30TH ANNIVERSARY OF CARICOM : A TIME OF HONOURS FOR ITS SECRETARY-GENERAL

CARICOM Secretary-General Edwin Carrington was among 35 members of staff of the CARICOM Secretariat who received awards at a ceremony on 23 July 2003 at Le Meridien Pegasus in Georgetown, Guyana.

It was an extraordinary occasion for the Secretary-General who received two other awards apart from one for 10 years of service. The first was a Special Award for being the “longest serving Secretary-General” having begun his tenure in 1992. Roderick Rainford, his immediate predecessor had served for nine years and was the previous longest serving Secretary-General.

To top the night off, His Excellency Bharrat Jagdeo, the President of Guyana surprised the Secretary-General and the entire gathering when he announced that his country had decided to bestow Guyana’s Cacique Crown of Honour (CCH) upon Secretary-General Carrington for long and meritorious service to the Caribbean Community.

Remarkably, it was the second award from a Member State conferred on the Secretary-General in less than a month. In Jamaica, during the 24th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government, the Governor-General of that country, The Most Honourable Sir Howard Cooke, had conferred the Order of Jamaica (OJ) on the Secretary -General.

These latest awards follow those granted by other Member States of the Community: the Companion of Honour of Barbados (CHB) in 2002; the Order of Distinction of Belize in 2001; and the Chaconia Medal (Gold) from his native Trinidad and Tobago in 1987.

Secretary-General Carrington has also received awards from countries outside of CARICOM and from civic organisations. These include el Orden de Duarte, Sanchez y Mella, Gran Cruz de Plata from the Dominican Republic; the Pinnacle Award from the National Coalition of Caribbean Affairs of New York, USA (jointly with Mr. Colin Powell).

The Secretary-General in expressing his appreciation for the awards considered that they were also in recognition of the contribution of his hardworking and committed staff.