 Thank you very much Dr. Yehven. Allow me to say goodnight to the solutions here. Can I say Boasueh Tutmune? It's an honor to be here, particularly in my own school. I see you didn't Let me thank you, Mr. President, for this really revealing introduction. I hope everybody said it was true. I'm honored and privileged to be invited to deliver this year's Errol Barrow Memorial Lecture. Being asked to follow in the footsteps of people like Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, the late Frank Arlene, his dentary Frank Arlene taught me agriculture economics at Keville. Professor Eudin Barito, the Swedish Rampal, friend of Stuart, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, George Arlene, Jeremy Stephen, is indeed a among the stars to undertake. I thank the organizers of the lecture and leadership of the DLP for inviting me to reflect on the rich contribution and legacy of one of the Caribbean's most outstanding sons, the right excellent Errol Walton Barrow. It is indeed a single honor for me to deliver this lecture in honor of a man who helped shape my political evolution and development and belief in Caribbean regionalism. Errol Barrow was a Barbadian by both, but Caribbean by outlook, and was not constrained by the narrow-mindedness or insularity. He saw himself as a Vincentian or St. Lucian or Trinidadian or Barbadian by both. In his parting of the ways speech delivered in the Barbados Houses of Assembly on January 4th, 1966, 10 months before Barbados proceeded to independence, he boldly said, I am a West Indian, and there is no one who is more West Indian by both or by inclination or by otherwise than I am. His Westernism was further defined when in keeping with his wishes, his cremated remains was scattered on Barbados in the waters of the Caribbean Sea, a powerful symbolic gesture of his embrace of a Caribbean identity. If there was any doubt as to the value of his contribution to Caricom, if there is any questioning of the validity of naming him a champion of Caricom, these doubts should be swept away by the realization that his regional integration movement, which he helped initiate, has survived for 50 years. That Caricom, if all its accomplishments and all its weaknesses will observe 50 years since its founding is a testament to the aspirations and vision of Errol Barrow and the three other leaders, Eric Williams, Michael Manly, and Forbes Bonham, who signed the Caricom Treaty on 4th July, 1973. That 50 years of Caribbean regional integration, so Caricom, is an event to be proud of and to be observed with some pump and ceremony. It's underscored by the fact that Caricom is the oldest surviving regional integration movement in the developing world. The importance of this anniversary is further emphasized by the sovereign reality that 2022 marked 60 years since the collapse of the first attempt at the regional political union, the West Indies Federation, that lasted only four years from 1958 to 1962. Barrow was obviously annoyed at the failure of the Federation and he observed that and I quote, we would never get together in the West Indies until we fashioned something of our own, as in the parting of the way speech in 1966. It is believed that Barrow regarded the Federation experiment with a measure of contempt and a convenient colonial contraption designed to give Britain a tighter administrative control over its Caribbean countries than to promote genuine development. After the collapse of the Federation, Errol Barrow pushed in 1965 for the first indigenous Caribbean effort at integration, a regional free trade area. That initiative was based on a three-fold belief. There was the unshakable belief that he expressed at the first meeting of heads of government of the Kauawef Caribbean on 22nd July 1963 in Port of Spain, namely first, and I quote, regional cooperation is something without which we cannot hope to survive. Secondly, that his fellow Caribbean leaders like Forbes William of Guyana and Eric Williams of Chinda and Tobago still shared this conviction, a conviction that he had first espoused in London as students in the mid 1940s. For it was they who had, and I quote, staged the first public meeting on Caribbean integration in the United Kingdom, and we followed the biblical injunction by staging that meeting in the lands then itself, in the bastion of imperialism, which is described as Trafalgar Square. A lot of our fellow West Indians were rather amazed at our temerity and mislisted the assistance of the colleagues from other parts of the world in making a bold stand on the need for West Indies integration. And he said so at the signing ceremony of the Treaty of Chagrammas on the 4th July 1973. Thirdly, his belief and his faith that the people of the Caribbean could manage their own affairs. He said, I think that the writings of Dr Williams and the economic researchers of Professor Arthur Lewis were the first faint glimmerings of the indication that the Caribbean people were capable of managing their own affairs. It was all this that led him to invite Forbes Bodham to meet with him in Barbados on the 4th July 1965 to discuss the possibility of the establishment of a regional free trade area in the Caribbean. Exactly eight years later, on 4th July 1973, at the signing ceremony in Trinidad of the Treaty of Chagrammas, Establishing Caricom, he revealed some details of that meeting and I quote, occasions for making disclosures of this kind are not frequent. I can disclose that it was on July 4th 1965 that the Prime Minister of Guyana met with me in Barbados at my invitation to discuss the possibility of establishing a free trade area between our two countries in the first instance and the rest of the Caribbean at such time as they would be ready to follow our example. Baru went on, the letter which I wrote was in my own fine