says Acting President Sam Hinds
The following tribute by Acting President Sam Hinds was read at the funeral of Minister within the Minsistry of Education, Dr. Desrey Fox:

Colleagues of Cabinet, Colleagues of Parliament, Friends, Family members and relatives of our late Minister in the Ministry of Education, Dr Desrey Fox:

I extend deepest sympathies and sincerest condolences from His Excellency, The President, and the entire Cabinet, to the grieving relatives and personal friends of Desrey. The loss and grief we feel at Cabinet is different from yours’; not as intense as your grief on the loss of a daughter, a mother, a sister, a cousin, or a friend at school who has done so well; but we, nonetheless, sense a keen loss to our Cabinet and, moreover, we sense a great loss to our nation!

Last Friday morning, at about 4:00 a.m., our HPS, Dr. Roger Luncheon, telephoned me to convey the sad, unexpected news that Desrey had passed away about an hour earlier. A few hours later that morning, when I saw His Excellency off at the airport to begin his journey to the Climate Change talks in Copenhagen, our usual discussions at the airport were dominated by the death of Desrey, and the practical concerns about arrangements for her funeral.

Minister Dr. Desrey Fox provided a unique contribution to our Cabinet. No doubt every Government aspires to have sitting at Cabinet, persons with differing background experiences, from all across the country, so that all concerns and sentiments could be brought to bear on our considerations. Our Guyana is still a country in the making, and the major challenge facing us at the level of the individual is to realise our motto of becoming one Guyanese people, arising from our six ancestral races.

A VERSE FROM THE HOLY KORAN
In this regard, I often recall a verse I have heard mentioned a number of times at Muslim Services, a verse from the Holy Koran, which says that Allah made us different so that we would know one another. There are the obvious differences in physiology, clothing, culture, which might differentiate us and help in recognising different persons, but many feel, and I do feel so, that something more profound is inherent in this verse – a call to see beyond the differences, a call to see our common humanity, our common membership of the Human Race. Desrey would not accept being treated with less respect than anyone else and also required that everyone treat all others with the greatest of respect. I can recall her speaking of African and Indian drums and drumming, as she would speak of Amerindian drumming.

Another big challenge facing us as a nation, a nation of less than a million people and which is still in the early stages of development, is that of finding our way in the big, wide world of 200 nations, in an arena of thousands of millions of persons, so many of whom are so much richer, so much more able, and more powerful than us. How can we find our way in this big, wide world?

The challenge is to participate in, and contribute to, humanity, as one no more worthy, nor less worthy, than any other. We have a good example in Desrey! For Desrey, being a member of a larger group in no way compromised her membership of a smaller group, but, rather, it enriched the larger grouping with the special contribution of the smaller group. She was, without any self-consciousness, an Akawaio, an Amerindian, a Guyanese, a woman, a member of the larger human race – all at the same time, without any of the many ‘hang-ups’ or conflicts which many others could not avoid nor overcome.

Minister Desrey Fox bridged many worlds: the world of the hinterland Amerindians, and the world of the Coast-lander; the world of a subsistence ‘hunting-gathering’ life, and that of the most modern, sophisticated life of Universities from all across the United States of America and, indeed, across the world. She was at ease and comfortable in any setting!

FROM HER CABINET COLLEAGUES
Let me now read extracts from tributes paid by two of our Cabinet Colleagues with whom she would have worked closely:

– Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, Dr. Frank Anthony; and

– Minister of Education, Mr. Shaikh Baksh.

Minister Frank Anthony stated:
“On Friday, 4th December, I was fortunate to share a happy moment in the life of Dr. Desrey Fox. It was the day that the National Schools Choir and the National Schools Steel Band was launched. I remember that she was so thrilled and pleased with the performance, that she went around and shook hands with every child who participated. She was so proud of the children that she wanted to find a way of recording their songs. It was a wonderful moment!

Dr. Fox had a life-long passion for music, and not just the usual western genre, and she helped to get people to understand sacred and secular musical traditions of the first peoples of this country. She was able to compile and share the percussive, melodic and harmonic tones that are so expressive in indigenous music. She also helped us to understand the important role of voice, especially in the healing and Piaimanic traditions.

She helped to make Amerindian music more understandable and more accessible to ordinary Guyanese. In 1996, Lynette Dolphin published ‘One Hundred Folk Songs of Guyana’, and in that publication there are some Akawaio folk songs, such as Akawaio Ceremonial Drum Song, Akawaio Drunk Man Song, Akawaio Love Song and Akawaio Welcome. All of these songs were translated by Dr. Fox from Akawaio to English. But, as if this was not enough, she has translated the National Anthem of Guyana from English to six of the nine Amerindian languages!

