nakedness In all of our narratives about both nation and society There is an implied unity of purpose and public consensus That is not reflected in the reality of the discourse in the public street In our social intercourse and is certainly negated by the volume and nature of crime in our society Tonight I would like to make an uncomfortable exploration into the structural cracks in the edifice of the nation and the widening fissures in the fabric of our society But we can keep it simple I could say my my laddie quick History is a long journey, a long road in the journey of becoming For us the journey started just before we became a nation With what Walker describes us and I quote the long groan that was slavery The vehicle then was not a bus, it was a carriage And the passengers on that journey were not us but the white colonizers That journey was not a process of becoming but a process of removing That carriage was not a horse drawn We were the horses that propelled this vehicle towards a destination of wealth extraction An imperial ambition Increasingly evidence is revealing how profitable that journey was A recent book by Professor Howard French born in Blackness Africa Africans and the making of the modern world revealed that the Caribbean was and I quote the boiler room of the North Atlantic economy in the late 18th century white jamaicans enjoyed an annual income 35 times that of British North Americans more slaves were trafficked to Martinique than to the entire United States While the French so prized tiny guard loop that they swapped it for the whole of French Canada At several points of this journey The exhaustion of our exploitation led to breakdowns Until finally the spirit of resistance triumph And the horses were no longer prepared to carry the burden and the baggage of the colonial drivers We arrived then at the point where to transpose the words of Robert Frost Two roads diverged in a wood and we we took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference That was the stage of our journey when we became the drivers of our own destiny Swapping the blood and sweat propelled courage for a bus of our own driven by our own towards the destination of our own becoming and here we are today 43 years on this journey of becoming in the life of a person this is an attainment of adulthood in the chronology of history we are still in the infant and formative years of our nationhood and in the shaping of our Caribbean civilization and now let us take stock of where we are in this 43 year journey and how are we really doing in building a nation and shaping a society and as I do so I will just suppose our experience with those who have carried similar baggage and overcome comparable burdens successfully For starters let's explore the notions of nation and society Historically nations have been forged by blood and struggle but united by a better vision of themselves they have been propelled by a notion of greatness above the circumstances and the accidents of history from which they are birthed if you think about it the progress of every nation has been constructed on itself definition of its own greatness there is the american ideal and you can see it in the slide here there is the chinese dream there is singapore's global city ethos nearer to home there is the cuban construct of non-negotiable sovereignty la patria and the sacred obligation of internationalist duty there is the cultural assertion of brand Jamaica and there is the idea of Barbados which we see evolving on steroids under the leadership of prime minister Mia Motley as prime minister Rav Gonzalez describes it and I quote more than any other Caribbean society with the possible exception of Cuba Barbados has arrived at a place where its uniqueness presents a model of governance political economy way of life and social order and the idea of Barbados he says and I quote is a transcendental idea which infuses the body politic and society to consolidated progressive achievements nationally end of quote the nation therefore requires an ideological glue that motivates the people to look in the mirror to see their better selves and to look upwards to see better tomorrows societies on the other hand are more organic associations of community bound by cultural compromises of a common condition a society is a dynamic and fluid community with its own inherent tensions and contradictions but it is a construct that induces us despite our differences to evolve shared practices a language that bridges our mental frameworks fusions of culture woven from many historical strands it is the extent to which these contradictions find common ground that social harmony can be established moving beyond the definitions let us now turn our gaze inward to our nation and to our society what is the nation of Saint Lucia and what is Saint Lucia society is a nation its infrastructure its roads bridges buildings or is it the stature or is the stature of a nation the height of its skyscrapers or is it the accumulated catalog of its collective accomplishments nothing addresses this question better than Derek Wolcott in his poem the sea's history and I quote where your monuments your battles martyrs where is your tribal memory sewers in that grave vault the sea the sea has locked them up the sea is history Wolcott's chronicling of our journey from the Babylonian bondage what he calls the Babylonian bondage of the middle passage to the lamentations of slavery described by him as bones ground by windmills into marlin cornmeal to the jubilation of emancipation which he says vanished and I quote again swiftly as the sea list dries in the sun and takes us right up to independence when he says each rock broke into its own island it was the breakup of the West Indies Federation that resulted in each rock breaking into its own island but it did not take us long to realize that standing as singular rocks in a world of hegemonic alliances was not the pathway to prosperity