Barbadian hand, which is sometimes ineligible. But apparently the Prime Minister of Guyana was able to read that letter because of his, he informs me, his Barbadian ancestry. In that letter, I invited the Prime Minister of Guyana to come to Barbados so that we could hold these discussions, end of quote. These discussions eventually led Baru, Bonham and Verbal of Antigua, signing on 15 December 1965, the Dickinson Bay Agreement, establishing Carifter, a free trade area between the three countries with the provision for other Caribbean countries to join later. Eric Williams of Trinidad and Tobago quickly became involved in the discussions and the first May 1968, Carifter formally came into being for Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago. By August 1968, the rest of the Coyote of Caribbean had joined Carifter, the precursor to Carricom. Baru's 1965 meeting with Bonham was therefore pivotal to Caribbean history for two reasons. First, it was the sea that dominated the Caribbean community that we are all part of 50 years later. Secondly, through Baru's passion for Caribbean integration, because Baru did to hold it despite an environment in the Caribbean at the time which had become soured by the disappointment and disillusionment and anger that pervaded the region at the breakup of the Indus Federation. Errol Baru stands out as the indisputable founding father of the post-Federation Caribbean regional integration movement. 50 years on, we have Carricom because the other Caribbean leaders did follow the example said by Byrd, Bonham Williams and himself. We have Carricom because they took him to appreciate and accept Baru's regional vision. It was a regional vision that Errol Baru frequently and articulately expressed in a style that only he could. In his address to fellow Caribbean heads of government at the conference between 1963 and 1986, that style was clear. The various themes that informs this vision when applied to the reality of Carricom at this 50th anniversary year provide, in my opinion, essential guidelines for the direction that Carricom should be following as it commences its journey into the next 50 years. There are six themes I propose to examine. One, raising the standard of living of the people. For Errol Baru, the fundamental rationale for Caribbean regional economic integration was that it would improve the living standards of the people of the Caribbean. It was this same concern that drove his social democratic revolution in Barbados. At the first meeting of the heads of government of the Caribbean countries in Georgetown, Ghana, from the 8th to the 10th March 1965, he said, the British government and peoples outside of our own territories fail to realize and appreciate the importance of regional cooperation either at an economic or at a political level for the survival and the improvement of the standards of living of the people over whose destinies we have the good fortune to preside. Therefore, the ultimate objective of any meeting of this kind must be that we intend to improve the living standards of the people of these territories and to afford them the equality of opportunity which by both and status they are deprived of. End of quotes. And at the signing ceremony of the Treaty of Chagoramas on 4th July 1973, he reminded the audience that the activism of this Indian Students Union in London in the 1940s was to, and I quote, protest against conditions in the West Indies and indeed supporting our comrades from Africa and other parts of the colonial empire in the protests against the conditions under which our people suffered. Regional economic integration was one of the vehicles to raise the standards, the living standards of the people. Free trade and the common market would be the cornerstone of the second phase of the regional integration movement launched in 1973 as Karikom, the Caribbean community and common markets. Free trade within a common external tariff was supposed to produce positive economic growth among participating countries and according to Barrow, the common market should provide an opportunity for our industrial and cultural sectors to leap forward with the necessary determination the region's economy can become vibrant with a relatively short period of time. I said so in a statement to the House of Assembly on the establishment of the Caribbean community 19th June 1973. It is fair to say that in the early years of the economic integration process, interregional trade grew significantly, then tappered and stabilized by the end of the first 40 years of integration. However, it remains limited when placed in the context of total exports as the bulk of the region's trade is still with the rest of the world. Interregional trade, which over the years has been dominated by Trinidad and Tobago, has still not grown to the extent that would dramatically spool economic development in the region. It is for this reason that Secretary-General of Karikom, Dr. Carla Barnett, at the 44th Intersectional Summit of Karikom in March 2022 in Belize, urged member states to improve on regional trade. And I quote, let us set a target to lift interregional trade out of the dole jumps of 16 to 18 percent of our total trade to 25 percent by 2025. In November 2022, at the 55th meeting of quoted, Dr. Barnett again said, integration is a critical platform for improvement in our trade performances, and it is trade performances that will drive the economic growth that we need. If free trade, therefore, is to be a more significant stimulant to economic development throughout the region, and therefore positively impact the lives and living standards of the peoples of the region, then the decades ahead, Karikom member states must make a concerted effort to dramatically increase trade by removing the unmolded barriers that still encumber genuine