Reflections from the Vice-Chancellor
Owen Arthur: The Activist Prime Minister
The following statement is issued by Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, Vice-Chancellor of The UWI, in tribute to the late Rt. Honourable Owen Arthur. Arthur was authorised by the elders of his era to lead the economic development charge of the region. As a consequence, there was no other passion that competed with his commitment to […]
ONE LOVE/ONE UWI #14 | Message from the Vice-Chancellor
A Series from the Vice-Chancellor “In the short run, European racism seemed to have done Europeans no harm, and they used those erroneous ideas to justify their further domination of non-European people in the colonial epoch. But the international proliferation of bigoted and unscientific racist ideas are bound to have its negative consequences in the […]
Vice-Chancellor’s Tribute to Sir Everton | The Way of the Prophet
The following statement is issued by Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, Vice-Chancellor of The UWI. In 1951, the global cricket fraternity expressed its peer appreciation for Sir Everton and designated him the best batsman in the game. In this selection and elevation he became the first Barbadian to be classified and celebrated as number one in […]
Bye George: America’s Last Dance
The following statement is issued by Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, Vice-Chancellor of The UWI, President of Universities Caribbean, and Chairman of the CARICOM Reparations Commission. Two thousand years ago, a young Galilean in his proselytising prime was arrested and pinned to a wooden cross by armed imperial police. In full public view, he was tortured […]
Marcus, Martin, and Minneapolis
The following statement is issued by Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, Vice-Chancellor of The UWI, President of Universities Caribbean, and Chairman of the CARICOM Reparations Commission. Martin Luther King Jr, when he felt he could not breathe came to Jamaica. When the threats to his life were constant and closing in around his neck, he took […]
What A Hero This Hickling!
The following statement is issued by the Vice-Chancellor of The UWI, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles in tribute to the late Frederick W. Hickling, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, The UWI. Freddie my friend and psychic freedom fighter was an inspiration to many generations. We met in Birmingham and he embraced me as a Jamaican. From UK […]
ONE LOVE/ONE UWI #9 | Message from the Vice-Chancellor
A Series from Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Hilary Beckles The senior executive leadership of The University of the West Indies—the Campus Principals, Pro Vice-Chancellors, University Bursar, University Registrar, and I—have all committed to allocating a percentage of our salaries for the next three months towards a student hardship fund. The aim of the fund is to promote […]
ONE LOVE/ONE UWI #8 | Message from the Vice-Chancellor
A Series from Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Hilary Beckles “In another life I’ll let the overgrowth grow over me, once in a while not pass the afternoon hedge clipping. Come to think of it, maybe I’ll not keep a hedge, nor hedge my bets nor live so much in parenthesis. I’ll study the passions and subtleties of […]
Saving the Caribbean
The following statement is issued by the Vice-Chancellor of The UWI, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles. The opportunity to participate in last week’s CARICOM Heads of Government meeting served to focus my mind around the existential threat to the Caribbean posed by the COVID-19 virus. Caribbean imagination can be forgiven if it is beginning to head […]
ONE LOVE/ONE UWI #7: Message from the Vice-Chancellor
A Series from Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Hilary Beckles “The Third World is an artificial construction of the West—an ideological empire on which the sun is always setting.” [Shiva Naipaul, An Unfinished Journey] We know why we must persist. We know our mandate as a dedicated public university serving our region. It seemed even clearer when the […]
ONE LOVE/ONE UWI #6: Message from the Vice-Chancellor
A Series from Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Hilary Beckles “After all, we make ourselves according to the ideas we have of our possibilities. I would have hidden in my hole and been crippled by my sentimentality, doing what I was doing, and doing it well, but always looking for the wailing wall. And I would never have […]
ONE LOVE/ONE UWI #5: Message from the Vice-Chancellor
A Series from Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Hilary Beckles “Yeah – said Dan – Now if the half has never been told, you must know what has been told and have some wind of what has not been told. Yeah – said Willie. Well, tell man tell – said Dan.” (Myal, Erna Brodber) In the past seven […]