PM Golding congratulates recipients of the Order of the Caribbean Community (OCC)

The conferment of the awards was made last night (July 1) at the opening ceremony for the 29th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) now underway in St Johns, Antigua.

The awards were conferred on five distinguished Caribbean nationals, two of whom are Jamaican. Professor Hon Ralston ‘Rex’ Nettleford received the Order of the Caribbean Community and Professor Dr. Barbara Bailey received the Triennial Award for women.

Other recipients of the Order of the Caribbean Community (OCC) were H.E. Dr. Nicholson Joseph Orville Liverpool, President of the Commonwealth of Dominica, Caribbean novelist and poet George Lamming, and West Indian Cricketer, Brian Charles Lara.

The honourees were recognized for representing the interests of their nations throughout the Caribbean region and the wider international community. The highly esteemed recipients of the OCC award were rewarded for their outstanding contribution to the Caribbean by the conferral of special privileges and entitlements. The title ‘Honourable’ will also precede their names.

In accepting the award, Professor Nettleford said his gratitude must go to the University of the West Indies which he described as one of the region’s finest gift to itself and a major building block on which to build the integration, collaboration and inter-textual operational dynamics of the region, which remains the model, mantra and even mayhem of the cultural diversity that is the reality of the third millennium. Professor Nettleford said he regarded himself as a blest beneficiary, fortunate enough to be now considered eligible for the prestigious award from the Caribbean Community.

Dr. Barbara Bailey in her acceptance, paid tribute to the Methodist Church where she said her real training began where, as national President of the Methodist women in Jamaica and later as the foundation President of Methodist women in the Caribbean and the Americas, she was thrust into the international arena as she represented the organization at the World Federation of Methodist women.

She said the Caribbean Community has also been a significant player in her development, leading and influencing the global debates. She noted that over three decades there has been a concerted effort to develop a clear roadmap to shape progress towards gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Dr. Bailey hastened to assure those concerned about the situation of our men and boys and the perceived threat they pose to social stability and cohesion that this thrust includes attention to their problems. ‘The application of appropriate solutions, however, requires accurate diagnoses of causes, which in my opinion are more rooted in our economic and political structures and systems, than they are educational, as many proclaim’, Dr. Bailey said.

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