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“I have had the privilege of working with the finest collection of individuals including Sir Shridath Ramphal, Rudolph Collins, Cecil Pilgrim, Cedric Joseph, Rashleigh Jackson and Noel Sinclair. Their knowledge; their competence and their culture…Words cannot explain how grateful I am to these gentlemen.”By Suraj NarineWith over 35 years of service to Guyana in the field of diplomacy, our Special Person this week,Wholesale Los Angeles Lakers Jerseys, has surely set the bar high for persons desirous of entering into the Foreign Service.Ronald AustinHe is a proud recipient of the Cacique’s Crown of Honour (CCH) and has served as the Guyana’s Ambassador to China and Deputy High Commissioner to Lusaka, Zambia. He is currently Director of the Foreign Service Institute of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.Ronald Mortimer Austin was born on the 16th of December 1949 in Da Silva Street, Newtown, to George and Hyacinth Austin. He grew up with five siblings: Myrna, Mariette, Phillene and Phillip – who were twins, and Keith Michael.He vividly remembers his formative years growing up in Newtown – a community which he described as small and multiracial, and “contained villagers who respected and looked out for each other”. It was also where his childhood was encapsulated.He recalled that his mother, whom he described as a committed individual, was hell-bent on ensuring that her children received an education and that their wellbeing was taken care of.Mr. Austin suspects that his mother’s lifelong dedication – up to the day she departed this world in 2013 – had derived from an experience she had when she was younger. According to him, his mother had won a scholarship to attend The Bishops’ High School; however, because it was in the 1930’s – in the colonial days – her opportunity to attend the school was essentially shattered after she received a letter which stated that her birth was ‘illegitimate’. She had already obtained her uniform.“I OWE WHATEVER I AM TO MY MOTHER”Mr. Austin said that his mother played an integral role in his early education. He intimated that she taught him to read even before he was enrolled in primary school. He joyfully recounted his every morning chore which would entail him reading the newspaper. The words that he could not understand, his mother explained.Mr. Austin (second from right) with his daughters Nicole (third from right) and Renita (fourth from right) and son, Ronald Austin Jnr. (far left) and colleagues on the Great Wall of China.“I owe whatever I am…whatever I have achieved, I owe to my mother.” Mr. Austin said as he sat in his office chair allowing his gaze to fall upon the bookshelves in his office that were laden with relics of times passed.“My father too was very supportive. He never quibbled in buying books for me. In those days, there were not many bookstores in town. Well there was the Chasburg Bookstore that was situated close to the Market Square. My father earned five dollars a week, an incredibly small sum of money, but I would ask him to buy me books and he would never scrimp to give me money.”Young Ronald attended Comenius Moravian School in Queenstown. An institution, he says, that was also attended by Dr. Roger Luncheon, and Joey Jagan, son of the late President, Dr. Cheddi Jagan.At the age of 14, Ronald was transferred to Christ Church. He subsequently moved on to Central High, and it was there, in 1967, that he won a Barclays Bank Scholarship to attend boarding school in Britain. He was amongst the first from the Caribbean to attend Atlantic College in Wales. Two years were spent there.Those were formative years. As a student he was exposed to some of the finest lecturers including Robin Hanitt (from Oxford University), who was a brilliant lecturer in African History.“It is very hard for me to put in words, but it was a very transformative experience for me.”It was at this college also that he met Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, who was at the time, the Finance Minister of France. He later became President.Reflecting on his years that College, Mr. Austin said that the institution would offer students during the summer, an opportunity to visit whichever European country they wished to go.He said that in 1968, he was invited by a very good friend, Florence Von Boetzelaer to his homeland, Holland. He recalled that the idea for the visit came about from conversations they would have about their countries.