Odeen Ishmael to retire due to fading health

Ambassador Odeen Ishmael

Guyana’s Ambassador to Kuwait, Odeen Ishamel is to retire shortly, owing to fading health, Foreign Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett has said.

Ishmael has been credited with putting together what he described as a serialised edition of the history of Guyana, which contained some very damning documents of the Forbes Burnham-led People’s National Congress (PNC) Administration.  The Guyana Story is available on the Internet.

In an exclusive interview with Guyana Times, Rodrigues-Birkett said Ambassador Ishmael will be demitting office and he will be replaced by an appointment by the President.

“He is retiring because of health reasons. Ambassador has been unwell for some time, and no doubt that would have affected his ability to function 100 per cent, and of course, we wished that he had recovered sooner but these are some of the things we have to experience with health,” the Foreign Affairs Minister disclosed.

Appointed Ambassador to Kuwait in 2011, Ishmael’s work has helped raise Guyana’s profile in the Middle East, Rodrigues-Birkett said, noting: “We are now a member of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and prior to this membership, we were not present in that part of the world. I think the establishment of that mission has improved our profile in that area,” the Minister said in justifying the Government opening of a mission in the oil-rich country.

Asked what tangible benefits has the country received so far as a result of the mission there, Rodrigues-Birkett said: “It is not just establishment of diplomatic missions and posting ambassadors, you don’t have an instant item that you can point to, but we have had in recent times increase visits. We have also received indication from the Saudi Arabian Government that they want to send a team of investors to Guyana and they have invited a team from our end so we are working with them on that.”

Distinguished service

Prior to his Kuwait appointment, Ambassador Ishmael also served as Ambassador to Venezuela (November 2003-January 2011) and to the US (June 1993-October 2003). While in the US, he was also Guyana’s Permanent Representative to the Organisation of American States (OAS).

Ambassador Ishmael previously worked as a teacher and achieved in the 1980s the status of Deputy Headmaster in the Guyana school system. He broke away from teaching in 1970-1971 and worked as an Information Officer in the Ministry of External Affairs (now the Foreign Affairs Ministry) of Guyana. Ambassador Ishmael holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Geography, a post-graduate Diploma in Education and a PhD in Education.

In his political life, Ambassador Ishmael served in the Central Committee and the leadership of the Progressive Youth Organisation (PYO) from 1972 to 1982 and in the Central Committee of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) of Guyana from 1980 to 1988. He has written numerous articles on education, Guyanese history and international political issues, which have been published in newspapers and journals in Guyana, the Caribbean, North America and Latin America. His published books include Problems of the Transition of Education in the Third World; Towards Education Reform in Guyana; Amerindian Legends of Guyana; The Democracy Perspective in the Americas; The Magic Pot – Nansi Stories From The Caribbean,Guyana Legends and The Trail of Diplomacy: A Documentary History of the Guyana-Venezuela Border Issue – Volume One (Colonisation, Boundary Dispute and Arbitration). He is also the editor of the book, Cheddi Jagan: My Struggle for Guyana’s Freedom and has written the foreword to the book From Bondage to Deliverance – Indentured Labour in Mauritius and British Guiana, authored by the Indian historian, Dr Saroja Sundararajan and published in New Delhi in 2006. Ambassador Ishmael and his wife Evangeline have two children – a son, Safraz Waseem Ishmael, and a daughter, Nadeeza Ishmael.

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