it was our own Sir Arthur Lewis who pointed out in his definitive text the agony of the little eight to the imperative of unity within the eastern Caribbean that eventually became the organization of eastern Caribbean states while Sir Arthur called for a political union of the little eight he was a bit over optimistic and may have overlooked how geography shapes the character of politics the sea surrounding and separating small island states may well be a contributing circumstance to the insularity of our political culture but that's another story altogether the genius of the OECS integration project is that it focuses on the practical matters associated with the benefits of scale and functional cooperation to building our nations what defines a nation is it the catalog of conquests of empires past and the imposition of contemporary control or is it the humanity and civility of its culture the distinctiveness of its forms of social interaction and its unique and singular contribution to the global community Saint Lucia as a nation cannot define itself through the projection of military might as so many aspire to do on the global stage but military muscle is not the only expression of power even though the capacity for coercion and the means to impose ones dictates is a law of the global jungle there are many expressions of power and it is for a nation to identify the and define the comparative strengths that will represent the projection of its own power so Cuba set itself the goal of becoming a global medical power and today the health of its population is on par and even better than many developed countries the Cuban medical brigade is the face of its internationalism its pharmaceutical innovations have cloth cured thousands and as of 2016 coming closer to home it had trained 30,000 physicians from over 100 countries the Singapore model is a world-recognized exemplar of a small state with good governance meritocracy political stability economic transformation technological innovation and harmonious social order and significantly for our purposes tonight Singapore is a country of 281 square miles Saint Lucia is 238 square miles Singapore did not become a success overnight but was able to lift itself from an Asian backwater plagued by major problems including overpopulation unemployment major housing shortages and racial tension to world-class status and you can see in this slide here the exact location in 1960 and in 2022 and just on an infrastructural level see the difference for our purposes tonight the most important lesson from Singapore is that they built a nation by addressing what I will later describe as the four pillars of nation building a guiding ideology a strong sustainable economy the governance of high integrity and institutional dynamism and they literally created a unified society with a national identity from a diverse assortment of ethnicities the Emirate of Dubai for another example has positioned itself globally as a civilization of the future but anchored in its Arab traditions density cosmopolitan almost 90 of the population of Dubai are experts but nationals are privileged the real beginning of a nation of building a nation is to conceive an aspirational idea of the best that we can be and to make that aspiration one that transcends every tribal affiliation within the national space including the diaspora and to systematically pursue that dream it would be well to remind ourselves of Naipaul's advice that after and I quote him after all we make ourselves according to the ideas that we have of our possibilities end of quote and to be guided also by his admonition that the world is what it is men and maybe the gender thing is deliberate men who are nothing who allow themselves to become nothing have no place in it what are the features of our nation that I see what is our national character what is the complexion of our society both Derek and Sir Arthur on many occasions remarked on the soul of the nation where are the expressions of our civilization our museums art galleries our theaters performing and recreational spaces our national archives which is supposed to be the repository of our memories Walcott's dream was a republic of the arts where are the public spaces that refresh our spirits and reconcile concrete with grass and trees oasis have come in the bustle of business so how do we shape that future Martin Luther King spoke to the fierce urgency of now as a challenge of responsibility there are things that must be done and must be done now if we are to alter the circumstances of our condition and there are changes that if done with fierce urgency will change the trajectory of our history there is an inseparable relationship between building a nation and shaping a society both challenges are the responsibility of all but with nuanced obligations to different actors because the construct of the nation is in the domain of governance and its remits spans an ideological territorial and institutional architecture it sits above the society and it establishes the parameters of the potential and the possibilities for shaping the society the responsibility for the nation it is commonly said lies with our leaders as it should but what is often lost is that every citizen must assume some measure of leadership responsibility let us never lose sight of the fact even if for 15 minutes every five years the people are the sovereign power in our nation above and beyond the sovereignty of the nation is a sanctity and the sovereignty of the people and in building the nation this must be woven into the DNA of our institutions public services upholding the rights of citizens and responsive to their needs every one of us must exercise leadership wherever we are planted in the every day and in every way the unraveling of a society starts with small infractions and escalates exponentially and how can i count the ways in san usia they are innumerable breaches of you start with minor