TORONTO, February 26, 2001 – The 3rd annual York University Jagan Lecture will feature prominent Caribbean economist and political thinker Lloyd Best, who will speak on the political and social implications of race, class and ethnic divisions in the Caribbean.
Best’s lecture, "Race, Class and Ethnicity in a Caribbean Interpretation", will be delivered Saturday, March 3, at 7:30 p.m., in Lecture Room A, Vari Hall, York University, 4700 Keele Street.
Best will discuss the ways in which the structures of government in the Caribbean since independence have failed to deliver the ideals of earlier anti-colonial movements, and how elitist modes of thinking continue to fail Caribbean peoples. He will ask: How can Caribbean countries move towards a more inclusive model of governance which allows all Caribbean communities to flourish while taking into account their real needs and differences? What is the place of race, class and ethnicity in this conundrum? And what is the place of race in the Caribbean communities in Toronto, London and New York?
Best is director of the Trinidad and Tobago Institute of the West Indies, publisher and managing editor of the Trinidad & Tobago Review, and CEO of Trinidad and Tobago International Business and Economics Consulting. He served as Leader of the Opposition of the Trinidad and Tobago Senate from 1974 to 1975 and 1981 to 1983. Best has been a consultant for the UN and for other multilateral agencies mostly in Africa and the Caribbean, and has taught at the University of the West Indies.
York University English Prof. Frank Birbalsingh, one of the key organizers of this year's lecture, says that the recent elections in Trinidad and the approaching elections in Guyana demonstrate how the Caribbean is still struggling to overcome the remnants of its colonial past. "It is evident that the rigid lines of demarcation by race, class, and ethnicity still influence the way in which governments come to power in the Caribbean," he says. "Best’s outspokenness on this matter has helped put it at the forefront of public debate in the Caribbean."
The annual Jagan Lecture series was established in March 1999 as a tribute to the late Dr. Cheddi Jagan, former president of Guyana, Caribbean thinker, politician and visionary who helped lead his country, then called British Guiana, to gain independence from Britain in 1966. The lecture series is founded on Jagan's belief that a coordinated international effort and new global human order -- one which emphasizes the primacy of human development -- can eradicate world poverty and hunger and bring about social justice for the developing world.
The series is jointly organized and sponsored by the Centre for Research on Latin America & the Caribbean (CERLAC), York International, together with a standing committee composed of members of the Toronto Caribbean & York University communities.
-30-
For more information, visit: http://jagan.org, or contact:
Prof. Frank Birbalsingh
English Dept.
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 22036
birbalsi@yorku.ca
Chandra Budhu
Chair, Jagan Lectures Planning Committee
(416) 927-8985
rbudhu@home.com
Ken Turriff
Media Relations
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 22086
kturriff@yorku.ca
YU/017/01
