Political and civil group leaders pay tribute for Owen Arthur, Barbados’ longest-serving prime minister, who died earlier on Monday from heart-related complications.

Babardos’ current Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, who struggled for word in her tribute, hailed Arthur as “the man for the times”.

Mottley believes the island has suffered a great loss in the passing of Arthur.

“Barbados is the poorer for his passing. His intellect was larger than life, believe you, me. His love of country as constant as a northern star. The last title bestowed on him was the most fitting – Professor of Practice. Owen was first and foremost a teacher. Taking the most complex economic issues and stripping them down to be understood by the average man and average woman in the shop. His keen sense of history and of politics shared daily with an emerging class of politicians that he would claim responsibility for bringing to public life,” Mottley stated, reflecting on his life.

Meanwhile, Opposition leader Kamla Persad Bissessar says the Caribbean has lost one of its greatest statesmen and a true leader of character.

“On behalf of the United National Congress, I offer my sincere condolences to the people of Barbados on the passing of Former Prime Minister Owen Arthur. Our Caribbean region has lost one of its greatest statesmen and a true leader of character who dedicated his life not only to the development of Barbados but the entire region.”

Bissessar noted that Arthur’s vision went beyond the borders of Barbados as he committed to improving the overarching socio-economic structure of CARICOM and strengthening regional development.

Likewise she added that his legacy will live on for many generations as inspiration for many Caribbean youths who wish to enter politics.

CARICOM Leaders hail Owen Arthur

Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness has described Arthur as a person who was passionate about his country.

“Today I pause to pay my respects to a man who served Barbados and the Caribbean with distinction, former Prime Minister of Barbados, Owen Seymour Arthur. I am truly saddened by his passing,” Holness said in a message on his Twitter page.

St Lucia’s Prime Minister Allen Chastanet extended deepest condolences to Barbados on the death of Arthur.

“Our heart goes out to his wife and daughters and all his family and friends and to the government and people of Barbados,” he added.

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretary General, Irwin LaRocque said the entire Caribbean Community mourns the passing of an “ardent regionalist” in Arthur.

Grenada’s Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell, in his tribute, referred to Arthur as his “close friend and colleague.”

“Barbados and the Caribbean have lost a great son. He was one of the brilliant and best political minds of the region. A brilliant economist as well. I had tremendous respect for his insight into political and economic issues.”

Prime Minister of Dominica, Roosevelt Skerrit praised Arthur for his contribution to the socio-economic development of Dominica describing him also as a regionalist, who fought for the betterment of the 15-member regional integration movement, Caricom.

Caribbean diplomat Sir Ron Sanders praised Arthur for his love and commitment to the Caribbean.

“Owen Arthur and I had been talking almost every day over the last few weeks until he was admitted to hospital. He was deeply troubled by events in Guyana and about matters concerning LIAT.”

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United Nations News –

Governments everywhere should adopt a much more focused approach to stopping coronavirus transmission if they want to avoid having to impose sweeping lockdowns once again.

That’s the message on Monday from the World Health Organization, (WHO), whose head of emergencies, Dr Mike Ryan, likened fighting COVID-19 to using specialised tools for surgery, to ensure better outcomes for patients.

16 million cases of coronavirus

The development comes as the WHO announced nearly 16 million cases of reported infection worldwide and more than 640,000 deaths.

“It’s very understandable that no country in the world that’s been through a lockdown wants to go back there, who wants to go back there, there are huge economic and other consequences,” Dr Ryan said.

“If you can understand the dynamics of transmission and be very precise in your disease understanding you can very precise in your response. It’s like in surgery, if you think about people who have brain surgery, surgeons very often use microscopes so that they can actually work at a much finer level.

“And we’ve seen huge increases in the numbers of people surviving from brain surgery because we are much precise in the surgery we can carry out.”

Six months with new coronavirus

Reiterating the need for continued vigilance against the disease and the need for authorities to ramp up tracking and tracing of contacts, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted that Thursday (30 July) marks six months since the UN agency declared COVID-19 a public health emergency of international concern.

This was the sixth time a global health emergency has been declared under the International Health Regulations, “but it is easily the most severe”, he said, during a virtual press conference at WHO headquarters in Geneva.

The pandemic continues to accelerate, Tedros continued, noting that in the past six weeks, the total number of cases had roughly doubled.

Citing Cambodia, New Zealand, Rwanda, Thailand, Viet Nam, and islands in the Pacific and Caribbean, as places that had prevented large-scale outbreaks by respecting transmission reduction measures “carefully and consistently”, Tedros also praised Canada, China, Germany and the Republic of Korea for bringing large outbreaks under control.

Safe choices

Remaining determined to stop the virus in its tracks is key to ending transmission, along with a willingness to make “hard choices to keep ourselves and each other safe”, he said.

“Although our world has changed, the fundamental pillars of the response have not: political leadership, and informing, engaging and listening to communities,” he added.

“Nor have the basic measures needed to suppress transmission and save lives: find, isolate, test and care for cases; and trace and quarantine their contacts.”

Reiterating advice born of evidence that no single health measure is sufficient to overcome COVID-19, he called on people to “keep your distance from others, clean your hands, avoid crowded and enclosed areas, and wear a mask where recommended. Where these measures are followed, cases go down. Where they’re not, cases go up.”

Under pressure

Echoing that message, WHO’s Dr Maria Van Kerkhove insisted that in addition to wearing masks every day, the world’s “new normal” meant knowing where the virus is “each and every day, where we live, we work, where we want to travel. That’s going to be part of how we move forward with this, finding the balance between keeping the virus transmission low and resuming normal activities.”

Dr Van Kerkhove, Technical lead COVID-19, WHO Health Emergencies Programme, also highlighted the mental health impact of such measures on individuals, families and communities.

“This is very difficult, no matter where we are,” she said, noting that the WHO had issued advice on its website aimed at helping people to cope if they felt under pressure. “Everyone is going through this and I think it’s important that we find different ways to talk about this with each other, whether this within our family, with our loved ones, whether it’s older individuals who are kept isolated, kept separate from the family, whether it’s our kids.”

In other news:

COVID-19: No return to “old normal”

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