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07th
January 2010
CELEBRATING
EXCELLENCE
STAN BISHOP
The
work and lives of St. Lucia’s two Nobel
laureates will be put in the public spotlight
as organizers prepare to recognize the achievements
the duo has contributed to the island.
A week of activities will be observed to pay
tribute to Sir Arthur Lewis, Nobel laureate
for Economics in 1979, and Hon. Derek Walcott,
Nobel Laureate for Literature in 1992.
Among the planned activities marking Nobel Laureate
Week which will run from January 17 to 23 are
the Derek Walcott Lecture on Monday, January
18 to be delivered by Nigeria’s 1986 Nobel
Laureate for Literaure, Wole Soyinka, and the
Sir Arthur Lewis Memorial Lecture on Thursday,
January 21 to be delivered by St. Lucia-born
Eastern Caribbean Central Bank adviser, Peter
Adrien.
Speaking at the official launch of upcoming
Nobel Laureate Week held at Government House
yesterday morning under the theme “Celebrating
Excellence At Home And Abroad,” Governor-General
of St. Lucia, H.E. Dame Pearlette Louisy said
that now more than ever St. Lucians need to
recognize and celebrate the outstanding achievements
of two of the island’s most notable sons.
“Not only are we paying tribute and honouring
our two laureates – Sir Arthur and Honourable
Derek – but we are also aware that we
need to develop, we need to nurture, we need
to encourage, we need to promote, we need to
create the environment for, hopefully, a few
more Nobel Laureates,” Dame Pearlette
said.
Apart from the two laureates, tribute will also
be paid to now-deceased Roderick Walcott, whose
play “The Harrowing of Benjy,” will
be staged during the week. Roderick, like his
twin brother Derek, would have celebrated his
eightieth birthday on January 23.
Sir William Arthur Lewis was born on January
23, 1915 and later educated at the London School
of Economics, where he obtained a B.Sc. degree
in 1937 and a Ph.D. Degree in 1940. He lectured
at the University of Manchester and was subsequently
appointed Vice Chancellor of the University
of the West Indies in 1959. The economist served
in many other high-level positions, including
a stint as director of the Caribbean Development
Bank (CDB).
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In 1978, the talented and
renowned economist was bestowed with knighthood;
a year later, he won the island’s first
Nobel Prize – winning in the field of
economics. Among Sir Arthur’s most notable
works is an article he published in 1954 entitled
“Economic Development with Unlimited
Supplies of Labour,” in which he combined
an analysis of the historical experience of
developed countries with the central ideas
of the classical economists to produce a broad
picture of the development process.
Another example of his major works is “The
Theory of Economic Growth,” published
in 1955. He even has an economics principle
named after him – the Lewisian Turning
Point – in which he postulated that
the industrial wages of developing countries
begin to rise sharply at the point when supply
of surplus labour from the countryside tapers
off.
Sir Arthur passed away on June 15, 1991in
Barbados at age 76.
St. Lucia’s second Nobel laureate, Hon.
Derek Walcott, was born on January 23, 1930
and later educated at St. Mary’s College,
in St. Lucia, and later at the University
of the West Indies, Jamaica. At 18, he published
his first poetic collections, “25 Poems,”
but it was “In A Green Night,”
published in 1962 that catapulted Walcott’s
career as a poet to be reckoned with. He is
also credited with founding the Trinidad Theatre
Workshop in 1959, having moved to that country
six years earlier.
A prolific poet, essayist, painter and playwright,
Walcott has taught at Boston University. He
stunned the literary world in 1992 when he
won the Nobel Prize for Literature by which
time, many literary pundits had agreed, it
was long overdue. His epic poem, “Omeros,”
was a reworking of Homeric story and tradition
into a journey around the Caribbean and beyond
to the American West and London.
The Nobel Laureate Week of activities is now
in its seventeenth year and the organizing
committee is appealing to the general public
to attend the number of free activities it
has planned for the week.
Discuss
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