(Updated) US president praises PM at Howard University

UNITED States President Joe Biden praised TT as one of the US' strongest allies in the Caribbean.

Biden made this comment when he congratulated the Prime Minister on the honorary degree he received from Howard University in Washington DC on Saturday.

Dr Rowley received an honorary doctor of letters degree from the university, during its convocation ceremony held at the Capital One Arena.

Biden also received an honorary doctor of letters degree from the university and delivered the commencement speech at the ceremony.

In his opening remarks, Biden expressed his pleasure to share the stage with Rowley and the other honorees.

Speaking directly to Rowley, Biden said, "Prime Minister. I didn't know you were so talented. I just thought you were a foreign policies..you know....Latin American guy. We gotta talk."

Biden said, "All kidding aside. Thank you for being a strong partner in the Caribbean, for addressing climate change and supporting democracy across the western hemisphere."

For the remainder of his speech, Biden focused on several domestic issues facing the US and other matters.

On the former, he said the American people had to confront serious questions.

"Who are we? What do we stand for? What will we believe? Who will we be?"

Touching on the issue of race relations, Biden compared his experiences when Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated in Tennessee in April 1968 and being Barack Obama's vice president in January 2009.

"Hope doesn't travel alone. It's shadowed by fear and violence and by hate."

Biden observed that hate never goes away but hides under a rock.

"When it is given oxygen. It comes out from under that rock."

Biden did not believe people should be jailed for just possessing or using marijuana.

"Their record should be expunged."

He acknowledged laws passed by his administration to curb gun violence.

"We got the assault weapons ban passed three years ago. We're going to pass it again."

At the end of a special Caricom crime symposium in TT on April 18, Rowley said, Caricom heads agreed today to take a decision to ban the use and presence of assault weapons in the civilian population in the region.

He also said then Caricom will send a communiqué to the US Government signed by regional leaders pointing out that a main contributor to crime and violence in the Caribbean was the proliferation of firearms from US manufacturers.

Before giving Rowley his degree, Howard University president Dr Wayne Frederick described him as a "renowned social and political leader, pioneering statesman and scholar."

Frederick said Rowley has been a major political player in TT since 1981.

He praised him for strengthening US-TT ties in many areas such as security, education, energy, agriculture and the arts.

Frederick told Rowley, "Your enterprising efforts have fostered regional integration among Caribbean countries including Barbados, Jamaica and Guyana."

He said Rowley was versed in the history of the US and the Caribbean, long before the former became an independent nation.

TT, Frederick continued, has benefited from policies implemented under Rowley.

He highlighted economic diversification, energy reforms and quality education as some of those benefits.

Frederick praised Rowley developing community centres and other facilities in his Diego Martin West constituency.

He praised Rowley for his "exemplary handing of the covid19 pandemic has been hailed for saving lives and lessening the overall spread (of the virus)."

Frederick attributed this to Rowley's "quick and decisive actions."

He said Rowley's humble upbringings in Tobago to contributed to his leadership qualities.

Frederick also described Rowley as a scientist and through his autobiography (From Mason Hall to Whitehall) as a "masterful storyteller."

He thanked Rowley for giving him the idea to create the Dr Eric Williams chair in Caribbean Studies.

Frederick, who received the Order of the Republic of TT in 2020 for distinguished and outstanding service to TT, promised to spend time developing this initiative after he retires as president.

On Saturday, marijuana activist Nazma Muller issued a petition to Frederick calling on the university to rescind Rowley's doctorate. "How can Howard University, an institution that built its reputation on supporting black people, give an honorary doctorate to someone like Keith Rowley?" she asked.

Muller claimed Rowley has "turned the richest country in the Caribbean into the most criminal, overseeing the highest murder rate ever in the history of TT." She also claimed Rowley has destroyed TT's economy, society and reputation.

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