breaches of traffic rules and they escalate to lawlessness on the roads the exercise of courtesy to each other in all encounters and note again the increase in incivility on the road and also the ease with which ordinary arguments and differences opinion deteriorate to violence all of this is a worrying indicator of the decline of basic manners the extension of respect to all regardless of their position of socioeconomic status and their appearance as opposed to the arrogant assumption of privilege based on socioeconomic class or occupational position i've heard so many instances where people who feel that they're so entitled to help people don't you know who i am so what we all have the equal rights of citizenship our conventional leaders political religious social civic who are the drivers of both the vehicles of nation and society cannot take us forward by staring in the rearview mirror as the past is the road already driven they must look forward but they are unable to drive safely if they are fixated on what is immediately ahead not at the next five yards or even the next five miles but further ahead conscious of the condition of the road and most importantly fixed to our ultimate destination we all know instinctively where we need to go and what we need to do during the period 20 2001 to 2022 we have had five personalities as our prime ministers and i've done a textual analysis using a word cloud of a random independent speech from each of them the rhetoric is the same the language urges national unity the call to country above self the priority on the people the will to succeed lumen large in the lexicon as the words you see in that map of st lusia st lusia country people national government economic respect if their words align what is preventing the actions from aligning is it the inherent rules of the political game if it is then it takes an exceptional caliber of leadership to reach across that divide and give jack his jacket but let's not dump it all on the politicians the same applies to our leadership in all spheres denominational differences we've heard the churches competing for market share and decrying each other everybody else is a child of satan except in my religion business rivalry is posing as competitiveness to name a few if we don't know where we are going as it said any road will take us there and we certainly don't want to end up in grozily no prejudice to the district rep in grozily if the planned destination was view fought allow me to end by summarizing some of the critical initiatives that i believe ought to be done to earnestly build a nation and shape our society one defining the national ideology the vision of the st lusia that we want a deep and wide process of national consultation and dialogue should be undertaken that requires that we move beyond the rhetorical flourishes to tangible demonstrations of common purpose this process must be co-led responsibly by our leaders political and social especially in the volatile uncertain and complex times that we now face and leaders must listen more than they speak and i have a quote from glad well in times of difficulty what we want from our leaders is not the benefit of their expertise but the benefit of their humility let difference be a distinction and not a division so let our tribal affiliations be they religious or political or social not supersede our national identity the second thing is institutional revitalization the invigoration of our national institutions with a responsive dynamism starting with the democratization of parliament and our governance mechanisms the restoration of service in the public service and consumer rights in the private sector the malfunction of institutions is the major factor accounting for why nations feel i would urge everyone to read that book why nations feel reshaping our systems of systems of governance through constitutional reform that establishes clear processes for upholding integrity and for grassroots consultation making parliament a more effective instrument of governance and ensuring continuity of national development of initiatives can approval for example of national development plans be done by parliament so that we are not subject to a one step forward two steps backwards walls between administrations from conversation with our erudite speaker who i'm honored to call a friend of the house i was advised that parliament does have such a window of opportunity that can be turned into a door that opens wider avenues of people consultation and participation in the business of governance and with his permission i would quote verbatim his advice so i can't be taken out of context standing order 48 to mr speaker you said makes provision for a period of time to elapse between the first and second readings of a bill regarding the first reading of a bill all this entails is for the name of the bill to be read out in the house debate takes place upon the second reading the period between the first and second readings can be utilized for public discourse on the said bill a golden opportunity therefore to bring parliament to the community imagine significant legislation that has far-reaching implications for specific sectors whether we're talking in tourism and business consumer matters whatever being brought by specialized house committees to town hall meetings all over the country and special seminars with the sectors the sectoral groups concerned for deep discussion and consultation the third thing is design policies or create or strengthen mechanisms of economic inclusion we do live in a capitalist society but rising inequality globally is fueling xenophobia anger crime you speak to youth who are engaged in criminal activity and you will come to appreciate that despair and hopelessness is what fuels the sense of live hard die fast some examples of economic inclusion could be for example strengthening and empowering the credit unions so that they can broaden financial inclusion