Ambassador Gonsalves Participates in Lecture Event at the University of the West Indies, Barbados

BARBADOS WI, February 2 2009:- Ambassador Camillo Gonsalves made an impassioned case for an "active and activist" regional foreign policy, and urged University of the West Indies students to take full account of their role in a rapidly changing global enviornment.

Speaking at the UWI Law Society's annual Wine & Cheese Lecture Event, Ambassador Gonsalves was joined by fellow feature speakers Ruggles Ferguson, President of the Grenada Bar Association and Dr. Kenny Anthony, Former Prime Minister of Saint Lucia. Ambassador Gonsalves was asked to address the audience on the topic of "the Progressive Foreign Policy of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines."

Avoiding the label "progressive," Ambassador Gonsalves stated "The foreign policy of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is not so much progressive as it is reflective of today's post-unipolar world. It recognizes the emergence of other nations, powers, and non-state actors with whom we can partner to more capably address our external environment in the interest of our people's own development."

Citing the old colloquial adage "cockroach don't business in fowl fight," Ambassador Gonsalves claimed that, "For many years, "cockroach don't business in fowl fight" could have been the guiding principle of Vincentian and regional foreign policy. . . It made for a foreign policy that was passive, reactive, and overly cautious. Our policies were not our own. They were shaped by colonialist and neocolonialist interests, and our concern was first to do no harm, rather than to seek our own space and independent role in international events."

"In many CARICOM countries, to a greater or lesser extent, foreign policy has long been an awkward appendage of our nationhood," said Ambassador Gonsalves. "With a few very notable exceptions, many CARICOM states - Saint Vincent and the Grenadines included - had no clearly defined goals or overarching purpose to its foreign policy. We opened expensive missions and embassies in far away places because it is what independent countries were expected to do; not because we had a clear idea of what we wanted them to do. American Author Robert Heinlein once said that "in the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it." And so it was with our foreign policy. We got lost in the mundane chores of sovereignty without actually asking ourselves why we were doing what we were doing."

The Vincentian envoy suggested that a rapidly evolving geopolitical environment, which was marked by the rise of many powerful new economic and political actors, forced CARICOM states to reconsider the role of foreign policy and the manner in which foreign policy was practiced. Ambassador Gonsalves used the example of the importance of aid and development assitance to illustrate his central point. "Saint Vincent and the Grenadines finds itself in a world where there is not enough money and where there are others who need it more," he said. "We also live in a world where, if we keep turning to the otherwise preoccupied great powers for help, we are eventually confronted with a difficult political question, which is: "We know what we can do for you, but what can you do for us?" We do not have many of answers to that question. There are, however, many things that we can do for and with emerging states that - while not yet global powers - are relatively important and significant to the Caribbean."

Gonsalves cited the examples of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines' parnerships in tertiary education and infrastructural developments as examples of active "development diplomacy" as illustrative of the government's new focus and thrust on using "the instruments of our sovereignty as tools for our development and our ennoblement."

In an aside, Ambassador Gonsalves told the audience an anecdote to encourage pride in their regional accomplishments, and the often-overlooked history of sociopolitical successes in the Caribbean, which should be shared with others. "I was speaking to a member of the United States' diplomatic corps, and we were discussing the successful election of President Barack Obama," said Ambassador Gonsalves. "And this gentlemen was telling me that, in spite of all the criticism that the United States endures, his was the only place in the world where a Barack Obama could be elected. He told me that Europe was generations away from a similar moment, and the United States was the only country that could witness such a triumph of democracy, tolerance and maturity."

"I told the gentleman that I beg to differ," said Ambassador Gonsalves. "While taking absolutely nothing away from the epoch-making historical triumph of President Obama's achievement, and its global significance, I said, 'lets look at this triumph more closely: What we have is a society with a vicious history of slavery, racial conflict and discrimination; electing a mixed-race or minority candidate; an eloquent and charismatic lawyer, with an ability to communicate with all social strata, and a message that resonates particularly with the youth.'"

"I am overjoyed and proud that this has happened in the United States," said the Ambassador. "But, in many ways, it is reminiscent of Jamaica's election of Manley in 1972, or even Saint Vincent and the Grenadines' election of Prime Minister Gonsalves in 2001. We, as Caribbean people, must be aware and proud of our tremendous social progress, which often takes a back seat to no one. We must not be shy in trumpeting and utilising the moral weight of our own achievements."

Summing up, Ambassador Gonsalves stated that "a "progressive foreign policy," in the Caribbean context, is simply policy reflective and aware of the real world as it exists today. How we see it, not how presumptive or declining powers wish it to be. A pragmatic policy that casts its eyes elsewhere, not only out of necessity, but out of recognition of the new global realities. You, as students and future leaders, must recognise that we live in a fundamentally different and rapidly changing world; and we in the Caribbean are no longer cockroaches in a global fowl fight."

Panelist Dr. Kenny Anthony, former Prime Minister of Saint Lucia, spoke on the remaining legal, political and social hurdles facing the Caribbean Integration Movement and the regional move to the Caribbean Court of Justice. Ruggles Ferguson, President of the Grenada Bar Association, gave an historical overview of the progress and acheivements of the Caribbean region to date, and the role of lawyers, students and young leaders in future progress.