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Gonsalves, who is also chairman of OECS, stated at a recent luncheon
of the body: “People are getting higher and higher degrees
at tax-payers’ expense but they have abandoned all thought
of creativity because the higher their degrees the higher their
incremental payments.
“Never mind their productivity level is tending towards zero,
from Test cricketers to public servants and masons they do shoddy
work but they want more pay.”
The SVG PM also noted the low standards set by people throughout
the region and identified UWI as a main culprit.
“There are people who get degrees at UWI, they get honours
degrees in English Literature and don’t know about Hilton
Vaughn and his classic poem Revelation.
“How many things have we done in government that was done
as a consequence of serious research done by UWI, which has been
in existence for over 50 years?
“I have no situation which I can remember where progressive
public policy has been informed by research done by UWI and we pay
them a lot of money.
“We don’t get the creativity that we should be getting.”
Gonsalves also hit out at politicians, government leaders and the
media.
“We cannot rely anymore, if ever we have done so, on projects
and efficiency in government.
“Projects don’t excite your soul and your spirit.
“Projects don’t take care of you in difficult circumstances
or in challenging times.”
He said that while many journalists were writing about OECS, they
had not read the Treaty of Basseterre.
“They say they care for CARICOM, but haven’t read the
revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.”
Challenging suggestions that the Caribbean region is in crisis,
he insisted: This region is in no crisis.
“We have difficulties.”
He defined crisis as “a condition where the principals are
innocent as to that condition and have no idea as to how to get
out of it”.
“Once you know how to get out of it, you have an objective
assessment of it and have means to get out of it, you have difficulties,”
he explained.
“I am confronting all with their emptiness who want to say
we are in crisis.
“They believe we are in a state of crisis and they manufacture
in their newspaper or on radio or in lectures at the university.
“There are a number of people out there, including criminals,
who are getting solace and comfort from this dialogue of the lowest
common denomination.
“There are some, though they do not pull the trigger or break
the homes; they set the context that emboldens vagabonds”
He called on citizens of CARICOM to move with great haste given
the challenges that lie ahead, to help uplift their respective islands.
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