ewart s williams : quality citizens, transforming caribbean society address by mr ewart s williams, governor of the central bank of trinidad and tobago, at the roytec graduation ceremony on “ quality citizens, transforming caribbean society ”, port - of - spain, 19 november 2009. * * * dear members of the 2009 graduating class ; as many of you may know, my job requires me to do a fair amount of public speaking, but 99 per cent of the time, my remarks are in the realm of the dismal and boring arena of economics. not many people have taken the chance to invite me to provide inspiration and uplift. i was therefore both surprised and flattered when roytec, through my friend kelvin, invited me to give this graduation address. of course, i gladly accepted, largely because, as i am going to urge you later, you must always be prepared to venture beyond your comfort zone. i am, therefore truly honored to be here this evening and i am mindful that i am here because of you all and what you have accomplished. you have made today possible and we are all here to honor you. for your family and friends it is a day to celebrate, in recognition of your achievements. as a father of three, who have all passed this way, i know the pride and the relief that your parents and loved ones feel. today your graduation marks an important milestone in your life. you have worked hard and you have applied yourself to your studies ; some of you have had to juggle studies with family and work responsibilities and for some, it may have implied financial challenges. i am sure that at times, many of you wondered whether it was worth the effort. today, you could proudly answer that it was. perhaps, the major motivation behind your pursuit of tertiary education may have been to fulfill a career dream or for those who are already in the work - place, to enhance your career prospects. these are laudable motives. your education should be in your interest, even while it is clearly in the interest of your country, whose economic future hinges on the development of a knowledge economy, and on having well - educated people, like you are. your education is certainly going to be the key to your success, notwithstanding the current economic environment, with its weak job market. some of you may find that, for the moment, job opportunities commensurate with your newly - acquired qualifications, are not as readily available, as they were at other points of

the business cycle. many of you may not immediately get the exact position that you want. but you must not lose heart. rather, you must be prepared to be flexible, perhaps even adventurous, as you begin your careers. things will turn around you can be certain, and there will surely be need for people with your abilities and talents. i should warn you, though, that even when the economy rebounds and your career path starts in earnest, you should be prepared to deal with the unpredictability that is inherent in our modern day existence. as i am sure that many of you already realize, life is much less predictable than we would wish. we invariably have limited control over the opportunities and the challenges that we will face. we have considerably more control, however, over how well - prepared and open we are, to make the most of the opportunities that life provides us. as the saying goes, “ chance favors the prepared mind ”. i can testify to that aphorism. on graduating from uwi with my first degree in economics ( a long, long time ago ), i sought, to get a scholarship to go abroad to do my phd. my supervisors, eric st cyr and lloyd best, arranged to establish a masters programme with one candidate – myself. i did the course work on campus and after about eighteen months, abandoning my phd ambitions, i proceeded to the central bank, intent on making it a career. within another twelve months, as fate would have it, a visiting imf mission selected me for a two - year young professional programme at the imf. i ended up staying thirty years, rising to the top echelons of this very competitive international institution. and how did i manage to get there? because armed with my uwi groundings, i was prepared for all washington had to offer. and, that imf platform paved the way for my return to trinidad and tobago in my current position. you are all going to have your own twists and turns. you are all going to have your opportunities. be prepared to seize them, even if it means going out of your comfort zone. but, my dear graduands, there is another dimension to your success that you must not forget. it has to do with your obligations as graduates, in our present space and time, when our caribbean societies are beset by all manner of social problems. we all recognize the most glaring outward manifestations of our current condition, as youth indisci