She also wrote songs in her native Akawaio and other Amerindian languages. She was fond of teaching these songs, poetry, drama, and dances that she choreographed, to various students across Guyana. Perhaps, it is because of her profound passion for the performing arts that she was chosen to head the Guyana delegation to CARIFESTA IX in Trinidad and Tobago.”

Minister Shaikh Baksh stated:
“Dr. Desrey Fox was appointed Minister within the Ministry of Education in September 2006, after the victory at the polls by the PPP/C. She joined the Ministry of Education with an extensive and impressive background in education, mainly at the University of Guyana and at Universities overseas. We shared the same vision for the Ministry of Education to be the main and most effective contributor to the development of a citizenry able to: (a) modernise Guyana; (b) support the citizens in becoming more productive and tolerant, and to live in mutual respect.

In terms of assignment of responsibilities within the Ministry, she agreed to be in charge of Technical and Vocational Education, Health and Family Life Education, School Welfare Services, School Sports and Physical Education and, most importantly, the promotion of aesthetic education, cultural activities, music, dance and drama. This was her forte. She ardently took on oversight responsibility for the Unit of Allied Arts, and worked closely with the staff, especially on national occasions such as Independence and Mashramani. Minister Shaikh Baksh vividly remembers her moving along the roadway, rhythmically, along with him and other staff at the Mashramani Children’s Parade and, again, into the National Park as part of the Ministry’s costume band. She was distinctly recognisable in her indigenous attire.

IN HER INDIGENOUS ATTIRE
Her passion for this area of education led her to take steps to re-activate the National Schools Choir and Steel Orchestra, which was re-launched at the National Park only two weeks ago. She developed the plans and the programme to ‘roll it out’ across the school system. Minister Baksh pledges that her work in this area will not be in vain, and that he will ensure that it is completed as a tribute to her contribution.

Like Minister Baksh, Minister Fox believed that educating is not only about pursuing academic learning, but also about moulding the minds of the children of Guyana by instilling values of nationalism, tolerance, integrity, respect and self-fulfillment. Minister Fox had a special interest in Health and Family Life Education, and she headed a Task Team both to review the content and methodology of this programme in order to ensure its effectiveness, and to see that moral education was adequately infused in the curriculum.

The {Ministry’s} Education Strategic Plan provides for the development of an inclusive education system that provides quality and equitable opportunity to indigenous and hinterland children and children with disabilities, gender equality and equity. It is in this area of education that the late Minister evinced keen interest and dedication. She attended several international conferences on Inclusive Education. She was active in hinterland communities and after her visits there, she would take follow-up action on the promises made. At Bartica, Waramadong and Santa Rosa, she linked with UNICEF not only to address stressful situations of students by organising psycho-social support, but to also ensure that learning was not unduly affected.

On the East Coast, she was active with the professional team in providing support to schools, parents and students in the aftermath of the Lusignan massacre. The late Minister was especially interested in Special Needs Education and in ensuring that education programmes catered for individual needs and persons with disabilities.

Minister Baksh vividly remembers, earlier this year, when she came to him and said that she wanted to do a course in sign language for persons with special disabilities.

With this kind of keen interest, it is no surprise that she was selected to speak on the Persons with Disabilities Bill in the Parliament, only two weeks ago.

The qualities of the late Minister which would be remembered most by the Ministry of Education, are her concerns for the plight of others, her caring and considerate ways of dealing with ordinary folks and their children, and her representation of their cases for resolution. Cases come to mind about the placement of children in schools so as not to cause undue financial hardships to their parents and guardians, and the re-integration of pregnant students into the school system.”

Minister Anthony alluded to Dr. Fox’s respect for, and practice of, the Piaiman and Shaman traditions. From our journeys together on various Cabinet outreaches, I gathered her strong sense of the presence of ancestors, of ancestral spirits. She told me of a trip to a location where Akawaios now do not live: if I remember accurately, it was somewhere in the south of Region 1, where she felt the presence of ancestral Akawaios, and, later, when she enquired of the old people, they recalled stories of Akawaios living in that area a number of generations ago.

Desrey has now joined the ancestors, and has become an ancestral spirit herself. We can depend on her to blow favourable winds our way!

We, Cabinet Members, share in the grief at the sudden, sad loss of Dr. Desrey Fox, Minister in the Ministry of Education. The Cabinet joins in extolling and celebrating her life!
May her soul rest in peace.