Ambassador Cheryl Miles presents her credentials to Venezuelan President, Nicolás Maduro (Taken from Kaieteur News May 8, 2016)
WOW just wow! I guess the hair color is part of the requirements
for the job...not discounting his years of experience and whatever else. It
quite understandable that Guyana needs to have its best at the fore of it
Foreign Missions, but at the same time why are our best old and recycled public
servants.
There can be at least two reasons or even a combination of
both. The first being, that the previous caliber of diplomats and heads of
missions have not passed on their wealth of experience to those working under
their direction and whom should have been given the opportunity to understudy
them to maintain the quality of diplomats we had in the earlier years after
independence in 1966. If anyone did any kind of research on the early years of
Guyana's foreign service they will see the high quality of persons led the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) that once established our strong and highly
respected position in the international community. Such persons include the
likes of Rashleigh E.
Jackson and Sir Shridath Ramphal. It is quite a shame we have not been able
to rejuvenate such quality in the Foreign Service to date. Secondly, clearly
over a long period the MFA has not been retaining and or hiring employees with
a background or at least a first degree in international Relations (IR)….So
much for all those IR students who graduate every year from the University of
Guyana. It is wonderful to have people who are qualified in the areas that
Guyana wants its foreign service to focus on (such as economics and trade,
renewable energy, etc.) but if it does not have diplomats and heads of missions
who do not understand how the international system evolved and the framework it
operates in they are doomed to fail.
However, it seems
like we have resorted to bringing the retired out of retirement. One can only
hope that the retired folks who are back will not let history repeat itself.
