History was made today when CARICOM Heads of Government unanimously selected Belize's Dr. Carla Barnett as CARICOM's 8th. Secretary General.
She is the first woman to hold the post and the first Belizean. In a Zoom video call Jules Vasquez asked her about it today:
Jules Vasquez, reporter
"How does it feel this historic moment?"
Dr. Carla Barnett, Incoming CARICOM Sec. Gen.
(Smile)"Well it's obvious I am very proud of it. It's a singular achievement. There are a couple of things that I would like to see us do a little bit more of; 1) sharing information of what CARICOM is doing, much more frequently and in ways that are easier to digest by the average citizen. But more than that I believe we can also bring more groups of stakeholders on board than we have tended to in the past. We've tended to deal primarily with the private sector, with labor in particular, but we've not really had active interventions, active inclusion on the youth population, the NGO sector more widely - people who we really do need to become much more involved in order for them to be able to understand first what CARICOM is doing, but also to carry the message about CARICOM into the next generation, because the youth of today will be running CARICOM when we are gone."
Jules Vasquez, reporter
"You spoke a lot about young people, but a lot of young people see it as just as 70s construct, because since then the internet has kind of flatten the world."
Dr. Carla Barnett
"One of the things that I found in talking with a lot of my colleagues in the rest of the world, some in Belize, some in Jamaica, in Trinidad, even in New York - one of the things that I've found is that where people know what CARICOM is and what CARICOM does, the support is there even among young people."
Jules Vasquez, reporter
"How does this auger for Belize perhaps being more a little more at the center or closer to the center of affairs in CARICOM?"
Dr. Carla Barnett
"Well, obviously there is the visibility factor, because people in Belize are not really involved in aware of CARICOM related events unless something happens, the issue with sugar recently a lot of people became aware of the CARICOM market, the fact that Belize is selling more produce into the region now, that's something that's increased the profile of CARICOM in Belize. But one of the things that historically has been true is that we've had very few people from Belize who have ever worked at the secretariat and perhaps my being there will raise that profile and perhaps more people will want to work in the secretariat in Guyana."
Dr. Barnett will assume the post and commence her 5 year term in mid-August after Ambassador Irwin LaRocque - who has served two terms - demits office.