free trade. Therefore, there is a school of thought that believes that in the Karikom context, the freeing of trade among member states is necessary but insufficient to obtain the gains of economic integration. It argues that it also necessitates the removal of colonial, economic, and social structures and production and consumption patterns that have kept the region at a low level of development. It was in recognition of the limitations of free trade for driving economic development in the region that led the Karikom founding fathers to ink the 1973 Chagoramas Treaty. As you know, the treaty provided for Caribbean community and common market with three pillars of integration, economic integration, functional cooperation, and foreign policy coordination. Later in 2001, the successors to the founding fathers agreed to a revised treaty that establishes a Karikom single market and economy, the CSME, and according to Dr. Caleb Barnett, the adoption in 2001 of the revised treaty of Chagoramas, incorporating the CSME, was undoubtedly a bold and unprecedented step forward in deepening our regional integration process. However, the single market is slowly being implemented, well past its initial target date of 2008. A Karikom strategic plan for 2015-2019 reports that there was only a 64% level of implementation of the CSME. The actions that have to be taken to put the components of the single market in place have to be taken by the governments of each member state, and there lies the problem. Governments have not been moving fast enough to give national effect to the regional decisions of the CSME. We must give priority to the realization of the single market in the shortest possible time frame. It is clear that if Karikom is to deliver on raising the standards of living of its people, as Erobarro had hoped, the deepening of the regional integration for the CSME must proceed at 50 times the pace of integration during the next 50 years. We must revisit with some urgency the agreement for a single economy whose attainment is now a goal on a distant horizon. One of the key tenets of the Karikom single economy was monetary integration, which would involve among other things the creation of a single currency among member states. Several attempts of this have failed over the years. It is instructive that the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, the ECCB, for which I am chairman of the Monetary Council, launched its 40th anniversary celebrations last night in St. Kitts. The ECCB is evidence that a single currency is possible, where there is the will and the discipline to give up a liquor sovereignty, in that case, monetary policy for the benefit of all. In this 50th anniversary of Karikom regional integration, it is time to make the effort once again. For in addition to its economic benefits for the region, it would give Caribbean people tangible proof of the benefits of regional integration. It is not beyond us the successors of Erobarro, Eric Williams, Forbes Woodham, and Michael Manley, and the inheritors of the legacy of the region's only Nobel laureate for economics, Sir Arthur Lewis. It would be remiss of me if in examining Karikom's record of raising the standard of living of the peoples of the region, I did not refer to the functional cooperation in Karikom, for which member states pulled their resources to deliver critical social services to the people from cooperation in education, in health, statistics, tourism, export promotion, development of standards, public service management, culture, broadcasting information, among other functional cooperation areas, has been a successful pillar of Karikom's regional integration, and through well-known institutions like this CXC, the University of West Indies. And Erobarro was one of the prime movers behind the creation of the Cave Hill Campus. Cedema, Kaffa, the CTO, the CTO has raised the standards of living of our people. The strengthening and expansion of functional cooperation must therefore also be a priority in the years ahead. Freedom of movements. The need for the mobility of the peoples of the region, in the region, had been recognized by Erobarro as far back as 1965. At the first meeting of the heads of government of the Caribbean countries in Georgetown, Guyana, he said, and I quote, it is only in the field of crickets that the West Indian is able to contain as a man, to give full expression to its individuality. In no other field, either social, political, or economic, has the man in the streets, has the middle class man in his business been able to exercise their unrestricted control and to demonstrate freely their ability. What we have to do therefore, is to translate from the field of crickets to the economic and social level of these islands, the same freedom of movement, not only in the geographic sense, because as I explained yesterday, we have already transferred too many of our people with initiative to the UK, the USC, Panama, and British Guyana. Therefore, when I say that there should be the greatest possible freedom of movement, or rather the greatest political, social, and economic mobility would probably be a more accurate definition, end of quote. 