provide avenues for participation of even the poorest in investment through mutual funds innovate on susu type revolving saving plans and so much more we could require foreign investors to reserve a percentage whether it's 30 40 percent of all investment value for local participation by citizens at home and abroad through local financial intermediary institutions like the credit unions i mentioned earlier so that a cleaner in this office here can have shares if we buy if we invest in a new in a regional transport system a cleaner here can buy shares through the mutual fund in the credit union and also using the eastern caribbean securities exchange the fourth thing is rethink education education can no longer be just a certification thing not just knowledge but human and technical competencies markham gladwell again reminds us and i quote the key to good decision making is not knowledge it is understanding we are swimming in the former that is knowledge and we are desperately lacking in the latter that is understanding our education system therefore must produce critical and creative thinkers caring and committed citizens empowered entrepreneurial actors equipped 21st century competencies rethinking education is the key to the fifth imperative strengthening civil society and empowerment of citizens now this is particularly challenging in this period of fake news and manufactured consent in social media but there are two dimensions to this necessity one is the need for civic education from cradle to grave as an essential tool of empowerment of citizens unless you know and you understand your inalienable rights as a citizen a constitution is only words on a page and civic education is not an academic thing for as confucius said the essence of knowledge in is having it to apply it it would be necessary to create or build on existing avenues of civic engagement and empowerment so the elevation of traditions such as the susu embodied in the credit union for financial inclusion and empowerment the kudme important in building citizen involvement in the improvement of their own communities rather than rely on government to do everything the adoption of the Haitian concept of teta sum which goes further than kudme teta sum really is about the meeting of minds hands and hearts for common purpose mechanisms of consultation discussion and action yesterday i visited circalex judge to offer respects for his award and in discussion he raised the issue of a thesis done by rae sir joseph exploring the potential of kudme as a tool for nation building social inclusion consolidation of identity and reinforcing resilience now neither circalex nor myself have read this thesis but we both felt it's something that should be read and knowing rae sir and from you know discussions with her at frc i have a sense that this is where this is going and it's something that we need to take into account these suggestions on the fundamentals of building the nation set the tone for shaping the society i've already spoken to the imperative of public education citizen empowerment and civic education but shaping a society is fundamentally about managing the many tribes that we all inhabit all societies face the same fundamental challenge of forging an elemental and binding unity out of their diversity i described this earlier in the case of singapore each of us each of us share multiple identities and we belong to different tribes politically we are red or yellow or blue or colorless spiritually we can be Catholic Adventist Pentecostal rastafarian or any other because they are no children of a lesser god and we can belong to a multitude of social and or civic clubs and organizations or not belong at all these are the tribes that we inhabit but there are some tribes that are common to us all it is the tribal of field these are the tribal of it is the tribal affiliations that unite us that we must privilege above those that divide us yet paradoxically we must find accommodation for the differentiation of tribes so that while respecting our differences we can share a common destiny that is the intersection between building a nation and shaping a society the intersection between these tribal affiliations are what determines our primary identity whether as individual or as nation so as you can see in this slide that is being shown for the political loyalists party affiliation as shown with the box with votes is greater than national affiliation which is a flag circle have you noticed the phenomena of seasonal participation some celebrate independence fervently only when their party is in power and are indifferent when it is out the nation is strongest when the fever of national belonging is greater than the pull of partisan affiliation in closing I wish to focus on the seminal issue of leadership and its role in the building of a nation and the shaping of a society and as I return to this conceptual slide showing the key elements and the relationship between these two historical imperatives building the nation and shaping the society is a symbiotic process the one strengthens the other but it all starts with our vision of ourselves hence the umbrella and the aspiration to our fullest potential leadership is essential to this process and as stated earlier we're talking about leadership in all domains the political economic the community the religious but it is to our political leadership of all colors as the apex of power and influence in the nation that we must look for direction on these imperatives while we all must play our part and make our contribution wherever we are planted it is our political leadership that sets the tone and determines the temperature of the national dialogue now historical time is not political time and what is historically necessary is not always what is politically expedient but we must be guided by a sense of urgency that is informed by the strategic necessity as well as operational functionality let me