From time to time over the years Desmond Hoyte and I met and talked. From
time to time over the years we exchanged letters on various subjects.
Politics was never one of the subjects of our conversations or
correspondence. I don't know, he may have frowned on my lack of relish for
politics but he never showed it. It seems that he took into account and
respected my lack of any desire to get involved in politics. I like to
feel he may even have been relieved that in our conversations and
letter-writing he did not need to press home any political points. In our
encounters I enjoyed immensely Mr Hoyte's erudition and wide range of
interests which clearly stemmed from what must have been a profound,
life-long love of reading. In 1987 I remember particularly vividly a
number of meetings Arthur Seymour and I and a few others had with him as
he sought to put into effect his seminal vision of the Guyanese Prize for
Literature. He was the originator of the Guyana Prize for Literature and
it was he who drove the idea to a practical conclusion. In our discussions
he showed a very deep concern that Guyana's long tradition of good
writing, intellectual debate and discovery and history of excellent
publications should be remembered and should be honoured by a Prize which
would keep to the highest international standards of creativity. In one
conversation I recall his wry awareness that he might be criticized for
inaugurating a Prize with very valuable awards in a poor country which was
still in a dire economic condition. But he quoted, I think it was a
Persian poet, to the effect that if a man had a few poor pence he should
still take half and buy flowers to feed the soul - and he went on to
discuss other matters to do with implementing the Prize. I also remember
very well how firmly and promptly he waved away a suggestion that the
Prize should be named the Desmond Hoyte Prize for Guyanese Literature.
When the Iwokrama project was announced I wrote Mr Hoyte simply to say how
greatly I admired the idea and the vision which seemed to me in scope,
implications and potential for the world working fruitfully together to
lie quite outside and beyond ordinary political and diplomatic
initiatives. Mr Hoyte promptly replied in quite a long letter, which I
cannot put my hand on for this column but hope to find again in my chaotic
archives, in which he explained with impressive conviction the nature of
what he thought might be achieved as the years passed. It was something
more than conversation that he had in mind though Guyana's, and the
world's, duty to conserve nature and the richness of its resources was
part of it. There was an inter-relationship between conservation and
civilization itself and even between morality and conservation that had to
be recognized beyond the utilitarian imperatives which drive most public
efforts. Mr Hoyte's name should forever be linked with the Iwokrama
concept which all of us can only hope will thrive and bear increasing
fruit. The last letter I received from Mr Hoyte, earlier this year, was
about cricket. It gave me great pleasure as his letters over the years
always did: "Dear Ian, Knowing you to be a devotee of cricket - student,
connoisseur and philosopher - I thought that I should share with you the
following nugget which I found in a book I was reading over the weekend:
The Prime Minister: The Office And Its Holders Since 1945 by Peter
Hennessy (Penguin Books): page 143: 'Unknown to Callaghan, or any of the
UK's "nuclear premiers", there was one moment during the Cold war when,
had the Soviet Union failed to be deterred, the British war planners at
least would have failed to notice. It was in June 1963 during, ironically
enough, the post-Cuba review of readiness procedures. The Russians'
"window of opportunity", as it was described to me by a long-serving civil
servant on deterrent matters, had to do with a hot (as opposed to a cold)
war. During that last over of the Lord's Test Match against the West
Indies, when Colin Cowdrey came in with a broken arm and he and David
Allen had to hold out against Wes Hall in full cry if the match was to be
saved, every single screen of the Ballistic Missile Early Warning system
was displaying the live broadcast on BBC television. When I was told this
awesome official secret (of which I am sure there will be no trace in the
records) some ten years after the end of the Cold War, I found the
humanity of it - and the sense of priority shown - comforting and
reassuring.' "Peter Hennessy is the Attlee Professor of Contemporary
British History at Queen Mary, University of London. "I am sure that, like
him, you will find the story 'comforting and reassuring.' We human beings
do sometimes get our priorities right!!! With kind regards. Yours
sincerely, Desmond." I extend my sincere sympathy to Mrs Hoyte who has
always seemed to me a lady of exemplary dignity, courage and gentle
humanity and also to Mr Hoyte's family, friends and colleagues.