The Prospect for Health and Wealth in the Caribbean

First, let me thank the President of the Caribbean Development Bank, Professor Compton Bourne for the invitation to deliver this William Demas Memorial lecture. I am fortunate in my choice of topic not only because of the interest Mr. Demas showed in health as an instrument of Caribbean development, but also I am privileged to deliver the lecture with Prime Minister Douglas in the chair. Prime Minister Douglas combines in one person the attributes of a physician and a politician, and let me pay tribute to his work as the Prime Minister responsible for the health portfolio in CARICOM. I am fond of quoting to my politician friends a famous statement by a distinguished German physician-Rudolf Virchov who said “medicine is a social science and politics is nothing more than medicine on a large scale”. I do not know if the Prime Minister’s experience bears this out.