40 years later, CRICOM leaders recognize the need for freedom of movement within the community in the revision of the Treaty of Chagoramas to allow for the establishment of the CSME, one of the key elements of the CSME as you know, is freedom of movement of labour. For the people of the Caribbean to be able to move freely and work and establish businesses throughout the member states. The implementation of this principle has been as labored as the implementation of the single market itself. The free movement of persons regime is based on allowing persons of certain certified skills to be able to move freely and work within the region. In 2006, the CRICOM heads first designated five categories of persons who would qualify for free movement, and over the years this has been expanded to 12 as of 2022. Despite this phased approach, freedom of movement has faced difficulties as the necessary national legislation and an administrative framework to give effect to the principle has run into delays in several member states. There is still a fear in some countries that they would be adversely affected by freedom of movement. In October 2011, hearing Barbados at the David Thompson Memorial Lecture, the Prime Minister of Dominica, the Honourable Roosevelt Scarrett, addressed this apprehension. The community is losing its skills to the rest of the world and is in a global competition for scarce skills. Member states should not continue to hold on to the unreasonable fears or hostility towards other CRICOM nationals. The statistics reveal an unexpected picture. A comprehensive migration and free movement study conducted by the CRICOM secretariat in the period June 2009 to June 2010 showed that approximately 4,500 persons moved through the skills regime in the period 1997 to June 2010. In spite of these low figures, there are persistent rumours that countries have been flooded by CRICOM nationals. The same study provided that in the period 2000 to June 2010 an estimated 85,000 work permits were issued by member states. Over 63,750 were issued to nationals of food countries. By food countries, women nationals who are not CRICOM citizens. These findings clearly highlight that the main movers in our community in the past decade have been non-CRICOM nationals. So foreign nationals are finding and creating job opportunities for themselves in our region, while our CRICOM citizens do not appear to be taking full advantage of the opportunities open to them in this regard. End of quote. In 2019, a study by the International Organization for Migration found that Trindan to Bego and Guyana were the two countries selling the greatest number of inter-regional migrants, simultaneously Trindan to Bego also figured among the top two receivers with Barbados of CRICOM nationals. In 2017, 71% of the skills certificates issued were for university graduates followed by holders of associate degrees with almost 11%. That study concluded the CRICOM and OECS free movement regimes expand the avenues that allow people to move facilitating greater opportunity to travel, seek employment, access social services, and established businesses. Available data suggests that although within this region, some countries utilize the free movement provisions more than others. In fact, the application of such provisions has manifested in a gradual increase in inter-regional mobility, rather than in large migration movements. End of quote. In March 2022, in responding in the Trindan to Bego Senate to opposition criticisms of the Immigration Caribbean Community Skills Nationals Amendment Bill 2022, Trindan to Bego Foreign and Curricum Affairs Minister Dr. Emery Brown pointed out the benefits to the country. And he said, our nationals have been benefiting under the categories of skilled workers identified by the CSME. These categories include musicians, media workers, sports people, and registered nurses. When the bill is proclaimed, Trindan to Bego nationals will be able to access 10 categories of skilled workers for free movements. 442 workers and 417 spouses of workers came to this country between 2017 and this year. In 2018, CRICOM leaders agreed that the free movement of skilled workers was to be achieved within three years to 2021. While there is now agreement to provide for free movement of 12 categories of workers, including agricultural workers, we are now in 2023, two years past the deadline, and 2023 is the 50th anniversary of CRICOM. So after 50 years of regional integration, it is time that CRICOM adopts the arrow borrows position, that there should be the greatest possible freedom of movement. Essentially, the requirement for freedom of movement of persons within the community should simply be proof that the person is a CRICOM national, a passport, or national ID card. This is already successfully taken place within the OECS Economic Union, whose members make up half of CRICOM. It can happen now within CRICOM. 4, as arrow borrows said in 1986, if we have sometimes failed to comprehend the essence of the regional integration movement, the truth is that thousands of ordinary Caribbean people do. In fact, they live that reality every day. We are a family of islands nesting closely under the shelter of the great cooperative Republic of Diana, and this fact of regional togetherness is lived every day by ordinary West Indian men and women in the commons and goins, the small traders, and some not so small who move from Jamaica to Haiti, or what I believe is the legitimate business. The same with Grenada, Trinidad, Barbados, and Saint Lucia, and Dominica. I should like to believe that we are all committed to the principle of mobility and people interaction. However, can we speak of freedom of movement when it's easier to get to send kits by American Airlines than original airline? To come to Barbados, I had to, that's one of the show. With the unfortunate demise of Liat, which is owned by regional governments, a huge void has emerged. Travelling around the region today has become a nightmare, both from the standpoint of high fares and reduced flight availability. It is having an undermining effect on the economic prospects of the region. This state of affairs must not be allowed to continue for much longer. It must be fixed as a matter of urgency. For years, two Cairo government have also spoken of a fast ferry service between the islands, but these are yet to materialize. The issue of regional A and C transportation must be approached from the