Thursday, January 21, 2010

Piggy-backing on Nobel Laureate Week

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

To be honest with you, St. Lucia is the only country wasting money each year in honouring our two laureats in this way. Two men who became millionairs, but are yet to funnel any of this money back into anything educational in St. Lucia, and Derek, a man who is not too keen on helping others move forward. I know this as I asked him once to endorsed a book for me which I had published, and the man refused, and went on th tell me that I should never call his house gain so early in the morning 10 am.
We should celbrate the two men, but we could do so without using up so much of tax payers money.

January 23, 2010 at 5:16 PM
Anonymous said...

I quite agree that the yearly spending of money to honour our two Laureats is a waste of time and money. The two, has given nothing back to St. Lucia. Indeed, I am proud that St. Lucia has two Laureats, but that's all!
I have a short story about Dereck Walcott...
I was a student at University of California, Berkeley, California. The Literature Department invited him to read his poems. I was so proud that I would finally be able be present at his reading. I invited all my friends to attend. This school is predominantly white with some Oriental students. I was one of a few Blacks in the room. The reading was great...I chuckled a bit because i knew that I was the only one in the room who understood some of the patior in his work.
At the end of the reading, I approached him, introduced myself as a St. Lucian. I reached out to shake his hand. What he did I will never forget for as long as I live. He turned his back and just walked away... embarassing man embarassing!

January 25, 2010 at 11:10 AM
Thommo said...

I have never met Derek Walcott and cannot attest for his his graciousness or humility nor will I try to discredit the two posters' anecdotes regarding his boorish behaviour towards them.
I did meet Sir. Arthur, albeit briefly, during my stint at UWI Cavehill. A gorup of students were invited to dine and engage in friendly conversation with him and his wife. It was an experience I will always cherish.

I've heard a few not too pleasant stories about Derek of arrogance and a lack of civility and grumpiness on the occassional bad day.
Having said that we should separate his shortcomings from his genius and his contribution to helping St. Lucia gain international prominence.

In my travels I have always touted the achievements of these two stalwarts of academia and taken pride to anyone of the fact that they hail form St. Lucia. This usually follows questions about St. Lucia's location and I have always included "you should visit there sometime" as part of my response.

I do not have a problem with Nobel Laurate Week as we need to sensitize our young people about the contributions of those who make modern St. Lucia possible and to bring home the message that with hard work and dedication they too can achieve greatness.

January 29, 2010 at 8:47 PM

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