Putting Bermudians in closer touch with their Caribbean heritage could give them the type of grounding that would enable them to achieve greatness.

This was the undertone of the keynote speech by assistant secretary general of Caricom, Dr. Edward Green on Saturday night.

Dr. Green was the guest speaker at the West Indian Association's 25th anniversary banquet at the Fairmont Southampton Princess. He pointed out that wherever Caricom nationals go, they emerge as leaders.

He held up Colin Powell, Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, and Bermuda' s first Premier, Sir Edward Richards (from Guyana) as shining examples.

He said the organisation looked forward to welcoming Bermuda to the fold as an associate member and he urged members of the West Indian Association to play an active role in the debate on Bermuda joining Caricom.

"We hope the West Indian community in Bermuda would lend an objective voice to this debate," he said.

Noting the genetic ties many Bermudians already have with the Caribbean, Dr. Green stressed that the region has a rich culture.

"Think that in this small region we have produced three Nobel Prize winners over the past 20 years: Sir Arthur Lewis from St. Lucia for economics in 1982; Mr. Derek Walcott, also from St. Lucia and a graduate of the University of the West Indies for literature, in 1992, and Vidia Naipaul of Trinidad and Tobago for literature in 2001."

He reminded guests that Jamaican Bob Marley, although dead for more than 20 years, had immortalised reggae as one of the leading musical genres and he said the Mighty Sparrow continues to do the same for calypso.

Holding that small countries like Bermuda will find it almost impossible to survive alone in the growing move to globalisation, Dr. Green said Caricom would be accelerating its plans to create a single Caribbean market with one economy.

Former colonies like the countries in the Caribbean accustomed to receiving preferential treatment for goods and services, can no longer expect these concessions, he said. The movement towards the Free Trade Association of the Americas by 2005 had made it even more urgent for the Caribbean to plan a strategic and effective agenda for its survival in this wider system, he added.

The Government has said it will not be seeking full member status in Caricom, but rather associate membership which would not include participation in the single market.

Nevertheless Dr. Green highlighted that by joining forces with Caricom, Bermuda might be better able to serve its needs as it will be able to have stronger arm in negotiations.

He noted that a recent Pan Caribbean partnership on HIV/AIDS coordinated by the Caricom secretariat has managed to get the price of anti retroviral drugs lowered for the entire region through negotiations with pharmaceutical companies.

Noting that Bermuda is a member of the Caribbean Task Force on Crime and Security, Dr. Green said that a recent report by the group fully dramatised that unless drastic policies are implemented to curb the intensity of violent crime linked to drugs and illicit arms, the fear and panic which it generates will have deleterious consequences on the region's already fragile economies.