premise that regional transportation is a regional public good, and as such governments must invest in and finance it because it is a duty they owe the people of the Caribbean. Regional integration in the Caribbean will never be effective if the people cannot and do not have the means and the systems to move freely between the islands and to easily communicate between themselves and share their ambitions and their experiences with each other. How can we be serious about building a vibrant regional community and single market if the people who are the main participants cannot get around the region freely and affordably? Let us therefore no longer circumcise their mobility and the interaction and let Cairo come grow on the freedom of our people to interact, to work, live, and enjoy their lives together. The food crisis, in what was to be its final address at the Cairo Come Heads of Government meeting on Food July 1987, Aero Barrow identified two weaknesses of the Caribbean community which are still with us today and which must be resolved. If the community is to be, is to meaningfully exist for another 50 years, one was the food crisis and attributed its identification to the Prime Minister of Trindal and Tobago at the time, Dr. Eric Williams, and I quote, I should like to recall a voice and a great mentor who has never been without ideas about this danger and who tried to reverse the suicidal tendency which pervaded all our history. Dr. Eric Williams will have to be heard again and again whenever we say agriculture. He had a conception of food production which was regional, I quote from him, on the Caribbean food crisis. Food production must be approached as a basic industry to be run on commercial lines by a corporation collectively owned by the governments of the area and making approved investments in different territories. This in practical terms means a Caribbean community market. Production must aim to satisfy not only the food needs of the local population of the Caribbean, it must also take into account the needs of the extensive tourist trade in such countries as Barbados and Jamaica as well as the export market beginning with the Caribbean region, Suriname, the Netherlands, Antilles, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and the commercial cooperation and visage for the production of food on a large scale must keep the needs of these Caribbean areas in mind. Dr. Eric Williams wanted to correct the preference for imported foods which has been a major cause of our psychological dependency before and after independence and he wanted to help make agriculture a respected occupation because we needed it to make food production a respected industry because we cannot survive without it and because it is it also required gifts of intellect and high technical competence, end of quotes. I have quoted extensively from Erobaros observations on the food crisis because it is as relevant today as it was then and some would say it is even more relevant today because since that time we in Caricum have failed to diminish to diminish much less solve that crisis. In 1976, Caricum established the Caribbean Food Corporation, the CFC, as a commercially oriented organization whose mandate was to provide the production and marketing for a 1975 regional food plan. It was to promote and finance viable agribusinesses in the Caribbean by 1999 the CFC was no longer viable and had ceased to exist. Today Caricum countries import US 6 billion worth of food every year to feed their people and visitors in their vital tourism industries. According to the World Bank 80 to 90 percent of all the food consumed in the region comes from abroad. Only Haiti, Ghana and Belize produce more than 50 percent of their own food. What is even more dire is that 40 percent of the English-speaking Caribbean is food insecure. A Caricum survey in 2022 found food consumption and diets were deteriorating for 25 percent of the people. 25 percent of the respondents eating less preferred foods, 30 percent skipping meals or eating less than usual and 5 percent going an entire day without eating in the week leading up to the survey. It is estimated that there are 2.7 million food insecure persons in the English-speaking Caribbean and with food prices continuing to skyrocket from global inflation fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine War the food crisis in the region more than anything else is the most serious challenge facing Caricum today and will continue to be if something is not done in the decades ahead. Heads of government have recognized this and it is recalled that last year Caricum held two major agri-investment forums one in Maine, Ghana and in August in Trinidad and Tobago to examine transforming regional agriculture for innovation and investment it is not worthy that the majority of heads of government attended attended the food crisis in the region demands urgent and immediate action the heads of government have agreed to increase food production by 25 percent by 2025 we have the land to do this in Ghana, Belize, Suriname and Jamaica we have vast acreages of fertile uncultivated land can the capital be mobilized to develop these lands the regional private sector must be seized of these opportunities and act on them we must therefore move quickly to remove whatever tariff and non-tariff barriers that are still impeding regional trade in regionally produced agriculture products we must act rapidly to correct the inadequate regional transportation network so there can be a viable means of moving food across the region what is perhaps most critical in addressing the food crisis in Caricum is the need to radically change the pattern of our food consumption in the region as I've constantly said in my country St. Lucia in the past year sometimes ridiculed for it we need to eat