“NO civilisation can effectively progress towards shared values without the celebration of positive role models,” Professor Suresh S. Narine, Ph.D maintained as he accepted his Anthony N Sabga Caribbean Awards for Excellence (ANSCAFE) in Science and Technology. 

The Anthony N Sabga Caribbean Awards for Excellence (ANSCAFE) is now the English-speaking Caribbean’s leading recognition programme in Arts, Sciences, and Public and Civic Work. The ANSA McAL Foundation launched this Awards Programme in October 2005.
The Awards are made in four areas (as of 2015): Arts & Letters, Science & Technology, Public & Civic Contributions and Entrepreneurship. Up to 2010, they were made biennially, but in 2011 the Caribbean Awards for Excellence became an annual event. Since 2006, when the first laureates were named, several sets of laureates have been presented with prizes in 2006, 2008, 2010, and 2011 and annually thereafter in ceremonies were held in Port of Spain, Trinidad.
During his remarks at the ceremony, Guyanese recipient Dr Suresh Narine said: “When I examine the laureates of the Caribbean Awards of Excellence, in past years and also my fellow laureates this year, in addition to being humbled to be in their company, I am convinced that the Caribbean will continue to move from strength to strength in the pursuit of our cultural identity and its expressions and a sustainable future of prosperity.”

“Our world today faces a nexus of so-called wicked problems, the collapse of the world’s financial systems, dwindling fossil fuel resources, growing shortages of fresh water and food, climate change, and skilled labor”, he noted. The Caribbean, Dr Narine continued, is particularly vulnerable to all of these issues, “the banana trees only have to hear of the hurricane coming, and they all lie down flat.”
“To craft successful responses to these challenges, the Caribbean needs regional strategies which harness all of our collective resources,” he noted.
He went on to explain as we celebrate a few scant miles from the lapping waves of the Gulf of Paria separating Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) from the South American mainland and sister Caribbean country Guyana, CARICOM’s net food import bill is more than a whopping US $4.5 Billion. “Right here, in T&T, the food import bill is US $950 M, second only to Jamaica, with a food import bill of close to US $1 B.”
The region spends nearly US$0.5B on imported rice and sugar, even as across the Gulf, Guyana struggles to find markets for its rice. “The Jagdeo Initiative in CARICOM on Agriculture and Food Security has disappeared into the void created by a lack of Regional leadership within CARICOM. And so, despite the demand, Guyana, Suriname and Belize, with large tracts of arable land, significant fresh water resources and low population densities remain relatively undeveloped with regards to their vast agricultural potential,” Dr Narine emphasised.

“Our region receives less than 1% of the world’s foreign direct investment, and other than for T&T and Suriname, has a crippling dependence on imported fuel. Yet, we do not have a regional strategy for alternative, green sources of energy,” he continued.
Dr Narine continued to explain and defend the vast potential of hydropower in Guyana and Suriname could benefit significantly from regional investments and regional supply agreements for electricity, to the benefit of energy security for many of the neighboring states.
“Much more needs to be done in integrating the University of the West Indies, University of Guyana, Anton de Kom University, University of Technology, Jamaica, University of Trinidad and Tobago and other colleges and universities across our region,” he urged.
There is an urgent need to share resources, remove fragmentation and reduce duplication. In this regard, he said, the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) stands as a living, successful example of embracing regional standards in education. “There is an urgent need to promote a culture of scientific entrepreneurship, and a concomitant and urgent need for the region to continue to improve the way it handles intellectual property.
“In my own efforts in Guyana, I have seen firsthand how important a tool science and technology can be in leap-frogging the developmental process. I firmly believe that our region’s science and technology portfolio should be heavily focused on technology transfer and the harnessing of S&T for development and well-being of our people. Even as we pursue technologies appropriate to our particular circumstances, critical mass cannot be accomplished without pooling our regional resources. The problem is not our individual peoples, who collaborate quite naturally I firmly contend that the problem resides with our political leadership lacking the political will to address this problem,” he said with much confirmation to his belief.
In closing, Dr Narine, gratefully accepted the award on behalf of the staff of the Institute of Applied Science and Technology (IAST) in Guyana, and “the many students, postdoctoral fellows, research associates and collaborators who have contributed so incredibly to my career.”
By Rebecca Ganesh