“He recognised immediately that the flatness of this country (Guyana) resembled thatWorking with his team at the Guyana Embassy in Chinaof Holland. So I travelled there in 1968 in the summer and drove through Amsterdam which was very flat, like Georgetown. While we were driving, there was this vehicle that pulled up alongside us. A woman poked her head out the window and greeted us. She closed the window and drove off. So I asked Florence who it was, and turns out it was the Queen”If history has it right, the woman that Mr. Austin saw that day was none other than Queen Juliana,Wholesale Jerseys, who reigned as Queen of the Kingdom of the Netherlands from 1948 until her abdication in 1980.The question in his head was why they Queen went through all that trouble just to say “Hallo” to his friend, and why did Florence act so calmly about it?Mr. Austin said that when he got to the Von Boetzelaers residence which was a Friday, he and his friend went out to play tennis the following day. On Sunday, he was left alone in the home with Mr. Von Boetzelaer.“He took me into his study and it was covered with books – literally covered with books and there I was: a little boy from Newtown, and I loved books too. I thought I had gone to heaven. He sat down and he told me about his life.”SEEING THINGS CLEARLYIt was during the two-hour long conversation that Ronald began to see things clearly…Florence’s father was a Diplomat and had served throughout the states where he was highly respected by his peers.“Now you can imagine the effect that had on me as a little boy from Guyana confronted with this enormous cultural accomplishment, and that is when I made up my mind and I wanted to be in the Foreign Service just looking at him and listening to what he had done.”Mr. Austin still keeps in touch with Florence.Meeting the President of Cuba, Fidel Castro, at José Martí International AirportAfter Atlantic College, Mr. Austin won a Bata Scholarship to Trent University in Canada. He revealed that the man who owned the Bata store in Guyana at that time was Thomas J. Bata, whom he had met in 1971.“He was a handsome, energetic grey-haired man, and was a member of a refugee family from Czechoslovakia… that’s where the name Bata comes from.”After he graduated from Trent University in Canada he returned to Guyana in 1972 to get married. Mr. Austin suffered heartbreak some years later after his wife sadly passed away. His marriage produced three children: Ronald Jnr,Wholesale NFL Jerseys, Training and Education Officer; Renita, who works at a Wells Fargo Bank in Minnesota; and Nicole, who works in the Air Traffic Control Department at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport.It was during the wedding proceedings that he ran into Shridath Surendranath “Sonny” Ramphal who had been invited to the wedding by Mr. Austin’s father-in-law, Carl Austin.Ramphal was at that time,Wholesale Cincinnati Bengals Jerseys, the Foreign Minister.In discussion with President of the People’s Republic of China Yang Shangkun in October 1991.“He inquired if I wanted to work at the Foreign Services and I said yes and he said well in that case you should go see Rudy Collins.”Dr. Rudolph ‘Rudy’ Collins was at that time, the Permanent Secretary of the Foreign Affairs Ministry.“I went to see Rudy Collins and the rest, as they say, is history because after I joined the Foreign Service sometime in 1973, and successively went to the 4th Algiers Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement the Heads of Government Conference. It was at this conference that Mr. Austin served as the interpreter for then Prime Minister Forbes Burnham.Our Special Person then went to the United Nations sometime in 1974 and returned to Guyana one year after before darting off to the London High Commission in 1975.Mr. Frederick Wills who was the Foreign Minister of Guyana during that time,Wholesale Miami Dolphins Jerseys, posted him to the High Commissioner in Lusaka, Zambia, where he was promoted from Second Secretary to the Deputy High Commissioner.“For that I must confess my gratitude. I have had the opportunity to work with some of the most outstanding individuals.He subsequently went to the Lusaka High Commission in 1976 and came back to Guyana in 1979,Manchester United #39 Rashford White Away Soccer Club Jersey, spent two years at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was later invited by Mr Burnham to join his staff at the Office of the PresidentRonald Austin with his sons Ronald Jnr. (centre) and Timothy after receiving the Cacique’s Crown of Honour earlier this year.in 1981 where he served for three years.The former Ambassador remarried to the lovely Elisabeth in 1983. This marriage produced one child, Timothy. Elisabeth has served in the Public Service for more than three decades where she rose the position of Deputy Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Works.Mr. Austin later returned to the Foreign Service in 1984 and worked with Mr. Rashleigh Jackson who was the Foreign Minister at that time.In 1985, then President Burnham passed away. His successor, Mr. Desmond Hoyte had asked that Mr. Austin be deployed to the Guyana Chronicle as an adviser to the Minister of Information, who at that time was Ms. Yvonne Harewood-Benn.After spending a year at the Chronicle, he went back to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1987.During this year also, Mr. Austin