Dear Editor,
Former President Bharrat Jagdeo, now Opposition Leader will be the guest speaker next month at the Eric Williams Memorial Lecture. Mr Jagdeo will be the second Guyanese to address the prestigious forum. The first was Professor Ivelaw Griffith who is now the head of the University of Guyana.
The topic of the September 30 lecture at Florida University in Miami is ‘The Caribbean and American Power: The Donald Trump Ascendency’. Mr Jagdeo will join distinguished academics and known world personalities who spoke at the Forum, including former US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, who delivered the inauguration speech in 1998; the former President of Zambia, Kenneth Kaunda; one of America’s premier black historians, John Hope Franklin; civil rights activist, Angela Davis; and former Prime Minister of Jamaica, PJ Patterson. Last year’s speaker was St Vincent and the Grenadines head of government Dr Ralph Gonsalves.
Dr Eric Williams was the first Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, and one of the leading advocates against colonialism. He was the author of several books including Capitalism and Slavery. Jagdeo has held several high level government positions, ranging from Minister of Finance to President of Guyana from 1999 to 2011.
He also holds a number of global leadership positions in the area of sustainable development, green growth and climate change. In 2008 he was named Times Magazine’s ‘Hero of the Environment’ and in 2010, the United Nations declared him to be one of its ‘Champions of the Earth’ awardees. In the financial area, Mr Jagdeo has served as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the IMF and World Bank Group (2005-06)
The Eric Williams Memorial Lecture was the brainchild of Erica Williams Connell, daughter of the late Trinidadian leader.
Yours faithfully,
Oscar Ramjeet
