ST KITTS: Former Caricom secretary general Edwin Carrington, who is T&T's Caricom adviser, fainted during Thursday's six-hour long opening ceremony of the 32nd annual Caricom summit. Venue for the function was the Eastern Caribbean Development Bank auditorium. Thursday's opening ceremony, almost six hours long, was described by summit veterans as the longest opening ceremony in summit history. Apart from eight speeches from leaders and feature speakers-including Carrington-it also featured the national anthems of all 15 Caricom member states.
Carrington, who retired as secretary general, is part of T&T's delegation to the summit. Part of the opening ceremony's programme included presentation of an award to him. Prior to the presentation, however, Carrington who had been seated in the front row of the audience, slumped in his seat briefly and had to be fanned. He did not lose consciousness. Carrington was subsequently taken backstage and given medical attention. He later returned to the function to accept his award and deliver an address.
Yesterday, as summit meetings got underway Carrington appeared fully recovered, chatting with summit participants.
In his address at the opening ceremony, Carrington reaffirmed his commitment to the regional integration and offered advice to the regional community to achieve its prescribed roles. Following his departure as secretary general, Lolilta Applewhaite is acting in the post. Leaders are expected to examine a shortlist of candidates for the position. Summit sources hinted that Applewhaite might not be among the final choices. Thursday's addresses by new regional leaders featured a mix of issues being highlighted for agenda attention. While new Haitian Prime Minister Michel Martelly called for regional states to open up the region to Haitians-particularly job seekers-andSt Vincent criticised how some Caricom nationals were treated at ports of entry, new Barbadian leader Freundel Stuart defended Barbadian entry requirements.
Martelly, lobbying assistance for his earthquake-ravaged country, called for removal of regional travel restrictions on Haitians. He also launched a lobby for making French the official second language of the region. French is the national language of Haiti, Caricom's largest member. Martelly delivered his entire address in French to opening ceremony guests. St Vincent Foreign Affairs Minister Douglas Slater, delivering a speech on behalf of St Vincent PM, Ralph Gonsalves, said: "At practically every port of entry in Caricom, we simply do not treat our Caricom brothers and sisters as well as we should.
"In some cases the treatment is wholly unacceptable. Each state must resolve to lift its game in this regard and the Caricom secretariat should be allowed to monitor our performance." Slater also raised debate on the "freedom of movement" definition. On the other side of the coin, regarding travel, Barbadian leader Freundel Stuart defended his island's emigration policies, noting the danger of criminal elements in the region. Retorting to regional complaints on Barbadian policy-a consistent item arising among summit issues over the years-Stuart said in 2010 his country had admitted 173,106 persons and 651 were denied entry.
Saying criminal elements should not be given free rein and noting "creative scams" which were being used to enter the country, Stuart said Barbados would not compromise its due diligence processes.
Stuart noted that one person now in jail had had bogus credentials. What was worse, he said, was that an agency which issued the documents had complained about the detention of the culprit, saying Barbados was "harassing" certain nationals. Haiti's Martelly, who called for attention to climate change issues, left the summit yesterday to return home after Thursday's ceremony. Regional leaders had been scheduled to meet with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela after the summit. But this has been cancelled since Chavez is in Cuba undergoing medical attention for a pelvic abscess.