Barbara Ellington, Lifestyle Editor
Professor Rex Nettleford is proud to be among the CARICOM'S top brass. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
You could say he's the quintessential Caribbean man. After all, Professor Rex Nettleford is a staunch regionalist who, in his own words, is audacious enough to hope that the new crop of leaders will step up to the challenge to unify the island states. But, for now, he is still basking in the honour of being among four Caribbean nationals to be awarded the Order of the Caribbean Community. It will be conferred at a ceremony at the 29th regular meeting of CARICOM in Antigua and Barbuda in July.
The other three awardees are: Dr. Nicholas Liverpool of Dominica, George Lamming of Barbados and Brian Lara of Trinidad and Tobago.
Nettleford has lost count of the many awards he has received but regards this one as significant because it's the highest from the region.
"I am very biased for the region and this places me in the company of Philip Sherlock, Alister McIntyre and Shridath Ramphal, all regionalists I admire greatly," he told Flair in an exclusive interview.
But now that the major players like P.J. Patterson and Owen Arthur have left the political stage, whither CARICOM? Nettleford euphemises the former heads of state as 'generals' who were inspired by decolonialisation and have left the stage to be succeeded by a "second eleven" who can now take the Caribbean further into the 21st century.
"They have to sustain what they have inherited; a new vision must be formulated and our growth and development have to be redefined. But I am confident because we are resourceful and resilient and we have an ancestral obligation to succeed," he said. The positive outlook is maintained even in spite of the fact that unlike reggae icons Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff and Toots Hibbert, whose lyrics expressed despair in the negatives and hope for the future, the new generation of lyrics lacks that depth of reflection.
So, does someone with his knowledge, experience and achievement in all spheres of endeavour have thoughts on how the region can proceed under the new leadership?
Nettleford does. "I commend Prime Minister Golding for initial overtures to Castro and Chávez, our future lies in the region. The Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) is not perfect but I understand his motivation to view the terms and try negotiating, and I am hopeful that all the region's governments will keep our destiny alive."
Funding
Having attended the University of the West Indies as a student and served it as lecturer and vice-chancellor, Nettleford thinks that the institution's future lies in its ability to face the challenges, especially where funding is concerned.
"There are a number of international institutions making offerings here and Jamaicans are willing to pay those exorbitant fees but resist the UWI's. Somehow we feel that if it belongs to government, it must be free," he said. So, the university has to work towards its own excellence.
He feels blessed to have been a part of the skills pool of the past 60 years. Those skills, he thinks, are better lost to the region than to North America and in the meantime, we must find the appropriate institutional framework to provide greater goods and services for ourselves.
Nettleford has achieved a lot but would like to be around to see others inherit and extend the modicum of good he has dispensed. He wants to see educated people who are capable of seeing the interconnectedness of the knowledge they have gained. "We should be more focused on teaching people rather than subjects and perhaps that could lead to less of the coarsening of our sensibilities," he stressed.
He cited the irony of becoming less refined with more advances made and longed for the days when elders were respected for their wisdom. "It is generational. I was raised to respect my elders but nowadays we don't see the connection between the wisdom of age and energy of youth and so I want to see social transformation. We have to put the institutional framework in place to make us all understand our responsibility to each other."
The Other Rex Nettleford
Nettleford - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
Prof Nettleford describes himself as very catholic in his musical taste, though firmly rooted in traditional forms. So he likes the classics as well as reggae, revival and folk songs. He also loves drums. The range of his preferences is reflected in the selections he uses as artistic director/co-founder of the National Dance Theatre Company.
In the food department, Nettleford is strongly Jamaican, from mackerel, ackee and saltfish, stew peas, oxtail to callaloo, he loves them all. Outside of that, it's Chinese cuisine.
He is a strong family man and unafraid to embrace the wisdom of his late grandmother and loving upbringing of his 99-year-old mother who resides in New York.
"I find myself constantly quoting my grandmother now and among her favourite was: 'Don't go to people's yard when they are eating'." The 'country boy' upbringing gave him a sense of consciousness of his community. But being raised by women now allows him to respect the work and worth of women locally and abroad. For fun, Nettleford reads, listens to music, dances and goes to the theatre. He collects books, works of art and sculpture (all West Indian), records and CDs. His favourite painters are Albert Huie, Cecil Cooper and Trinidadian Leroy Clarke.
Check out his fashion in later articles.
