BOOK by Former Ambassador to Kuwait, “ My Tenure in Kuwait.”
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Photo: Dr. Shamir Andrew Ally
Photo: Dr. Shamir Andrew Ally at GUYANA VILLA in KUWAIT
Book REVIEW by Justice Donald Ashley Bevil Trotman, Esq., CCH, , Former United Nations Human Rights Fellow, and Visiting Professor of International Law at the University of Baghdad..
Photo: Hon. Justice Donald Ashley Bevil Trotman Esq., CCH., former High Court Judge.
Lone Commissioner of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the massacre at Lindo Creek; Author of “Waiting for Justice: Guyana and the World.” Ambassador to the United Nations; Solicitor General and Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), St. Vincent and the Grenadines; Attorney General and Acting Governor of the British Virgin Islands; Puisne Judge; Chair of Law Revision Commission; Chief Meşru Counsel; Financial Services Commission Virgin Islands; and Principal, Inter-Law Consultants
As a FORMER DIPLOMATIC REPRESENTATIVE of GUYANA at the UNITED NATIONS and other DIPLOMATIC MISSIONS,
I am pleased and HONOURED to write this FOREWORD to the book of Professor Shamir Ally distinguished Second resident Ambassador to the Kingdom of Kuwait – esteemed academic, recipient of several prestigious awards from government and non-governmental organizations, internationally recognized scholar, and holder of positions in several professional institutions at the highest levels.
Knowing the Middle East is one thing, understanding it is another. Most people in the West do not know the countries in that Region and many Western Governments have been trying to understand it for decades or have failed to do after mistakenly thinking that they know it.
Written in tutorial style and format, Professor Ally’s book informs and teaches, and provides an enabling opportunity to correct, in part, some of these mistakes.
Authoring a book while engaged in numerous and onerous official duties is not an easy matter. But Professor Ally has skillfully avoided this by preparing to produce the eventual work after demitting office. Accordingly, the writing of the book has been facilitated by a well-kept detailed diary of events and experiences during his tenure as Ambassador of Guyana in Kuwait. As he teaches in Lesson 70 “maintain records of all you do and keep them securely”.
These records have been supplemented by inputs of observations, informal opinions from diwaniyas, and commentaries conceived by his own incisive intellect and advice by some of his more experienced diplomatic colleagues, especially the wise Dean of the Diplomatic Corps in Kuwait, Ambassador Sheikh Abdou Lahad Mbacke of SENEGAL, who counselled Shamir: “You need to UNLEARN, most of what you learned in the Western World and RELEARN each day you are in Kuwait, as the very rich Kuwait and Gulf Cooperation countries , operate on THREE keys: RELATIONSHIP, PATIENCE and RESPECT”.
This early lesson is evidenced throughout Dr Ally’s diplomatic tenure in Kuwait. He practiced what he was taught, just as he would have expected his own students in his university classrooms to do from his own teachings. He learns this lesson not only for himself but recommends it for the benefit of others as in Lesson 85 in his book: “Always be willing to learn about cultures: the keys to other countries might be very different from your own”; and “Do not be afraid to ask for help from others who have done this before you”, in Lesson 73.
This precept, constantly practiced, could effectively erase Kipling’s notion that “East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet.”
Some preconceptions can sometimes be misconceptions, lasting long and dying hard, and causing much damage in their active lifetime.
This publication could, therefore, serve to show that despite geographic, geopolitical and cultural differences, bonds of friendships and relationships could be between peoples in widely separated regions if persons of the caliber of Dr Ally are allowed by governments to function in diplomatic and other representative capacities; persons who are capable of breaking down barriers and building bridges in order to achieve a meeting of minds and hearts – outside the narrow confines of official conferences and faceless bureaucratic communications.
For instance, how many citizens before this publication, in both Guyana and Kuwait, would have known of the well-organized institutions of either country; of the civic and non-governmental organizations, of the religious similarities and differences, of the exchange of official and business personnel between the two countries? And more extensively, how many Americans would have had any informed knowledge of the established and ongoing relationships between the two countries during the past decade, – especially during the tenure of Ambassador Ally; and that one of their own country women – Dr Maryann Renee Beebe-Ally, his wife, has played an important supporting role in helping her diplomatic husband to create a better understanding of peoples of diverse cultures and customs; and that if she and he can make it happen, they can make it happen too?
Their “Show, Tell and Know Guyana” exhibitions and campaigns in Kuwait should encourage corresponding expositions in Guyana and in the United States of America.
Apart from being the composition of memoirs of Guyana’s Second resident ambassador to Kuwait, the book could be read with benefit by Governments, using it in training sessions for Foreign Service Officers; by universities in courses of International Relations; by businessmen intending to establish investments and trade relationships in the Gulf States; and by researchers wanting to obtain useful information for conference papers and publications on Middle Eastern Affairs; and what is more, it offers invaluable learning lessons for potential and serving ambassadors of Western and developing countries.
It is earnestly hoped that the peoples and Governments of East and West, and Guyana and Kuwait in particular, present, and future, would give this book the rewarding attention on which it so richly deserves.
Honourable Justice Donald Trotman, Esq., CCH.
Of the Inner Temple & Former Judge of the Guyana Supreme Court,
Ashgrove House, Golden Grove
East Coast, Demerara, GUYANA.
Photo: Dr. Shamir Andrew Ally in Kuwait
Onward & Upward towards, One People, One Nation, One Destiny.