This week Katie and I are presenting a paper we co-wrote on gender disparity in West Indies tertiary institutions to a conference being held here in the Cayman Islands. The conference is being co-hosted by the two local institutions ICCI and UCCI, and by the University of the West Indies which has three large physical campuses in the Caribbean (Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad) and several open campuses in almost all the jurisdictions of the Anglophone nations of the Caribbean including the Cayman Islands. The conference is called Caribbean Conference 50/50: Surveying the Past and Mapping the Future, and it is recognizing the 50th anniversary of the end of the West Indies Federation by looking at the past 50 years and their implications for the next 50 years. Our presentation is not until this Friday near the end of the conference.
Tonight was the opening ceremony and, with Katie teaching, I attended on behalf of the college. I gave a few brief remarks on behalf of ICCI during the welcome portion of the ceremony and, fortunately, did not flub my lines in front of what was a huge crowd of conference attendees and dignitaries. The event was attended by the only living national hero of the Cayman Islands Mrs. Sybil McLaughlin and by just about every politician who was on the island from the Governor down through the Cabinet Ministers and the Leader of the Opposition. Also in attendance was the former Prime Minister and current Leader of the Opposition of Barbados, the honorable Owen Arthur, who was the keynote speaker and the Premier of Bermuda, the honorable Paula Cox. As one of the speakers, I was seated in the front row and had a chance to get a couple of shots with my blackberry of the dignitaries and the keynote speaker.
Tonight was the opening ceremony and, with Katie teaching, I attended on behalf of the college. I gave a few brief remarks on behalf of ICCI during the welcome portion of the ceremony and, fortunately, did not flub my lines in front of what was a huge crowd of conference attendees and dignitaries. The event was attended by the only living national hero of the Cayman Islands Mrs. Sybil McLaughlin and by just about every politician who was on the island from the Governor down through the Cabinet Ministers and the Leader of the Opposition. Also in attendance was the former Prime Minister and current Leader of the Opposition of Barbados, the honorable Owen Arthur, who was the keynote speaker and the Premier of Bermuda, the honorable Paula Cox. As one of the speakers, I was seated in the front row and had a chance to get a couple of shots with my blackberry of the dignitaries and the keynote speaker.
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| Dignitaries on the front row including the Governor, the acting Premier of the Cayman Islands, the Premier of Bermuda and our only living National Hero Mrs. Sybil McLaughlin |
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| Hon. Owen Arthur former Prime Minister of Barbados gives the keynote address |
The conference really kicks off tomorrow with a full day of presentations and four of our students are presenting as is one of our faculty in addition to the paper Katie and I are presenting. Should be a lot of fun and an intellectually stimulating time.
