Chairman Emeritus of the ANSA McAL Group of companies Dr. Anthony N. Sabga (from left), shares a light moment with Sister Paul D’Ornellas, Judy Y. Chang, Maria Nelson and Michael Mansoor during the announcement of the 2014 the Laureates of the Anthony N. Sabga Caribbean Awards for Excellence Awards at TATIL Building, Maraval Road, Port-of-Spain on Thursday 20th February, 2014. PHOTO: CLYDE LEWIS
Prof Liam Teague, Guyanese women’s and children’s right activist Karen de Souza and vulcanologist Dr. Richard Robertson, from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, were named yesterday as the 2014 laureates for the Anthony N. Sabga Caribbean Awards for excellence. Making the announcement at TATIL building, Maraval Road, Port-of-Spain, was Michael Mansoor – Chairman of the awards’ Eminent Persons Panel (EPP) selection committee. Teague was selected in the category of arts and letters, De Souza for public and civic contributions and Robertson for science and technology. Teague, an accomplished pan musician, is a professor of music at the Northern Illinois University, and performs throughout the world, including T&T.
He is the arranger for this year’s Panorama Large Conventional Band finalist PCS Nitrogen Silver Stars. De Souza is the co-founder of Red Thread, an advocacy organisation which provides service and support, education, and advocacy for victims of rape and domestic and other forms of violence and for the lowest-waged sectors of women. Robertson is the director of UWI’s Seismic Research Centre at St Augustine, is a geologist and vulcanologist whose work has been ground-breaking in the study of volcanoes and the geology of the region. A world expert, he is active in public education on the issue and has published academic books, and numerous refereed articles and book chapters. Each laureate will receive a cheque for $500,000, a medal and a citation at a ceremony expected to be held in early May, Mansoor said yesterday. To date close to $10.5 million has been given in the awards, which began in 2005.
In explaining how the candidates were selected, Mansoor said nominees were screened and selected by nominating committees in five territories: Guyana, Barbados, Jamaica, T&T and the Organisation Eastern Caribbean States. A country nomination committee selects one nominee in each of the categories and presents their credentials to a regional panel of eminent people.
The first Eminent Persons Panel (EPP) was chaired by the late president Sir Ellis Clarke in 2006. Saying the selection process was “anything but easy,” Mansoor added: “As the impressive group of laureates we’ve accumulated over the years attests, we have a college of 20 men and women from all the islands of the English-speaking Caribbean. We have scientists, writers, a filmmaker, energy entrepreneurs, archaeologists, First Peoples’ advocates.”
February 21st, 2014
Trinidad Guardian
Story By: Geisha Kowlessar
