Tribute to Noel Sinclair
Good evening.
Noel’s wish was that there should be no memorial service, none of the traditional eulogies, no fuss over his funeral. He wanted his death to be just as he had lived – a life of quiet dignity, in private with his family.
And so I am very grateful to his wife Mona and to his children for making an exception and allowing me to speak and to express my sincere condolences to the family. His dear wife Mona, his sons Hasani, Massamba, Jabari, his sisters Adele, Joyce, Eulene, Nola, and his brother Donald, and to all the members of his extended family as well as to his many friends and colleagues.
Noel was a distinguished public servant of Guyana and a member of the finest generation of diplomats that Guyana has yet produced. And so I speak this evening on behalf of a grateful Government and the grateful people of Guyana, on behalf of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Carl Greenidge, and the Director-General and staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and also on behalf of the staff of the Permanent Mission of Guyana, some of whom worked under Noel when he was Permanent Representative and still remember him fondly. Nearly all of them are here with me this evening to pay their respects.
This is an unusual position for me to be in. Speaking about Noel instead of listening to Noel speak. Those of us who have had the privilege and pleasure of hearing him speak on formal occasions know that he was a master of the spoken word and it was always a delight and an education to hear him speak.
I’ve had the privilege over the years to have known three members of the Sinclair family. Donald and I were schoolmates together at Queens. This was over fifty years ago, mind you, well before Donald got into his bodybuilding.
His sister Joyce was an iconic stature in the public service of Guyana. For many years she was the Chief Training Officer at the Public Service Ministry. So when I returned home to Guyana after my studies abroad, it was Joyce who looked at what I had studied – Translation and Conference Interpreting – and decided that I should be sent to work at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. So in a real sense, it was Joyce Sinclair who is responsible for me standing here this evening marking the passing of her brother.
Noel joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1966 at the young age of 25 fresh out of Mona, the UWI campus in Jamaica that, interestingly enough, bore the name of his future wife. And by the time his sister Joyce sent me to the Ministry in 1980, he had already been appointed Permanent Representative of Guyana to the United Nations after having served in Caracas (Venezuela), Lusaka (Zambia), Washington DC and at the Mission to the UN in New York.
When I joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I began hearing about this Noel Sinclair. He had a formidable reputation because of his many accomplishments. Eloquently delivering statements in the General Assembly on behalf of Guyana, engaging in multilateral negotiations on a range of issues, serving as President of the Security Council, the first and only time that Guyana has had that privilege. But when I finally met him, I found a man who was down-to-earth, no airs, a man I could easily relate to even as a junior officer in the Service. I still remember vividly when he spoke at Conferences of Heads of Mission, where all the Ambassadors would be recalled home to discuss strategy. His interventions were always thoughtful, on point, and well-argued.
Over the years since then we remained in touch, even after I left the Ministry and came to work at the United Nations Secretariat. We grew particularly close during my last few years at the UN, when I was Chief of the English Translation Service and he was the CARICOM Permanent Observer to the United Nations.
The last time we met was October last year when we had lunch together in the company of former Foreign Minister Rashleigh Jackson and Neil Pierre, who is with the UN Secretariat and who is also here this evening. We spoke on the phone several times after that and I should have known that something was amiss when he failed to show up for the Mission’s Christmas party. He was never one to miss an event at the Mission.
Noel was always willing to share his vast knowledge and experience. And I’d like to share with you now three stories about him that illustrate the kind of man he was.
The first story was told to me yesterday by the Consul-General of Guyana in New York, Ms. Barbara Atherly. Barbara herself did not know Noel very well, but he had agreed to come to her accreditation reception last September and to deliver the keynote address. I was there that evening and I heard him speak. But what I didn’t know was that he had followed up his words with action. He had visited the Guyana Consulate on a regular basis after that to see how the Consul-General, Barbara, was settling in. He had even agreed to attend a staff meeting where he gave a pep talk and words of encouragement and advice to the staff of the Consulate.
The second story comes from my own experience. At the reception which was held at the Permanent Mission after my own accreditation in August last year, Noel gave a memorable speech. I remember in particular some remarks he made which I interpreted as encouraging me to explore my full potential and to always seek to live up to that potential. The remarks were in the form of a rhetorical question: “Did the Ministry know what your potential was when they hired you, a twenty-something year old? Did YOU even know your own potential?” Knowing Noel as I did for 36 years, I read that as encouragement, an act of generosity from an experienced diplomat to his successor.
And the last story I will share with you is the reaction of the Ambassador of Suriname to the United Nations, Ambassador Henry MacDonald, when I sent out the news about Noel’s sudden passing using the WhatsApp Group Chat that CARICOM Ambassadors use to communicate among themselves. I want to quote Ambassador MacDonald’s reaction in full: “Wow, I am so shocked to read this. Noel was my friend and always ready to help me with all sorts of ideas, letters and all kinds of diplomatic procedures. What a shock is this since I was planning to meet his brother next week in Georgetown. May his amazing soul rest in peace. I’m so troubled now. This is a very sad moment. (Signed) Henry Mac Donald.” And remember, Ambassador MacDonald is from Suriname, not Guyana.
The Caribbean Ambassadors in the CARICOM Caucus, some of whom worked with Noel when he served as Permanent Observer, have asked me to convey their deepest sympathy to you, Mona, and to the entire family. His successor as Permanent Observer after he left to become Deputy Chef de Cabinet in the Office of the President of the General Assembly, Ambassador Missouri Sherman-Peter, is here with us this evening.
Let me conclude by saying to his family, “Be proud of the legacy left by your husband, your dad, your brother. Few people make the mark on their country and on the world that he made during his lifetime. His was a life well spent and those of us who were fortunate to share part of the journey with him will long treasure his memory.”