Prof. Justin Robinson is a busy man. His unmitigated brilliance is exactly why we had singly pursued engaging him for our upcoming symposium to be held on the anniversary of the birth of CARICOM and also, of course, that of chief architect of Caribbean Integration, The Rt Excellent Norman Washington Manley. Unfortunately, his travel plans were already set.
The first two sessions already advertized will cover The Caribbean in Crisis and focus on Cuba and Haiti but the final session will explore the grand theme: Norman Manley the Federalist: The Dream Revisited. So many Jamaican high school students do not have a clue about the tentative birth and brief life of the fledgling Caribbean Federation. They were never informed that the fragmentary small island state independence movement in the region was Plan B, and that Plan A was the Caribbean Federal Union of States which never really got off the ground. Hearing that narrative from the most credible sources of authority and shapers of culture in our time is our responsibility.
Like UWI Vice Chancellor, Prof Hillary Beckles, Prof Robinson brings to academia not just remote ivy tower reflections but real world insights coming from being plugged into the matrix in key leadership positions. As a Director of the Central Bank of Barbados, Member of the Fiscal Responsibility Mechanism of St. Vincent & The Grenadines, Director of Jamaica Money Market Brokers International, Director of WIBISCO, Chair of the Ratings Committee of CARICRIS (the Caribbean’s sole credit rating agency), and President of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society, his rich insights interpreting the times in which we live come from the bite of rubber hitting the road.
In a recent blog, I highlighted not just his erudition but also his impassioned urgency expressed in his series of essays, No one is coming to save us, reflecting on what I call the exigencies of Caribbean sovereign survival in the hostile geo-political Hurricane Watch which began in earnest with the Venezuela incursion. But Prof Robinson in his most recent article echoes the voice of ancestors like Norman Manley and Lloyd Best in giving stubborn children straight truth between the eyes to be ignored at our own peril:
We must begin immediately to “build regional architecture as if our lives depend on it, because they do. The institutions we already possess: CARICOM, the OECS, the ECCB, the CCJ, the University of the West Indies, these are not ornaments of flag independence. They are the scaffolding of survival in a fragmenting world.“ In the Time of Monsters: The Global Interregnum, Seen from the Caribbean. – Justin Robinson
Prof Robinson has clearly sent us his contribution in absentia. He was evidently ‘in the Spirit’ while penning that article for Father’s Day of all days. I am assured our moderator on the 4th July, the ‘Godfather of CARICOM’ himself, Ambassador Byron Blake will make sure that the discussions explore the ramifications of this mandate deeply. It is the very gist of our theme. Professor Trevor Munroe, the person that, in fact, recommended to me the output of Prof Robinson is already prepped to add his own deep insights, garnered from life-long equally impassioned political activism.
*Bishop Dr. Peter Morgan will speak of the role of the regional church in interpreting the times and giving visionary leadership to a very necessary yet difficult process which undeniably will try the mettle of fragmentary national and institutional identities which absolutely need each other for collective support, but have been groomed for years by influences from within and without, generated by those who reap benefits from sowing division and encouraging petty hostilities between them.
*Regretfully, Dr Peter Phillips, previously announced will no longer be able to join us.
Ms Sunity Maharaj, former Independent Senator of Trinidad and Tobago and keeper of her late husband’s legacy as Director of the Lloyd Best Institute of the Caribbean, will address the question we have been asking in these blogposts for some considerable length of time: Is real politik throughout the Caribbean up to the task of adapting to the demands of the time or are we crystallized in a mindset that has destined us to maintain a semi-colonial posture we seem to have been so well conditioned in, and is our future to be determined from outside and be limited by those who will inherit our patents of ownership once the dust settles and whatever emergent behemoth sees us as their own strategic asset?
Tough words, not so diplomatically put, but none too dramatic if my reading of Prof Robinson is accurate and if his insights are correct. As I recommended with No one is coming to save us, all should take a read of In times of Monsters, and then come join us on the 4th for sober reflection. This will be a fitting tribute to Mr Manley’s demure spirit.
Norman Manley Symposium