what we grow and grow what we eat it was something that both Errol Barrow and Eric Williams urged in 1986 and I quote Dr Eric Williams wanted to help put an end to the insult he heard school children exchanged about their past I quote I myself accounted a group of young people to whom I was speaking and who assured me that they have no part of any agricultural program related to the small farmer and local food stuff because commodities like Eddow's and Dachin were slave food the colonel from the confedred itself has won the battle for the minds of our children I am happy to say I don't think this would happen in Dominica where school children are making our cultural work a normal part of their curriculum and it is there we need to begin in the schools if we are going if we are going to correct this hostility directed towards the production of the food which is the very fuel of our existence and if you are going to help another generation to understand while self-sufficiently maybe one of the greatest forces of resistance to any form of external penetration end of quotes and adjust to the that is an adjust to the curriculum heads of government conference 3rd July 1986 in George Town Garner the second weakness in curriculum that era borrow identified in 1986 was communication as and he said what is the source of our failure I should like to share some of my own misgivings the force has to do with communication and the ways in which we communicate for many of our people the regional movement has come to mean matters which relate exclusively to trade who who will buy my shoots and what conditions whose markets will open up for my pepper sauce my govagelly who will buy my white son and who will buy my gray son these are realistic questions but but we have made them the exclusive justification of our being together and this has been a grave shortcoming whatever recognize it or not we have a cultural history a common experience of feeling which goes deeper and is much older than curriculum and the negotiations about trade we have not been able to communicate the essence and the cultural infrastructure of the regional integration movement borrow for July 1986 he went on to call on every institution on organization to accept the challenge of communicating that the region is a larger concept than trade it's a challenge that carry come itself has not properly answered or fulfilled 26 years later after borrowed issuance only last September at the lecture in Barbados the secretary secretary general of curriculum Dr. Carla Bennett admitted that and I and I quote our inability to effectively communicate and secure broad-based buying for the initiatives comprising the program of work for implementing the CSME more particularly we have not adequately articulated our successes as a regional integration movement in a manner which motivates the demand by ordinary citizens of the community for continued national implementation of regional decisions it is true and of course it is true that we have not made the people of the region feel the importance of carry come to them let us ask ourselves how many take an interest in our meetings of heads of government will they miss these meetings if they are not held will they even be aware if they if these meetings fail to take place the contemporary revolution in communications the advent of social media for example has made it easier to communicate and he must capitalize on this more resources are required for extensive communication to the people on a daily basis but that should not be the responsibility of the carry come secretary at only the private sector has a major role to play in this also there is need for traditional media outlets radio and television that are regionally oriented in the content and their focus and to which the people of the region can tune into on a daily basis for news and information about the Caribbean community one recalls the popular radio until is based in Montshoch we finance from a German producer in the mid 90s when it fell victim to the Montshoch volcano then there was BBC Caribbean service with his daily Caribbean report and sports Caribbean which the BBC closed in 2011 after decades of broadcasting to an appreciative regional audience it should be noted that both these services were externally sponsored the Caribbean news agency Canada was established to increase regional awareness for a significantly higher output of visual news and information unfortunately Canada has all but disappeared and is not uncommon first to know more international news more about Trump than the happenings erring in neighborhood island 30 minutes away when the BBC Caribbean service ceased in 2011 the cessation of Caribbean media workers ACM consumed by the loss issued a call which is yet to be answered and I quote the Caribbean needs a distinctive service of a high quality news and information that is collected distilled and explained by some as veteran journalists and not a hodgepodge of duplicated copy from national media houses let it not be said that the moment of adversity the Caribbean media failed to shed consideration and looked at profit instead to create a trustworthy source of news and information they have failed and to the Caribbean private sector and governments should collaborate to reverse it so as to ensure that the reality of integration must become in the woods of Errol Barrow and essential parts of the consciousness of the population foreign policy the right honorable Errol Barrow was not only a proud Barbadian patriot but he was an ardent Caribbean nationalist fiercely guarding the identity the identity sovereignty and independence of the country of the Caribbean he was an anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist this is why he declared that Barbados would be and I quote a friend of all and