ROADTOWN Tortola BVI, May 29, 2012 -- With the permission of those that spoke before me and the permission of you, our esteemed attendees of the 12th biennial Islands of the World Conference, I seek to adopt the appropriately established protocol.
On behalf of the people of these Virgin Islands, it is my pleasure to extend a warm welcome to Nature’s Little Secrets. Some of you have had the pleasure of being here a few days in advance and have had the opportunity to join us in our annual music festival and even take in some sightseeing.
While you are here to learn more of what scholars from around the globe have to say about issues affecting small islands states, I do hope you have enjoyed what you have seen in our islands and I invite you to come back to visit us and to encourage your family and friends to experience our islands as well.
I am indeed very proud that through our community college, the Virgin Islands have this opportunity to host this important conference. Through this conference and other opportunities within ISISA, island states have the occasion to learn from each other and to participate in fruitful dialogue in anticipation of resolving our challenges and presenting opportunities for all of our residents to advance.
There are many differences our states might have between us, racial identity, language, geography, and varying economies. However, I believe that we have a greater common interest that we must overcome to even maintain these very differences, and that is effectively managing the reality of globalization.
Gathered here during this week, we have professionals from all over the world exploring the conference theme - Globalization: Islands Adapting to Change.
As a Minister of government and particularly the Minister responsible for Education and Culture, from this gathering of diverse specialists, I will be eagerly looking forward to hear from presenters offering solutions to help our Territory adapt to some of the effects of globalization.
You see none of us have been spared from the results of international influences. Even countries such as China, which has been guarded for decades, now must deal with the infiltration of international businesses, technology, culture and thought.
The challenge for island states remain the same as larger and even more developed states, how do we adapt to these changes while still maintaining our identity, our culture, our local economies and who we are as citizens and residents of these island states.
I appreciate how the four conference days and presentations have been divided into sub-themes that aptly reflect the major issues we are all facing:
• Island Life and Identity
• The Global Issues of Island Societies
• Island Sustainability
• The Political and Economic Survival of the Caribbean in the 21st Century
Education
Here in the Virgin Islands the greatest result of globalization has landed on our shores, literally changing the face of our labour force. With the advent of the internet, jobs posted no longer are just circulated in weekly newspapers, instead, in an instant; resumes can be submitted for that same job from all around the globe.
The students we produce must now become global competitors right here in their own home and it remains an evolving challenge of all of our governments to ensure that our citizens can adapt to the changes by this new paradigm.
To help our community have a deeper discussion on this issue, I hope the presentations by Honourable Dr James Fletcher of St. Lucia on Education, Youth and Society within Small Islands as well as the poster presentation by professors of our neighbouring University of the Virgin Islands titled, Globalisation in the Education Industry: Island Perspectives, will foster more discussion on how we can adequately prepare our young people to assume roles as leaders in their communities.
Of course as Minister of Education and Culture, my particular attention has been working towards developing young people that are prepared to compete in a global world.
This week we are hosting the Registrar of the Caribbean Examination Council, Dr Didicus Jules and his able Deputy, as we seek to obtain feedback from students, parents, education professionals and the business community on the possibility of further utilizing this accredited examination body to aid us in improving the standard of education that we disseminate to our students.
In this new globalised reality, it is becoming increasingly difficult for individual governments to protect their citizens from outside influences. While it is my personal view that a government should always seek to protect its people, I also believe that we should also adequately prepare our people to function at a high level in this new global village.
While education cannot be a panacea for all our problems, I firmly believe that it is this which will prepare our citizens to assume any position at any level in our societies to be a part of the leadership that will be needed to sustain our economies in this new world.
Within the past decade, we have all witnessed the vulnerability of the United States. While there was a time that no one fathomed anything but prosperity for that country, 9 -11, and more recently the 2008 global economic crisis saw the economy of that country almost on its knees.
The Economy: Financial Services and Tourism
I am sure many of you have heard the saying, when America sneezes; the rest of the world catches a cold. Our territories are interconnected to the prosperity and failure of the United States economy. In recent months and years, our leaders, political and otherwise have all been forced to consider methods of sustainability that are not solely vested in the prosperity of the USA.
Our financial services sector has not been spared from the negative impacts of a changing world. On Friday you will hear from one of our local experts, Mr. Robert Mathavious, as he sits on a panel to discuss: Financial Services and Economic Development in the Caribbean.
Mr. Mathavious has witnessed the birth and maturity of the financial services sector, which is our Government’s largest revenue stream. With the major economies seeking avenues to retain the wealth of its citizens, how will this protectionism affect small island states, like ours, whose local economies are entrenched in the business of offshore investment?
Cultural Influences
Both tourism and financial services have brought a considerable amount of wealth to islands in the Caribbean. With the employment opportunities brought on by these industries, new cultural influences have our societies performing a delicate balancing act of welcoming a new labour force while trying our level best to assert our historic cultural identities.
From Taiwan, to the Philippines, to Hawaii, Jamaica and back to the Virgin Islands, we all continue to manage embracing the cultural influences of globalisation while we seek to ensure our cultural practices and our identity is first respected and preserved for the people of our island states.
Within my Ministry we have taken the stance that we will work harder to cement the cultural identity of the Virgin Islander in our students and wider society. Beginning in September, Virgin Islands history will be taught at the secondary school level.
By the end of June, for the first time in our history, we will have a stated cultural dress and territorial song. With the many challenges brought on by a wider variety of cultural influences, I do believe that our young people, the future leaders and innovators of our island states, face many more identity challenges than most of us in this room faced when we were their age.
That is why it is even more important for us as a society and for the younger generation of citizens of island states to be grounded in our respective cultures. On this issue, I hold the words of my Jamaican brother, Marcus Garvey dear to my heart. He said,
“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots”.
It is my hope that you are as eager as I am, to hear the discourse on the “The survival of Island Cultures in a Globalised World”.
I trust that for all of us gathered here this week, the information gained and shared will place our respective islands in a better strategic position that would empower our island nations to become more in touch with pressing issues on the global stage. Out of these sessions, I believe solutions can be found to help us adapt to changes brought on by globalisation in education, our cultures, our economies, our industries and our politics.
Putting this conference together was certainly no small task. Since September 2010, the Virgin Islands Steering Committee, chaired by Mrs. Dana Lewis –Ambrose and a well-rounded host of committee members have been working diligently to realize today.
Conclusion
I would like to commend the President of H. Lavity Stoutt Community College, Dr Karl Dawson as well as the Conference Committee, for spearheading what might possibly be the largest international academic conference we have had the pleasure of hosting. Thank you very much for your hard work.
In closing, on behalf of the people and the government of the Virgin Islands, thank you for journeying to our Territory for this very important conference and I look forward to the knowledge gained and shared over the course of the week being beneficial to helping all of our island states adapt to changes in our new world.
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