did a Fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh and came back to Guyana where he was appointed Head of Political Division One – which was the department responsible for the Western Hemisphere.He served at the Ministry in until 1990 when was appointed Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China. He served in that capacity for three years, and was privileged to meet President Yang Shangkun in October 1991.Reflecting on his time there, he stated that he “had a front-row seat during the unbelievable transformation of China”.FOREIGN SERVICE INSTITUTEMr. Austin is now the Director of the Foreign Service Institute (FSI).Providing some background on the Institute, he related that the entity was created in 1998 and from the information that he gathered, the then Minister, Clement Rohee, had an idea to introduce an academic institution – which succeeded up to the early 2000’s. Mr. Austin explained that the institute could not be sustained for a number of reasons. One was that the officers could not attend classes and at the same time, carry out their duties at the Ministry.Sometime later, it came to a standstill. He recalled that it was under the former Minister, Carolyn Rodrigues, that the Institute was resuscitated, which was sometime in 2010.However, by the time the new Government came in, the Foreign Service Institute had not functioned in almost six years. The current Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Carl Greenidge, and Mr. Austin had a discussion where the Minister stressed that the FSI offered critical training for officers.“When I say training, I mean when an officer enters into the Foreign Affairs Ministry, that person must understand what the internal imperatives of the Guyana Government are.”Mr. Austin stated that the Institute also conducts various language training – an initiative that Minister Greenidge places great emphasis on.“During the colonial times no one knew Spanish. When you heard someone speak Spanish it was a revelation.”Mr. Austin mentioned that on Thursday, last, a closing ceremony was held at the Georgetown Club where 45 persons were graduated from a course on Spanish language and culture.This course, he explained, had derived from an agreement between the Guyana Government and the Government of Colombia.In addition to that, the course in Chinese – which has been going on for almost four months – is also coming to an end.The Former Ambassador pointed out that mastering these languages is important. He boasted that there are at least three to six persons in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that are proficient in speaking Chinese, with at least a dozen who are fluent in Spanish.Apart from the language courses, the FSI has also held lectures on economic matters.“We also have a fairy packed and intense programme for 2017 where we will have specialised lecturers in every aspect of international relations like Cyber-diplomacy – relationship between technology and modern diplomacy – and increased focus on the Regional Integration Movements, whether is it in Asia or Latin America. There is also going be an intensification of the education of the Guyanese public in relation to the border controversy.”Mr. Austin stated also that the FSI has a series of programmes to elucidate the issue of economic diplomacy and its importance to Guyana including pressing the Green Economy as envisaged by the Head of State, David Granger.LOOKING BACKLooking back at his career in the Foreign Service, Mr. Austin says he has no regrets. “I have had the privilege of working with the finest collection of individuals including Sir Shridath Ramphal, Rudolph Collins, Cecil Pilgrim, Cedric Joseph, Rashleigh Jackson and Noel Sinclair. Their knowledge; their competence and their culture…Words cannot explain how grateful I am to these gentlemen.”Mr. Austin also praised the effort made by Mr. Lloyd Searwar, also a career diplomat, and Director of FSI.“It was my good fortune to work with Lloyd Searwar from the moment I joined the Foreign Service. At this time he was a mature individual, of good girth, a wonderful sense of humour. He had already had considerable experience in the Public Service in the field of Information and this was now joined to a deep and abiding interest in Foreign Policy. My learning curve was rapid. From him I learned to master the art of drafting diplomatic documents. He was very good at this and in fact, whatever little skill I have in this area, I learnt mostly from him,”And of course, in concluding,Wildcats #4 Rajon Rondo Blue Basketball Stitched NCAA Jersey, Mr. Austin had advice for the youth, especially those with an interest in joining the Foreign Service.“If you are committed to work hard, then you will succeed. Once you are prepared to do what is necessary to ensure that you work is of the highest order then the rewards are abundant. If you are willing to do all of these, I’d say you’ve got a good shot!”