punctuate this to show why the fierce urgency of now that I reference at the beginning of this lecture is so important our electoral cycles are five-year rotations five years in the hunger of opposition may seem a long time but five years in the pressure cooker of power is not really five chronological years let's do the maths a five-year term equals 1,165 days 365 days a year by five when you did the public holidays weekends paid leave using an average of 14 days paid leave you are left with a real working time of 233 days out of the 365 days per year now when you take these 365 days 233 days in the year in working days per year this is 233 days but 24 hour days you did you break that down to eight hour days which is the working time we end up we recalibrate we end up with an equivalent of 388 days to deliver in a five-year term put simply five years in office equals 388 working days to deliver eight hour working days to deliver that is the fierce urgency of now that must drive the approach to building the nation and shaping the society and this is an urgency that must fire us all not just our political leaders i leave you with a ballad of simple wisdom by merchant which will do directed to his trinity in is relevant to us all like the jesus would say lick it we can never go forward if not together thank you for for your attention and god bless our nation thank you his excellency doctor didicus jules director general of the organization of eastern caribbean states was that not very insightful yeah i now want to open the floor for any questions commendations queries to dr. jules so for those of you who are present if you want to make a contribution you can go to one of the mic station that either end of the room to to to make your query but in the meantime i think i'll go first writing feverishly uh doctor jules how does a nation or nation leaders overcome the methodological and practical hurdles towards settling on that aspirational idea that transcends all persuasions as you indicated i'm talking about breaking down those systems that have been so well enshrined systems that have been so well enshrined that like lots wife have stiffened any any movement toward that i'm talking stratification of society the colonial binds those of that like yeah well um i think that it all starts with leadership as i said and it's true that the rules of the game have been set the nature of our political culture and so on however it just takes an act of courage to begin and i think the most important thing there is a process of consultation um we need to evolve processes by which people can we can consult with people in communities their issues of national importance our tendency in our current culture is to leave things to our leaders whether they be our political leaders or civic leaders and they make the decisions but if leaders listen and engage create mechanisms as i cited the information i got from the speaker of the house about how even our parliament which is disinformalities and so on can go to the people and incorporate the views of ordinary citizens if you want to pass an agriculture some regulations on agriculture for example have town hall meetings with farmers with rural communities with people who are involved in agro industry to get their views to feedback on the bill in some cases it may be not necessarily just to listen to them but also to explain to them what is being thought about to do so for example the passage of phytosanitary regulations that is vitally important if we want to expand our exports but people need to understand why these things are necessary and how these mechanisms are going to work to enable them to export more so that process of consultation and this is not you know theoretical thing i would have heard from my bio thing i worked in the grenade revolution and that was a feature of the revolution you don't have to be a revolutionary society to do that the morris bishop and his team regularly had town hall meetings in every community as a permanent secretary for education i recall going to town hall meetings in different communities because they could call a town hall meeting every two months or so and the subject for that meeting dependent on what a poll in the community would say what the issues affecting the persons in that community so when education the condition of the school became a problem i had to go to hear what people had to say about the conditions and i can tell you the first of these meetings i attended were brutal meetings because as the first time you have ministers and permanent secretaries coming into a rural community where the school has not been repaired for 40 years and they want to hear anything they just giving you fire because of the condition of the school and over time i began to see a shift in attitudes where people would not call you and put fire on you because the school is a mess what you're doing about school toilets and repairing the schools when you go there they would start saying okay the school is a mess what is the ministry doing and here's what we are prepared to give kudme to give you know community labor to pin the school this is what we prepared to do what is the ministry going to do to help us do that so it shifts the locus of responsibility that government must do everything to engage in people in processes of consultation and action that can really make a difference now through we are bound by the limitations of our political culture so i mean it's in the nature of the thing fight to be a rat race when you're in opposition you fight it down when you're in government you have to defend yourself right but any government i believe who takes that kind of proactive approach of listening to people as godwell says the benefit of your humility to hear listen carefully because there are a lot in the articulation of problems by the ordinary people also the solutions that need to be put in place that would make a meaningful difference to