WESTERN BUREAU:

Former Prime Minister P.J. Patterson is expected to speak on how Caribbean leaders should collectively respond to the global financial crisis when he accepts the region's highest award at the CARICOM Heads of Government meeting in Georgetown, Guyana, on Thursday.

Patterson, an avid cricket fan, leaves the island tomorrow for the opening ceremony of the 30th meeting of the region's heads, where he will receive the Order of the Caribbean Community (OCC).

The Gleaner caught up with him between ball-by-ball play of the Digicel one-day international series between the West Indies and India at Sabina Park yesterday afternoon and, although he was only prepared to give a sneak preview on his planned speech, with humility he said: "It's a great honour to believe that the service you have given to CARICOM, to the whole integration process in helping to establish the identity of the Caribbean in the wider international community, you are being recognised for."

Common ground

Reflecting on the positions that were taken while he was actively in politics, he said he was heartened that during his involvement with the Commonwealth, the United Nations and the Organisation of American States, he was able to find common ground and to take a single position in relation to problems and challenges.

Patterson is the second Jamaican prime minister to be bestowed with this honour. The late Michael Manley was also a recipient.

"Mr Patterson is being recognised for his outstanding contribution in the area of the region's external trade relations and in fostering relations with the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group (ACP), especially in its formative years," read a statement issued by the CARICOM Secretariat.

Born on April 10, 1935, in St Andrew, Patterson, who holds the record as Jamaica's longest-serving prime minister, serving from 1992 to 2006, joins the ranks of pioneers of the integration movement, Antigua's V.C. Bird and Belize's George Bryce.

Other notable West Indians to receive the OCC include Sir Shridath Ramphall, Sir George Alleyne, the late Dame Eugenia Charles and Nobel Prize laureate Derek Walcott, Rex Nettleford, Baldwin Spencer and the late Sir John Compton.

janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com