By R M Austin
(Caribbean Challenges: Sir Shridath Ramphal’s Collected Counsel (Hansib 2012. – 218 p.))
Sir Shridath Ramphal, the former Foreign Minister and Commonwealth Secretary-General, has often distilled the experiences gained from the various offices he has held to warn and advise his compatriots, West Indians colleagues, and fellow human beings. Books have therefore flowed from his eloquent pen over the years on various topical questions and issues. But it is evident that Caribbean integration and its role in the overall development of the region is his central intellectual preoccupation. This emerges in this book of 218 pages, which consists of speeches between 2006 and 2011.
It also contains tributes to two great West Indian intellectuals and labourers in the vineyard of Caribbean unity, Eric Williams and Rex Nettleford. Three speeches are on the questions of the environment, racial harmony,
