Digitise now or neverInvesting in young people by providing training in new technologies and digital systems will be critical to the development of Barbados’ economy, says Minister of State in the Ministry of Education Sandra Husbands. She was delivering the feature address at the Samuel Jackman Prescod Institute of Technology 2024 graduation ceremony held at the Wildey Gymnasium on Saturday night. Husbands said the world was undergoing a fourth industrial revolution centred around new technological advancements and it was important for the nation’s youth to be exposed to these new technologies and carry the island forward. “You have emerged into a world in which there is the fourth industrial revolution; it is here disrupting all technologies and processes. At its heart is the digital revolution and this ushers in new ways to do new things and new ways of doing old things,” she said. “Digital technology must be understood, digital technology must be mastered and then digital technology must be integrated into the Barbadian landscape and into the skill sets of our people, hence the necessity of SJPI’s mission to produce skilled and innovative graduates through competency based training and the promotion of lifelong learning.” You Might Be Interested In Ross University opens Barbados campus UWI supports innovation for regional growth St George Secondary closed next week The minister said the vocational institution therefore had a significant role to play in ensuring young people were well equipped and prepared for the new world of work. “The work of SJPI is essential to the capacity of Barbados to continue to form enterprises which can attract business from a sophisticated global environment. If we are going to attract new investment, that will bring jobs that pay well, that provide Barbadians with the opportunity to live a good life. It is important that we build the skill sets of all of our citizens because it is for those skills that those businesses will make a determination that they will establish business in Barbados. “So you are important to that process, investing in you and investing in your skills is what will help us to generate that type of economic growth that guarantees all of you an opportunity to live that best life by providing a new generation of the Barbadian workforce with the ability to perform to a global standard in technical and vocational skills. And in so doing, the SJPI pursues its vision to be a global centre of excellence for technological and vocational education.” Additionally, Husbands told the graduates that they will need more than certificates and other qualifications to be successful in their careers. She told them that good moral standing will take them far and positive characters reflecting Barbadian culture will make them stand out as global citizens. “We also want to make sure that we send you forth in such a way that you demonstrate to the world the core values which govern this esteemed establishment. Those values are integrity, accountability, credibility, excellence, innovation, professionalism, and increasing value. And why are these important? People in the world judge you first of all, by how you look, by how you speak and then how you act and people in the world want to engage persons, they can trust. “You will be trusted if people feel you are comfortable that you will stand and act truthfully that you are disciplined, that no matter what, your word can be relied on to execute a task, that you will act fairly with others, that you will be objective in your views and that you will conduct yourself in a way that allows them to feel safe around you and to trust you and having sent you forth with a skill set, it was necessary for us to ensure that we also help you to understand these values at the SJPI and encourage you to integrate them into your way of living, into your way of acting because this is how you will not only get an opportunity, secure an opportunity but be able to use each opportunity to move on to a higher one because your reputation will go before you and you will be in high demand,” she said. Sharia Hall, who earned a diploma distinction in office administration was the valedictorian. During her address, she said that this milestone was an important one and although the journey to securing accreditation was difficult, she congratulated her fellow graduates for persevering and not giving up. She shared her experience pursuing her qualification. “For me excelling in school wasn’t always a given. I faced moments of frustration or even failure that made me question if I could succeed.There were times when balancing school, family and personal struggles felt overwhelming. The fear of failure and disappointing those I cared about the most seemed to overpower everything else. But it was in those moments that I learned what excelling purely means. “Excelling in school is often seen as a result of natural talent but what I’ve learned is that it’s about so much more. It’s not about perfection. It’s about perseverance, it’s about showing up every day even when it feels impossible,” she said. Close to 300 students graduated from the institution. Hall and two other students-Rynell Weekes and Jenita Clarke- received special wards for their academic performance. The theme of the graduation ceremony was: Embracing Technology, Empowering the Future. (SZB)
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The identity of the person who paid for a banner asking Giants owner John Mara to “ fix this dumpster fire ” to be towed behind a plane flying over MetLife Stadium ahead of Sunday’s loss to the Saints is unknown, but we can rule out one person. Wide receiver Malik Nabers was asked about the banner while speaking to reporters in the locker room after the game. Nabers said he didn’t see it and then said he has nothing to say about it because he didn’t pay for it when he was told what it said. Nabers didn’t have much more to say when he was asked why the Giants can’t seem to stop making mistakes that cost them games. “I don’t know how you want me to answer that,” Nabers said, via multiple reporters. “That’s just football. That’s just the New York Giants this year.” Mara’s answers to these questions will ultimately matter a lot more than anything Nabers might have to say and there will be plenty of people waiting for the next comment from the guy who pays the checks for the dumpster fire.Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president who inherited power in 2000 with promises of reform, only to brutally suppress his opponents in a war that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, has been toppled in a lightning rebel advance. Assad fled Damascus as Islamist-led opposition forces entered the capital and put an end to more than half-a-century of his family’s rule. Assad and his family arrived in Moscow, where they were granted asylum by the Russian government, Russian state agency TASS reported Sunday. Once courted by European governments, Assad’s transformation from a potential Western ally to a ruler who responded ruthlessly to peaceful protests against his rule took many by surprise. From using chemical weapons against civilians to widespread torture, Assad faced grave accusations during the Syrian war, but managed to survive the unrest thanks to strong support from Moscow and Tehran. During his last days in power, Assad’s backers were unwilling or unable to support him in the face of a shock military advance Syrian rebels embarked on just about 10 days earlier. Unlikely ruler Bashar Hafez Al-Assad was born on Sept. 11, 1965, in Damascus, the third child and second son of Hafez al-Assad and Aniseh Makhlouf. The family’s roots were in the minority Alawite sect, a small part of the Shiite school of Islam. Assad’s father was an air force officer who helped lead the 1963 takeover of government by the socialist Baath Party before seizing power himself in a bloodless military coup in 1970. Assad grew up in the capital and graduated from medical school at Damascus University in 1988, according to his official biography. Fluent in English, he was getting advanced training as an ophthalmologist in London in 1994 when Bassel, his father’s first choice for president, died. Assad went back home to be groomed to lead Syria. Taking over the authoritarian government at age 34, the tall and soft-spoken Assad pledged to pursue a path of reform and economic liberalization. Youthful image Many Syrians, and Arab and Western leaders, were willing to give him a chance partly because he projected a youthful image willing to loosen the government’s grip. Assad crossed sectarian lines to marry Asma al-Akhras, a Sunni Muslim and the daughter of Syrian expatriates who grew up in Britain. They had two sons, Hafez, born in 2001, and Kareem, born in 2004, and a daughter, Zein, born in 2003. The couple’s populist touch contrasted with Hafez’s remote and austere approach. At home, Asma, a graduate of King’s College London who worked for New York-based JPMorgan Chase & Co. for three years, championed women’s rights and education. Abroad, the Assads were given red-carpet welcomes on official visits to Arab and European countries. In his first months as president in 2000, Assad ordered the release of 600 political prisoners, some of whom were members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni Islamist group. Assad said Syria needed constructive criticism, a radical notion at the time in a country that jailed political opponents. Intellectuals openly called for greater civil liberties and democratic reform. The first months of Assad’s rule were optimistically dubbed the Damascus Spring. Changing tone About a year into his presidency, however, the government snuffed out the pro-democracy movement, throwing its leaders in jail. Charges ranged from attempting to change the constitution to inciting sectarian conflicts. In 2005, opposition groups came together to issue a declaration demanding free parliamentary elections, a national conference on democracy and an end to emergency laws and other forms of political repression. Assad responded by imprisoning its leading signatories. Then began the street protests of early 2011 at the onset of the Arab Spring. Around that time, Arab heads of state in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Yemen succumbed to uprisings that swept through North Africa and the Middle East. Assad’s violent reaction to the demonstrators escalated the conflict into a prolonged civil war and emboldened radical groups, including the Islamic State, or ISIS. Determined not to join the list of deposed Arab rulers, Assad opted to use brutal force including barrel bombs, torture and chemical weapons, to quash dissent, according to the U.S. and other Western nations. He benefited from the fact that the opposition was fragmented into hundreds of mainly Islamist groups, which the U.S. and its allies supported only warily. Former President Barack Obama and his successor, Donald Trump, ordered waves of airstrikes against Assad strongholds but had little appetite for deeper intervention. Chemical weapons In 2013, the U.S. blamed Assad for the death of more than 1,400 people near Damascus in an attack using the nerve agent sarin. The Assad government blamed the assault on Islamic extremists, but agreed to a U.S.-Russian plan for international monitors to take control of Syria’s chemical weapons. Meanwhile, Iran and Russia propped Assad up with money, personnel and weapons. A turning point in the war came in 2015, when Russia joined on Assad’s behalf and, along with Iranian forces, helped Assad halt the advance of opposition troops and begin to recapture territory. Forces loyal to Assad, with the help of Russia, Iran and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, had managed by 2020 to confine the territory held by militant groups to less than half of the country, replacing all-out war with sporadic fighting. In 2021, Assad secured a fourth term as president in an election that international observers considered neither free nor fair. The insurgent threat to Assad’s rule erupted again suddenly at the end of last month, starting with a surprise advance by opposition fighters on the city of Aleppo. The rebellion was led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a former affiliate of al-Qaeda that’s designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and others. “Our goal is to liberate Syria from this oppressive regime,” Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, the leader of the group also known as HTS, told the New York Times. He occasionally goes by his real name, Ahmed Al-Sharaa. During his last days in power, Assad ordered his army to fall back to defend Damascus, essentially ceding much of the country to the insurgents. His last-ditch attempts to remain in power included indirect diplomatic overtures to the U.S. and President-elect Trump. Iran and Hezbollah, which had reinforced the regime earlier in the civil war, were now significantly weakened by strikes carried out by Israel in its conflict with Iran. Assad’s downfall ultimately eliminates one of Iran’s main allies in the Middle East and represents a big blow to Tehran’s influence in the region. Many in neighboring Lebanon blamed Assad for his support of Hezbollah and alleged him of playing a role in the killing of top officials, including former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in 2005. A displaced society More than 600,000 people had been killed in Syria’s civil war as of March 2024, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based group that closely monitors the conflict. More than half of the prewar population of 23 million had been displaced, either to other regions inside Syria or to other countries, according to the United Nations. That made it one of the gravest refugee crises since World War II. “Assad is the man who presided over the end of modern Syria,” said Paul Salem, president of the Washington-based Middle East Institute. “The ferocious attacks on the protesters forced it from a discussion about political reform into a shooting war, forcing people to pick up arms and giving advantage to the radicals who have vast experience in warfare,” he said. (With assistance from Dana Khraiche, Dan Williams, Mike Cohen, Chris Miller, Laurence Arnold and Donna Abu-Nasr.) ©2024 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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