satellite of none this is why he drew attention and I quote to the need to protect our small communities from the exploitation by undesirable influences that is why he announced in July 1986 that my position also remains clear that Caribbean people must be recognized as unrespected as a zone of peace that is why there is a fundamentals there is a fundamental theme I should like I should like to think there there can be no difference and that is the absolute necessity to promote and defend the solidarity and sovereignty of the original Caribbean family and also the absolute obligation to discover these strategies and mechanisms which ultimately lead to unity of action in all major areas of our economic and social political life end of quote the pillar foreign policy coordination bike bike curriculum first enshrined in 1973 in 1973 treaty was one of the mechanisms for unity of action in the political life of the community this was important for Barrow because within the Caribbean community and common market and I quote however the regional as a whole will carry more bargaining with when confronting food parties trading groups and international organizations Barrow 19 June 1973 Barrow Manly Williams and Burnham demonstrated this and all of them and all of the foreign policy themes exposed by Barrow when the 8th December 1982 Barbados Ghana Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago established diplomatic relations with our fellow Caribbean country of Cuba this was against the dictates of the United States and the action of other Caribbean countries that had told the US line we have managed in our four countries and Jamaica Trinidad and Tobago Ghana Barbados to sustain our independence to the extent that we are considered to have committed an act of defiance in October last year when we took a lead in the Western Hemisphere in deciding to open diplomatic relations with the Republic of Cuba much to the shagway of our regional neighbors in the north said so in Toronto in April 1973 this has been one of the greatest acts of foreign policy coordination by correct by curriculum states for it has stood the test of time and today Cuba and curriculum countries enjoy a close and beneficial relationship only recently the 50th anniversary of this event was celebrated here in Barbados by curriculum countries and the president of Cuba since 1982 the record of foreign policy coordination in curriculum has been mixed it was successful in the struggle against apartheid in the non-aligned movement during the cool war and in negotiations for a new trade relationship with the European market but it has been divided in some critical areas there was stark division over the US-led sanctions and other actions of aggression against Venezuela and its president Nicolas Maduro with six curriculum states visibly siding with president Donald Trump on that issue in the decades ahead curriculum countries must reach for foreign policy harmonization harmonization rather than coordination and this is based on the absolute necessity to promote and defend the solidarity and sovereignty of this regional Caribbean family Barrow 1986 there will be continued economic and geopolitical threats and challenges to the Caribbean as a zone of peace but more importantly today there is an existential threat to all of us it is it is climate change that in the battle for climate justice the Caribbean must have one voice it must have unity of action failure could very well mean the disappearance in 50 years time of the type of island states that we are today there is one other aspect of Barrow's position that the Caribbean must be respected that the Caribbean must be must be respected as a zone of peace of which we must recognize the threats to peace in the Caribbean and not only external but also internal instability in one member state cannot be good for the community and so it is incumbent on curriculum to help solve the crisis of governance and security in Haiti today with its humanitarian and other problems while the community is currently in dialogue with Haitian authorities and stakeholders for a solution to the problem there are differences of opinion as to the best approach we must be united in our mediation efforts we need to succeed because we owe a historical debt to the people of Haiti for the for the brave overflow of slavery and colonization and the strike for black liberation 200 years ago we must succeed because the problems have partly stemmed from a 200-year history of interference and interventions in their affairs invasions of the country and economic exploitation by imperialist powers we need to succeed if only for economic reasons because Haiti with over 11 million people is the largest marketing curriculum further it is reported to have huge untapped mineral resources of oil and natural and natural gas after South Africa the second largest deposits of the rare metal uranium gold and estimated us 20 billion copper silver and marble the initiative to ensure that Haiti is a fully functional member of curriculum must be a top priority for the community the other internal threat to peace in curriculum is the rising rate of violent gun crimes in some of our member states including my own St. Lucia and more noticeably in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago uncontrollable crime can retard the economic development of our countries and damage the livelihoods of our people the solutions to crime are complex however the gravity and similarity of the current crime problem in some of our countries requires urgent and determined regional collaboration on its short and long-term solutions and for the curriculum implementation agency for crime and security we must increase our efforts in that direction leadership finally finally i turn to the question of leadership the leadership