the people so if you do that then there are opportunities now for beginning to change the political culture and that may avoid the situation where we move from one administration to the next and one administration scraps everything the previous wonders so we move one step forward two steps backward and so the dance begins and let's be clear we know we have a historical responsibility if you look at the pattern of elections in the last what five six elections you realize that the electorate is growing increasingly impatient right there's a trend of decreasing participation in elections and people are becoming more intolerant that five year term which is what how many days i pointed out mathematically you deliver in that term otherwise you out now what can you what can you reasonably do to to design a project and get funding from cdb or any agency we take you at best maybe a year and a half to move from project concept to even tying up the financing to begin work so we have to take these things into account these are very serious issues and you know it's all well and good to talk about singapore and we talk about taiwan and all these small countries like us that we feel are exemplars of progress but the fact is you know we just looking at other people's reality and not considering what we can do to transform our own reality any questions from the crowd okay i'll go ahead um dr jules is it then not incumbent upon legislators to change the parameters at a constitutional level to enable us to have a more meaningful change if not within five years but a longer period of time well i mean the quotation i the excerpt i read from what the speaker told me i saw that constitutional reform was an imperative but from what um the speaker explained to me it is very possible to make meaningful change even within the existing construct of parliament the rules allow for it so it's just a matter of being creative and utilizing this this latitude to get things done and by the way that would move parliament from a very stodgy formal institution to something that makes sense to ordinary people now if added to those changes that were recommended you undertake these these consultations and dialogue in creole so use both english and creole it would be an amazing thing and again this is not hypothetical stuff i'm talking when i was ps education and we designed the education sector plan we did an elaborate process of consultation in fact we started off by by looking at reports done on the condition of education and pulling key elements from that then we had a meeting of the educational officials to discuss it then we had some different consultants come in because the original idea was to just hire the consultants to do the plan we did our homework first then invited some different experts who had worked globally to look at the what came out of our initial ideas of what we need to put into the plan and then we massaged that with them so there was the international experience brought into the mix we were clear on what we wanted to do then we had meetings in every parish in san nusha with teachers and with some students and with parents and it was amazing and the the the consultations with parents was interesting because some of the stuff at the ministry was saying well why are we consulting some of these parents you know most of them are illiterate i was like because you illiterate doesn't mean that you don't know what's best for your child you may not articulate it the way an educator may want but you know what your ultimate aspiration is for your child so your voice must be heard and it was a very humbling experience because the truth is i don't remember the focus center my creole is limited and we had to we had to explain this in creole so it's one thing when you talking all this hyphalutin language i was using and then you go in a town hall meeting and you have to explain yourself suddenly you are the bumbling stumbling idiot and the people who are articulating their language are the ones who can clearly articulate what their issues are right so it was a humbling thing and then so the officials then began to understand that look you know while we may know our stuff as educators the voice of parents the voice of students are vitally important in helping shape in the future that we want thank you dr jules opportunity for questions queries commendations ruminate ruminate hi dr jules good evening everybody um dr jules thank you very much for the lecture or the address whichever one you want to call it um but i think having been um a regular citizen and also gone into the political realm i speak from a different position too i heard about all this town hall meetings which i did throughout castry south but the issue is for me is the country spends a lot of money in educating a lot of people and the people who can make the difference that those the country has spent most of the money on they don't come to these meetings they're selfish because if you look at the majority of people who have had what we call the education in this country they don't come to town hall meetings they don't make any contribution to anything they isolate themselves so i'm just saying that it's about time we begin to tell people that the cost of education is that when you're prepared when you have been trained prepared by a country you need to come back to serve and the service is not just for you to make a salary the service is for you to help others come up and in our system the teachers are the best i'll be honest with you teachers are the best in terms of those who serve really in terms of the education that they receive from the country and i know as permanent secretary a former permanent secretary in the state education you understand that for example about 90 percent of the education budget goes into salaries and just about 10 percent is left to do other things but i'm just saying that we need to begin to target and say to those whom the country