(Trinidad Express) The University of the West Indies (The UWI) is “intellectually bankrupt”, Member of Parliament for Diego Martin North East Colm Imbert has said.
Imbert, an alumni of The UWI, said at times he felt like returning his degree to the institution.
Imbert said Friday that during this time of growing turbulence in the global energy sector the intellectuals at The UWI have remained “deafeningly silent”.
He said he was bothered by this.
“The University of the West Indies, you know sometimes I feel like giving back my degree, because The University of the West Indies is in a sorry state,” Imbert said during debate in the Lower House at the International Waterfront Centre in Port of Spain.
“Where are the economists in The University of the West Indies, educating the public, debating, speaking about these issues there should have been forums at The University of the West Indies for the last six months bringing thinkers and economists and oil experts together to talk about these things and to chart the way forward for Trinidad and Tobago,” he said.
“All you are hearing is a deafening silence, what has happened to The University of the West Indies, what has happened to it. Intellectually bankrupt,” he said.
Imbert said when you do hear voices from The UWI they seem to be “government mouthpieces”.
“Even an economist at UWI some fella called Roger Hosein everything is good man, the budget price good. This is why I talk about the intellectual bankruptcy of UWI, you get the impression that the only people who speak up there are government mouthpieces, there are no independent thinkers anymore left at UWI and I call on the University of the West Indies to stop that,” he said.
