Ca­lyp­so leg­end David Michael Rud­der is among four CARI­COM na­tion­als to be con­ferred with the Or­der of the Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty.
 The names were an­nounced at the open­ing cer­e­mo­ny of the 43rd Reg­u­lar Meet­ing of the Con­fer­ence of Heads of Gov­ern­ment of CARI­COM, in Suri­name.

"I’m deeply hum­bled. Thank you Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty," the words of David Michael Rud­der post­ed on his Face­book page.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia, Min­is­ter of For­eign Af­fairs Dr Amery Browne said he took the pro­pos­al to Cab­i­net and it was sub­se­quent­ly ap­proved by CARI­COM. Rud­der will be pre­sent­ed with his award in the near fu­ture pend­ing his avail­abil­i­ty. He hopes to hold the cer­e­mo­ny in Trinidad. 

Al­so re­ceiv­ing the re­gion's high­est award were CARI­COM Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al, Am­bas­sador Ir­win LaRocque, Crick­eter ex­tra­or­di­naire, Sir Vi­vian Richards, and For­mer Deputy Prime Min­is­ter and Min­is­ter of For­eign Af­fairs of Bar­ba­dos, Dame Bil­lie Miller.

Ac­cord­ing to the CARI­COM site, the Or­der of the Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty is an award giv­en to “Caribbean na­tion­als whose lega­cy in the eco­nom­ic, po­lit­i­cal, so­cial and cul­tur­al meta­mor­phoses of Caribbean so­ci­ety is phe­nom­e­nal”

The award was ini­ti­at­ed at the Eighth (8th) Con­fer­ence of Heads of State and Gov­ern­ments of CARI­COM in 1987 and be­gan be­stow­al in 1992.De­ci­sions as to award are tak­en by the Ad­vi­so­ry Com­mit­tee for the Or­der of the Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty. The In­signia of the O.C.C. set in gold and the Rib­bon of the Or­der are pre­sent­ed to those ho­n­oured.