of our Caribbean community what can we learn from Erobaru as Caribbean leaders face the start of the next 50 years of curriculum it is universally accepted that one of the major reasons for the so progress of regional integration in the Caribbean despite its 50 year history is the failure of the heads of government to implement the decisions that they have taken to further the integration process study after study report after report commission after commission has blamed curriculum's implementation deficit for the integration process not being more advanced and have recommended improvements to its governance system the current leadership of caricum has accepted this and has agreed to the latest recommendation in that regard they have adopted the protocol of enhanced cooperation whereby a subgroup of countries can proceed to implement regional decisions at a faster pace while others who are not yet ready can do so when they are able to this approach was what Erobaru suggested when he proposed the idea of Carifter to Forbes Bonham in July 1965 heads of government have also agreed to meet more frequently by holding six meetings annually virtually and in person this is moving in the right direction but i believe that today's leaders will be even better placed to chart the way forward if we adopt the attitudes and perspectives of regional integration that leaders like Baro exhibited and that have brought us 50 years of regional integration first Erobaru was very frank in his discussions with leaders of the other regional governments as to the state of regional integration and what has required for it it is addressed to the first meeting of heads of government of Cormac Caribbean countries in Port of Spain on July 27 22 963 just one year after the breakup of the Federation he did not hesitate to convey the feelings of other Eastern Caribbean leaders who were not at the meeting and his own disappointment at what had transpired and i quote in this singular capacity therefore my reception of this invitation had been one of satisfaction that after a short period of 20 years the dim light of revelation of the benefits of regional cooperation has dawned upon leaders of our newly independent neighbors and friends in Jamaica and Trindad the reception by others not involved in these talks has been one of looking back in anger to the failures of past attempts to bring together and keep together the long-suffering peoples of the British Caribbean an objective from which we alone have never turned aside and towards which we are even now relentlessly working we have continued to struggle to make one of many whilst others have succeeded only in making many of one the last line was surely a dig at both Jamaica and Trindad Jamaica which are abandoned Federation first to become independent and Trindad whose Prime Minister Eric Williams had famously said after Jamaica's departure from the 10 from the 10 member Federation that one from 10 live zero Barrow went on to see the first commitment of the people of Barbados is association of our fellow men and governments in eastern Caribbean so disdained because of their size dismissed as insignificant insignificant by realistic phrases like liquid eight or liquid seven reviled because of their low income structures as likely to be a I like it to be a dream on the economies of the more powerful neighbors and discarded on the rubbish heat heap of colonialism it is not surprising to this extent of disillusionment that they should view with suspicion any attempt to gain entry into the markets on the pretext of economic cooperation without the greater labilities attendant upon a complete federal system end of code secondly Barrow was bold with the waters of the with the waters of the Caribbean sea still awash with the fallout and ranker from the breakup of the Federation he dared to invite Bonham of Guyana to discuss the launching of a free trade area while still reeling against those whom he considered had failed the Federation character readers today must be just as bold in the decision making and the actions on integration foodly Errol Barrow was an integrationist to the bone and he approached the task of regional integration not as prime minister whose business was to demonstrate the fact of being prime minister but it is so as a Caribbean citizen who put the region first and he was not the only one doing so as he explained in the integration of curriculum on 4th July 1973 at Chagoramas to me this is the end of a long of a long journey neither one of us I did a prime minister of Jamaica the prime minister of Ghana or I had any ambitions to be prime ministers we had ambitions at that time to see the Caribbean integrated today I had a young aspiring political contenders stating that they want to be prime ministers as if being a prime minister is I taken an examination and once you achieve the past mark you are automatically a prime minister I can now see that remembering what took place in Kingston Jamaica none of the four of us set out to be prime ministers the distinguished prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago did not even want to be a politician end of quotes in the midst of kind of regional integration those honorable gentlemen were integrationists and people folks and prime ministers after as curriculum ends the first 50 years of vision integration I urge all of us leaders and citizens alike to adopt the approach of Errol Barrow and the other leaders that in this that in this journey the only goal must be to see the Caribbean fully integrated so that in 50 years time curriculum will not have gone but curriculum would have become not a community of states but a truly integrated community of the peoples of the Caribbean economically prosperous socially advanced culturally confident and proudly independent I thank you