is spending lots of money to train to make a contribution to the development because i have been there as a parliamentary i've invited them to meetings but they are the ones who don't show up and you talked about those who are illiterate they are the ones who generally come to hear and to listen and to make a contribution so i just want to say let do people like myself people like you and what is appeal to those like us who have been fortunate to be educated with the country's resources to force people to participate so i think the key thing is to just begin the process and you invite one and all to come and i think over time you will see that that shift in attitude begin to happen because in many ways social pressure can build up to shame those people in sitting in their selfish corners and not participating and also the stick alongside that carrot could be that if we call a consultation here tonight to determine some new law that has to be passed in senucia next month who turn up and who gives suggestions is who get listened to so if you don't come and add your piece when the law is passed is the law you have to follow it that's your problem if your your concerns have not been taken into account you know and the other thing too is even in terms of the processes i spoke in the in the in the presentation about civic education right the importance of that even at school when i went to primary school at our city boys civics was a subject now i do think we should overdo the number subjectize everything so we don't necessarily need to restore civics as a subject but we can restore civics as a practice in school right in our city boys we were taught um there was in infant school i remember there was a song with we sung bits of people bits of people lying on the floor keep the place untidy keep the place untidy pick them up pick them up and you have to go around the class and pick up all the people that you drop in the classroom so it's not for a cleaner to come after you just today actually i came here earlier to look at the setup and when i was leaving we saw a young child on the sidewalk he was eating a lolly or something and he just take the wrap and drop it on the ground now again that it's a little thing but it speaks to our socialization right so how do we engage people how do we make people play their role and their part it has to happen at all levels the education system has to bring that relevance in there now if we start in schools for example the whole notion of and that's something we tried you'd recall about in when we were in the ministry of education in mario's time that every school should have a student council elected by the students so and that becomes it's not a matter of having a showcase student council the student council must be given definitive responsibilities in the running and the management of a school and that's not as some old people might think turning the school over to the control of students no it is helping students to learn responsibility by giving them responsibility questions queries dr jews want to inquire how well is st lusia and other small island developing states in your capacity as director general of the oasis harnessing global support to be able to reach their goals to build nation i i think the person who has that question probably wants me fired no the reality is that um the major challenge with one of the major challenges we feel well the two major challenges we face now is climate change and the pandemic and while certainly for climate change after hurricane maria dominica was the poster girl of the world in terms of small island states and the devastation of climate change and hurricanes disasters i estimate a couple billion dollars will promise to dominica from all sources for support did it come next to nothing came the pro the transformation you see that happened in dominica since maria has largely been the effort of the government of dominica with assistance from some partners but nowhere on the scale of the promises that were made we talk about climate change from cop to cop promises have been made for all kinds of um support to address climate change in fact right now i believe the government of antigua is siding with tovalu to bring some climate justice action to actually create a court case so that the persons who are the major um causation agents of climate change the major polluters are actually held accountable for um there's genocide there's ecocide for causing grave danger to the world by the economic and other actions so the reality is that small states are not getting the assistance we need and i don't think that we should be out there as mendicants asking for help because that is a danger too i i quoted cabral when he says we have to face our own weaknesses and contradictions we can go to the outside world begging them for money constantly as a bailout as a help out with their things that we have to demand as a matter of justice in the world that we must demand but even in making those demands we have to ensure that the way in what we do with that money how we spend it affects what i call the dna of our society so that the changes are structural and lasting and by the way that's something that i'm very strong about at the oecs when we get donor funding for any project it's not about spending that money on a ton of consultancies to end up with paper books on a shelf reports on a shelf it has to be something that changes the reality on the ground and in the institutions so when that funding is done we are on a different platform all together in how we do business so from as you move from project to project you are actually helping to move yourself forward institutionally so you transform the sector in which this thing is being done by the way you conceptualize the project and the way the money is used so that we end up in a different space and in a permanently different space because i've seen great projects funded millions of dollars after the and while the project is running everything it looks the future looks bright it's rosy great results five years after the end of the project it's like a cutlass mark in water all right there's no sign that this had any impact on the system and how the system operates and to me that is an injustice not just to the people who should be the beneficiaries but it is also an insult to the donors who gave that money because all that money was just wasted thank you dr jules i think 15 minutes has elapsed as one question honorable henry if you could go to the mic please so i think after that question we will wrap up for the evening thank you very much for this wonderful presentation dr jules when you started your presentation i think very early you highlighted that historically or the amount of time 43 years you said foundation building is we are quite young and i reflected on how you describe the journey that we have embarked on and for part of it some i think i felt a bit i'm not too sure if i should feel hopeless or what gains we have made but could you tell us do we have reasons to be hopeful notwithstanding what has transpired the way that we have moved the the fact that we are we're quite young in on on this journey and do we have reasons to be hopeful i i wish for you to comment on this well let me see first of all if you ever lose hope then there's that's it you might as well give up right we used to say in rc boys in caricature of the catholic catechism that hope is a motorboat so it really is probably more theoretically correct to say that because if you have hope it can take you where you want to go and that's why i said earlier in the task of nation building the issue of what is the idea of sen lucha what is the sen lucha we want to see that is the starting point if you do have that definition you just you know the bridges give you aid you do something we build roads we build our airports we build bridges you know we extend education but we just doing things but are we doing things towards becoming what we want to become and that's the important and that ties to the hope question right if we have hope now there is a lot notwithstanding all what i've said remember i did start with amelka cabral the basic battle that we are to face is not our successes our successes our successes the more important thing than the success that you have achieved is what you could or you what you should achieve that you've not achieved right i always tell people wherever i work we have to judge ourselves not by the progress that we have made to see parts on our backs but look at where should we have been where is it that we have not gone that we should have gone and to deal with that because that is how we will make progress in the future so you know hope is an important thing and there have been a lot of successes if you look at the history of the kaibyan an important indices like all the the indices that go into the sustainable development goals of the UN and you compare us 50 years ago to now you can see on education the extent of literacy the availability of public health as much as we can curse our health systems for its poor condition there has been progress right we've eradicated bilhazia for example if you saw the interview it's a john he spoke about that so we've made progress over the years now the measure for us is not to stand in the in the sunlight of that progress and say oh we've progressed as a nation let's ask where can we be you saw the pictures of singapore singapore around the 50 years 40 50 years ago was a backwater drug ridden singapore was a set of ethnicities that were in constant gang wars drug ridden it was a dump right to put it mildly and look at where singapore has come that didn't happen overnight and it's not a singapore miracle it is the result of visioning hard work and some serious leadership because li kuang yu was pillarized by the west initially has been a dictator because he knew he had to take a hard line on certain things and he didn't hesitate to take it but he did it with integrity right and ensure that there was equity whatever that the differences in society the different ethnic tribes the diversity did not become a problem it became a strength in the end because there was that unifying idea of what singapore singapore can be and right here in the car and i believe we are seeing examples of that if you look at what has happened i have seen more progress in barbados in five years of me and motley than has happened in 20 years none of us here i'm sure ever thought we would live to see the day when barbados is no longer known as little england right they become a republic barbados a republic and jamaica no disrespect to them but with all that talawa bob mally marcus gavi where's the talk of you know their own destiny shaping their own destiny and i just want to end you know sometimes it's good to be a radical because a guy called reman williams uh a british radical said that the duty of a radical is to make hope possible rather than convincing thank you for closing in on those poignant words again another round of applause for his excellency doctor didicus jewels this has been an initiative of the office of the prime minister the independence lecture as part of independence 43 the calendar of events on behalf of the organizers i take this opportunity to thank and express immense gratitude to you dr jewels for taking the time to address the nation today and to really take on the independence lecture mantle i should say enlightening the way for building a nation and shaping a society my name is jesse leance a pleasure to have served as your mr. sub ceremonies i do enjoy the rest of your evening happy independence st lucha for those of you watching on air online thank you so much for tuning in we did see some of the contributions that you made on the facebook platform so thank you for listening in and weighing in as well do enjoy the rest of your evening goodbye